The Tea Corner

Children like to emulate their parents by having a cup of tea; however, their idea of tea would be sodas or sugar laden drinks.  Parents know that these drinks may contain caffeine or large amounts of sugar that may cause hyperactive symptoms.  We want our children to drink something that is more healthy.

 The Tea Corner carries a variety of children’s teas that contain natural dried fruits and flavors.  Our kid’s tea is full of natural fruits that contain Vitamin C and other essential nutrients that are caffeine free.  These teas are enjoyed by children and adults and can be served hot or cold.  No need to add sugar because of the natural sugars in the fruits sweeten the tea when brewed.

Here are some examples of our children’s loose tea flavors:

Bubblegum Children's Tea

The Bubblegum Kid’s Tea combines caramel with strawberry and lemon character to create a taste sensation for the younger set.  It contains natural dried apple pieces, hibiscus, rosehip, naural dried orange, calendual petals, cornflower petals, bubblegum and natural flavors.  The bubblegum is removed before brewing.

The Bumblefruit Kid’s Tea is lively, bright and full of energy. Kid’s will have fun leaning the techniques of brewing loose tea. The loose tea comes in a foil 2 ounce pack for freshness and makes 25 cups of delicious tea.

The Tutti Fruite Kid’s Tea is a candy-like Caramel flavor with berries for depth and color.  It is rich in Vitamin C and contains natural dried apple pieces, hibiscus, rosehip, natural dried orange, elderberries, dried black currants, rose petals, calendula petals, cornflower petals, red thistle and natural flavors for a terrific tasting tea.

The Yummy Berry Kid’s Tea contains wildberry currant and fruity ingredients that give a sweet and slight tart character.  Ingredients include natural dried apple pieces, hibiscus, rosehip, cornflower petals, natural dried black currants, elderberries, and natural flavors.

If you prefer tea bags, we have Organic Children’s Tea.  This is a lovely, light caffeine-free herbal tea created just for children! Each teabag contains just under a teaspoon of real dried honey, which perfectly enhances the sprightly berry punch flavor.  Made with only organic herbs, with your children`s well-being in mind.

A few tips: 

–Keep a pitcher of Kid’s Tea in the refrigerator which can be enjoyed at anytime. 

Cold Tea:  (l quart) Place 12-15 tsps f tea into a teapot or heat resistant pitcher.  Pour 1 1/4 cups of freshly boiled water over the tea.  Steep 5 minutes.  Quarter fill a serving itcher with cold water.  our ea into serving pitcher straining the leaves and add ice and top-up the pitcher with cold water.  Garnish and sweeten to taste.

–Make popsicles from the Kid’s Tea for your children to enjoy outside with their friends. 

The weather is getting better so there is no better time to get outside and enjoy a Garden Tea Party with the kids!

Drinking tea throughout the day is a way to deal with stress.  The Irish drink more tea than any other nation in the world consuming an average of four cups per day for every man, woman and child.  Tea is part of modern day life served up at 11 0′clock for afternoon tea, and at 6:00 P.M. for high tea, the evening meal. 

Today’s afternoon tea menu in Celtic countries follows the English standard of  tea sandwiches, scones and other hot breads, and sweets.  However, High Tea is much more formal.  It features savory specialties such as Welsh rarebit or Scotch eggs and regional baked goods.

Tea, also know as “China ale” is believed to have been introduced to Ireland about the middle of the 17th centruy.  During the second half of the 19th century the Temperance movement which advocated total avoidance of alcohol, gained a large following and tea and tearooms were popular.

For the Irish, Tea is a sign of hospitality and is considered an essential component of celebrations – weddings, christenings, and even wakes. 

If you want to plan an Irish Tea Party, you’ll want to read CELTIC TEAS WITH FRIENDS by Elizabeth Knight.

Celtic Teas With Friends

A perfect source for tips, decorating ideas, theme suggestions, and recipes.  Learn teatime traditions from Cornwall, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.

I Love Tea

February is the perfect time of  year to share your love for tea with someone special.  February 14th is especially memorable this year because it is not only Valentine’s Day, but it is my Mom’s 90th Birthday!  We’ve planned a large tea party for my Mom, our family and friends. 

Along with all of the many Valentine and Birthday decorations, we will be giving teapot trinket boxes for tea party favors to our guests.

Mom has enjoyed a cup of tea throughout the day for many years and her love of tea has passed on through the generations.  I love tea, my daughter loves tea and my granddaughters love their tea parties.

