Have Some Tea

When I find myself in times of trouble English Breakfast comes to me

Speaking words of wisdom: have some tea

And in my hour of darkness it is steaming right in front of me

Speaking words of wisdom: have some tea

Have some tea, have some tea, have some tea, have some tea

Whisper words of wisdom: have some tea

And when the broken-hearted people turn up worn and thirsty

There will be savories… Have some tea

For though they may be tired there is still a chance that they will see

There will be some biscuits… Have some tea

Have some tea, have some tea, have some tea, have some tea

Yeah, there will be biscuits… Have some tea

Have some tea, have some tea, have some tea, have some tea

Speaking words of wisdom: have some tea

And when the night is cloudy there is rooibos to calm and comfort me

Sleep until tomorrow: have some tea

I wake up to the smell of brewing…English Breakfast comes to me

Speaking words of wisdom: have some tea

Some some tea, have some tea, have some tea, yeah, have some tea

It might be fancy; have some tea

Between Teavana’s going-out-of-business 75 percent off sale and Lupicia’s Fukubukuro (Happy Bag…for $30 get over $60 of best-selling teas! A New Year tradition!), I suddenly found my tea stash unattractively overflowing. A lot of tea comes in nice, food-grade, resealable zip pouches, but…I don’t want to stick my hand in a crinkly bag when smelling and scooping the tea. My tea brewing experience is heightened by the aesthetic solution I hit on: A TEA DRAWER. I went to Target and browsed the canning jars and settled on these, in 8 and 16oz sizes (about $5 for 4 jars). One 50g bag of Lupicia loose leaf tea fits neatly into an 8oz jar. The large bags of clearance Teavana leftovers fit nicely in the 16 oz jars, or if they didn’t, I gave the rest away to tea friends. I went full crazy and used the canning lids to trace circles on the Lupicia packages and cut out their labels, so the name, caffination, description, brewing instructions, etc are easy to read. Lupicia teas are color-coded by caffeine content. Love.

I liked that so much I inflicted the process on some seasonal boxed Celestial Seasonings and some local Hawaiian tea I got at Anuenue (a tea store nearby; the name means ‘rainbow’ in Hawaiian). Some of my other tea containers fit perfectly in the same drawer. I cannot tell you the satisfaction that welled up inside me at the completion of this rainy day project. Admittedly, this is not all of my tea. Some tall, slim tea canisters perch alongside the teapot and wooden teaspoons.

So. This is how I organized a sudden influx of many different types of tea I wanted to try all at once. It was less than $20 for all the jars, and I like that they seal tightly to keep my tea fresh. I recently compared the last of some matcha (previously opened and stored in the bag it came in) to a new batch of the same type of tea, and the color was markedly faded in the older one (more of an olive green instead of vivid emerald).

Please feel welcome to come over and try something new. There will be biscuits…have some tea!