My latest tea set is currently my favorite.  I know I say that boat all of my teapots but this one really is.  I promise.

Back in May we were guests for dinner at our future daughter in law’s house.  I LOVE to type that!  Wendy is a wonderful young woman and we were thrilled when Micah asked her to marry him.  Wendy’s parents live in Chapel Hill and one weekend when we were all in Raleigh they invited us for a traditional Chinese dinner.

We had no less than 20 courses that her gracious parents prepared for us and it was wonderful.  I have vowed to get good at eating with chopsticks because right now I stink at it and would starve if I had to rely on eating with chopsticks.  Of course part of the meal involved tea and they had an amazing tea set that I coveted.  I admit it.

It was a beautiful blue floral pattern but the best part were the double walled insulated cups that we drank the steaming hot tea from.  The mugs stayed cool in our hands and I was amazed.  I loved these mugs.

Once I got home I asked my friend Mr. Google about these sets and he gladly shared several places where I could purchase them.  So I found the perfect one in red and ordered it.  From China.  Because that is the best place to get a set like this.  My pictures definitely do not do it justice—I had difficulty photographing it but trust me—the red is vivid and the gold embellishments are beautiful.

It arrived within a couple of weeks in perfect condition and was not as expensive as you might think or else I never would have bought it.  So now I am enjoying my lovely red tea set and love the cups. They are the perfect tea drinking vessel and I feel like I am drinking my Chinese brews authentically.

Each cup has a tiny hole in the bottom to drain any liquid that might get inside the insulated walls.

The tray that the set sits upon has drainage holes as well and that way when the water is poured into the teapot if any overflows it is contained in the tray below.

The petite teapot is the typical size of a true Chinese teapot that is constantly refilled with hot water. The steeping basket is an added bonus.

I currently have this one on my dining room table as a centerpiece because I love it so much.  It will be staying there for awhile.

Thanks for stopping by today and remember we just have a few more days of Comments for a Cause to support the Connestee Falls Scholarship Fund.

Tea History

Sometimes you will see pricy teas called ‘Monkey Picked Tea.’  This name is likely a reference to the high quality of the tea, not the method it was harvested. The name comes from variations on the legend that monkeys used to be trained to pick tea leaves. One variation is that monkeys picked tea that grew at precarious heights too dangerous for people to climb to.  Another is that monks would throw things at monkeys to knock them out of tea trees, breaking branches of choice leaves at the top as the fell so that the branches would fall to the ground.

From 19 Lessons on Tea :  A Guide by 27Press