Aside from the many health benefits of tea, our family enjoys the tradition of serving tea.  There are so many beautiful tea sets and accessories available for this relaxing tradition. 

As a child, I  remember my Grandmother putting a tea kettle of water on the old Southern Comfort stove for brewing a cup of tea.  Her country kitchen was the meeting place and everyone sat around the kitchen table, on the stairway and rocking chairs waiting for the kettle to blow its whistle and then the conversation began.

Holiday Teapot

Tis the season to decorate with your Holiday Teaware.  Teapots are not just for the kitchen.  Display your Holiday teapots throughout the house.  Embellish them with fresh or silk flowers.  Place a decorative teapot on a bookshelf, fireplace mantel or bedside table for an interesting Holiday decoration.

There are so many decorative holiday teapots to choose from.  Seasonal teapots come in all shapes and sizes.  Let your creativity sore and have fun decorating with your teaware.  Fill a glass teapot with small Christmas balls of solid or mixed colors for a unique centerpiece.

Teapot Ornaments

Tea enthusiasts will adore these tiny teapot ornaments with red cardinals & pine.  The mini decorations are endearing for a Christmas tree or wreath or even displayed on a Christmas tea table.

When the decorating is done, sit down with your favorite cup of tea and relax to the Classical Music Collection of Mozart, Chopin, Debussy and more and plan your next tea gathering to celebrate the Holiday Season.

Autumn is here and now is a good time to introduce the warm colors of Autumn to your tea table setting.  Think of a walk in the woods.  Bring nature indoors with beautiful hues of brown, golden yellows, vibrant reds and luscious orange.

Fall decorating can be fun, easy and very inexpensive when you look to nature for your supplies.  Each year with our Hydrangea bush blooms, I can’t wait to pick some of the colorful blooms to place in a teapot or pitcher for a lovely display that lasts throughout the year.  The green, pink and ivory blooms dry naturally in the container.

Fall Teapot Assortment

   This Fall Teapot assortment will get you through the Winter Season and beyond.  The colors of falling leaves.  Mismatched teapots give the tea table a sassy spunk and add interest.

Exotic Birds Cups & Saucers

From Congress to tea sets, one woman’s journey

By Pamela Riqaux, News-Post Staff                                                

My Journey to Tea

Pam Gleason gets up at 7:30 a.m. and starts working.  Her husband comes home at 4:30 p.m., and she is usually still working in her office in the basement of their home on Ridge Road in Frederick.

Her hobby of collecting tea sets turned into a full-time job two years ago when she decided to launch a web-based business called “The Tea Corner.”

“Children’s tea sets are a big seller right now,” Gleason, 60, said.  “I have them broken into categories: princess tea, flower fairy tea, garden party tea.  I even have boys’ top hats.  Boys like to have fun, too.”

She traces her interest in tea back to her first job out of high school in Winter Park, Fla.  She worked in the china section of a department store.

“I had a full set of china before I got married, she said.  “What got me back to this again, I was a legal secretary for a company and when they sold out, I had to have something else, I just went back to what I love — the china.”

The eleborate nature of her party supplies might be related to an experience with Walt Disney World in 1970 when she was 23 years old.  “I have one claim to fame,” she said.  “In Florida, I entered the Walt Disney World ambassador contest.”

A photo of her standing next to Mickey Mouse shows just how close she came to being picked — she was one of three finalists.

“That was a turning point of my life,” Gleason said.  “Had I become ambassador, I would have traveled all over.”

Instead, she went to Washington for a job on Capitol Hill as an appointment secretary for the late Silvio Conte, a Republican from Massachusetts.

“During my interview he said, “You’re from Florida.  What makes you think you can work her in Washington?”  Gleason said. “I said, ‘From one Mickey Mouse organization to another.’  He laughed and I got the job.”

That was in the early 1980’s she said.  Later she became a staffer for a subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee.

Her job was to help conduct hearings.  She remembered one hearing vividly.  A congressman gave her some papers to Xerox, she said.  She opened a door to where she thought the photocopier was.  She stepped in, shut the door and looked around.

“I was in a broom closet,” she said.  “I didn’t know what to do.  People in the hearing knew I’d stepped into a broom closet.”

She did the only thing she could do — composed herself and slid out.

Meeting her husband for the first time is another story.

He was the bass player for a band she asked to play at at party.

“I was renting a big farmhouse on Quebec School Road in Middletown.” she said.  The band was from Baltimore, and they said they would play for free.

The only musician who didn’t like the arrangement was her future husband, she said.  “They showed up that night, and I ended up marrying him.

