A Cup of Tea

A tea cup from My Grandmother's Wedding Shower passed on to me.

I have been what I would call a “tea granny” since my teens.  Growing up I hated the taste of coffee.  I realized later that I just hated my parent’s coffee, still do. (Seriously, I'd say it tastes like dishwater only dishwater probably tastes better.)

So tea was my other warm beverage alternative, you know when you get to that age where hot cocao just wasn’t quite so cool. 

Besides there was always something special about the ritual of tea.  After all, my mother had a dozen dainty flowered porcelain tea cups in her china cabinet and a pretty porcelain teapot to go with it.  Whenever there was a special occasion like a wedding or baby shower my mother would set out those pretty little cups and steep a pot of tea.  This despite the fact that 90% of our family drank coffee. I guess it stemmed back to her own family traditions.  I would look enviously on while she poured out tea in the precious cups for her guests.   I can remember coveting a certain purple rose cup in my mother’s china cabinet and whenever I would get an afternoon to myself with no one at home, I take it out and have my own little elegant tea party.  Looking back I realize I was darn lucky I didn’t break anything.

Tea was always our go to comfort drink.  I can remember my mother making me a cup of tea when I was in pain from those dreaded menstrual cramps or staying up late sharing confidences and feeling so grown up.  I find myself offering my own little girls a cup of sweet tea to console them over a disappointment in their day.

The language of tea is international. When I was sixteen, I spent the year in Holland and enjoyed drinking tea with my host family.  Despite the fact that they thought milk in tea was disgusting and Jannie would get annoyed because I’d always steam up her special sugar spoon so it’d clump up and our tea was always in glass mugs. We still shared many a wonderful chat in both English and Dutch while drinking hot  tea out of those glass mugs.

In later years, I like to say that my husband and I fell in love over tea.  We started out as friends and would spend countless hours just sitting in my apartment drinking tea.  In those days we never even would turn on the television.  To this day, we still end our day with a cup of tea and find that if we don’t we actually miss that little part of our routine.

These days I drink my tea out of mugs but it has to be just the right mug. It can’t be too small:  not enough tea, or too big: too much tea and the mug has to have the right feel on my bottom lip.  And while I do like herbal tea, I’d rather have a good old comforting cup of black tea (Tetley is our current favourite) with a splash of milk and two sugars any day.

My china cabinet also boasts over a dozen pretty little cups collected over the years.  The most precious being the ones from my grandmother.  Before she passed on she presented me with cups that had been used at her wedding reception over 60 years ago.  She told me that she knew that I would be the one to take proper care of them.  My grandmother was a crusty old thing but now and then she'd pop out with a little something that made you realize that underneath she really was fond of you.

So when it came to my own little girl's 6th birthday, what else could I do but throw a lovely little tea party.

Of course I didn't use the 60 year old cups but still there were enough pretty cups to go around.

Zeemaid

This week I am participating in


and chose the writing prompt "How did your love affair with Coffee begin? (Or Diet Coke or Tea or whatever your beverage of choice might be.) (inspired by Buried With Children)"
If you'd like to join in simply click on the above button to see this week's list of writing prompts and drop by Mama Kat's to link up.  Try it, it's a lot of fun!