Tea as Theatre

My daughter bought me a tea cup "set" for my birthday recently, OK yesterday. The boxed gift was from David's Teas and it's just lovely. It also came with a specialty tea called "Midsummer Night's Dream" - what could be more perfect. If the name sounds magical the ingredients are even more so - apple, gooseberries, spearmint, marigold blossoms, safflower petals, and rose petals - too lovely for words!!

The tall orange mug comes with an infuser. Add a teaspoon of the the above dream mix to the stainless steel sieve, pour in boiling water, wait for a moment and the scene changes!! The lovely palm trees on the mug fade from black to silver. Tatiana should be so lucky!!

The tea is delicious too. Who would have thought that you could create a business by raising the common cuppa to a refined art form? Well tea making (brewing) is a ceremony and ceremonies are theatre. Add to the mix a little magic and you have a performance!! All that's missing is the music  (my kettle doesn't whistle.) Maybe I just have to recite my favourite passage from the play -


I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
Lull’d in these flowers with dances and delight;
And there the snake throws her enamell’d skin,
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in:


Or put it to music! Not quite the ingredients of the tea, but close.

Have a magical day!!