Tea with Jane

“Jane Austen (1775-1817) loved tea.  She mentions tea so often in her novels and in her letters that I began to suspect that she was a true tea enthusiast…At the cent of almost every social situation in her novels one finds – tea.” wrote Kim Wilson in her book, Tea with Jane Austen.

For that perfect cup of tea, Jane Austin might make some of the following suggestions.

Always use freshly drawn water and never boil more than once. Twice boiled water has less oxygen thereby reducing the flavor and aroma of your tea. For a really good cup you need loose tea, which these days is not carried in all grocery stores. However, you can easily slit the top of the bags to get the amount you need for that perfectly brewed pot of tea for your party. If you are a lucky lady and find loose tea, you will not be disappointed. Loose tea leaves generally are larger than those in teabags and the tea itself is often of a higher quality. Tea very easily picks up odors so be sure to store your tea in airtight containers.

Generally, one teaspoonful of leaves for each cup of water makes a perfect cup. Some teas are lighter in character so you may need to try different quantities to suit your taste.

Some tea lovers allow the tea leaves to float freely in the teapot but a nice tea ball is perfect for removing tea leaves and most importantly prevents over steeping. Tea steeps best when it is kept warm while brewing. Whichever teapot you select, warm it by rinsing with boiling water right before you make your tea. A tea cozy will help keep the heat in during steeping. Be sure to never over steep. Over steeping will cause your tea to have a bitter taste. Always be sure to fill your tea ball only half full so the tea leaves have room to expand thus allowing all the flavor to flow through the water.

The temperature of the water plays a big part in the kind of tea you select. For oolong, black and herbal teas, use water that is at a full boil as it hits the tea leaves. And, of course, the length of time you steep is your own personal taste. Generally, five minutes for most black and herbal teas and seven minutes for oolongs. This will give your very nice results.

Like oolong, white and green teas are made with cooler water, about 180 degrees. A simple to determine the right temperature is when your tea kettle begins to make a rumbling noise then it is about right to pour. White tea should be steeped about seven minutes and light oolongs and greens teas for only about three minutes to avoid bitterness.

Remember, regardless of the type of tea, remove the leaves from the teapot when the tea is done steeping…this is a most important step.

Tea with Friends

Sitting down at a properly dressed table with your favorite friends and enjoying a delicious cup of tea out of a beautifully flowered tea cup makes the experience of a tea party all the more special.
~~~

Submitted by a satisfied customer of The Tea Corner,

Now and then I come across some helpful tips for tea drinkers and I would like to share these tips.

       Removing Tea Stains:  Leaving a tea bag in cups and on saucers may cause stains.  To get them sparkling again:

• Rinse the cup, saucer or mug with lots of hot water to flush away residue
• Squirt liquid soap or a bit of vinegar onto a damp sponge
• Sprinkle on a hefty dose of table salt (this acts as a mild abrasive) and gently scrub clean
• For fine china, mix a teaspoon of baking soda with a few drops of lemon juice, and rub this paste onto the stain
• Let it sit for an hour or so, then wash the cup, saucer or mug

You may want to consider using a Tea Bag Caddy  to rest your tea bag.  Mix and match your tea bag caddies for an interesting table setting.

       The Best Brew.    Who better to ask how to make the perfect cup of tea than the United Kingdom Tea Council?  Here’s the answer:

1. Buy good quality tea and store it in an airtight container at room temperature.
2. Measure your tea carefully; use either 1 tea bag or 1 rounded tsp of loose tea for each cup.
3. Pour boiling water over tea (For the best flavor, always brew tea with freshly boiled water.)
4. Steep most black tea for 3 to 4 minutes and green tea for 2 to 4 minutes.

Check back next month for some additional Tea Tips!

What better way to have fun then dressing up.  The Tea Party Dress Up Hat  is our best selling item.   Ellie and her friends enjoyed our hand decorated tea party dress up hat at her 6th Birthday Tea Party.  The natural straw hats are decorated with silk flowers and tulle in pink, purple or a mixture of the two colors.  The Tea Corner also makes hats to suit your color request. 

 Ellie is also wearing faux pearls from our Children’s Tea Party Supplies.   When planning your children’s tea party, select a theme.  We offer tea party supplies for:

• Princess Tea Party
• Flower Fairy Tea Party
• Garden Tea Party
• Ballerina Tea Party
• Birthday Tea Party
• Anne of Green Gables
• Teddy Bear Tea Party

Girls just want to have fun!