Table of contents for May - June 2006 in TeaTime

Whether you have tea in the quiet comfort of your favorite chair, or you are joined by a friend for a steaming cup, you’ll find in this issue of TeaTime a wealth of tempting treats to prepare for those moments. Our foods range from the elegant Culinard offerings to the flower-filled menu from our own test kitchen, and much more. In every issue, I write a letter to extend greetings to you, and to keep you informed about what is happening in our tea world. So I am happy to tell you that the only tea plantation in the United States is once again welcoming visitors to its Charleston, South Carolina location. I think after you read the story of this unique tea company, you’ll want to plan a trip…

When having tea in various tearooms, I have often observed that some individuals seem puzzled and uncertain about how to eat the scone. What is the proper way to enjoy this essential part of the tea experience? There are actually several methods for eating scones, all of them correct, but with some, more handson preparation on the part of the diner is required. The first three methods require using your fingers to transport the scone bites. The last two methods allow you to use a fork. Using the knife from the place setting, slice through the scone horizontally, as it rests flat on your plate. Spoon small dollops of jam and cream onto your plate. Never spoon either directly onto the scone. Take only the amount of toppings needed for…

Though honoring mothers has been celebrated for centuries in other cultures, the observance of Mother’s Day as we know it in America is the result of a devoted daughter’s quest to honor the wish of her mother once uttered in a prayer. At the age of 12, Mother’s Day founder Anna Jarvis listened intently as her mother closed her Sunday School lesson, “Great Mothers of the Bible,” with these words: “I hope that someone, sometime will found a memorial Mother’s Day commemorating her for the matchless service she renders to humanity in every field of life. She is entitled to it.” Indeed she is. And little embodies such a sentiment more than afternoon tea—a favored ritual that centers on solace, quiet camaraderie, and loving servitude. From the preparation of food…

In China, the tree peony, known as a “mudan,” is a flower that has been revered since the seventh century. Blooming in a luminous range of hues—soft pink, coral, apricot, ivory, and more—the tree peony has long been considered a symbol of prosperity and wealth by the Chinese, who particularly cherish the flower’s ethereal, anemone-like beauty. China, the country which also gave the world its first taste of tea more than 5,000 years ago, has combined two of its greatest cultural and artistic passions with “display teas” known as mudans. Hand-crafted, mudans are most often made of green or white teas. Tea leaves are tied together in rosettes with silken cords and left to dry in an exquisite array of floral shapes, among them, of course, the peony. Intended to…

James Norwood Pratt is a man of great nuance, of mood, and perhaps even a bit of mystery. A conversation with the renowned tea author is likely to reveal both much and little about him: his interests, his impressive scope of knowledge on an array of topics, and, naturally, his steadfast love and appreciation of tea. At conversation’s end, the listener is likely to be left with the unmistakable impression that he or she knows more than they previously did about tea—its leaf and lore, its lasting impact on virtually every culture in the world, and a slew of anecdotes about the beverage’s considerable, and often scandalous, history. In fact, if the author’s distinct laugh—more chortle than chuckle—is any indicator, one is quite convinced it is the turpitude of tea…

Inviting Words Page 9: Salad plates, Chelsea Flowers pattern, Rosanna, Inc. Necessary Things Page 10: Teapot tea towels, San Antonio River Mill Store. Tulip nightlight, Flora. Wire teacups and teapot, Sweet Peas. Lacy tea cozy and floral cream and sugar on tray, Beverly Ruff Antiques. Floral tea service by Vietri, Lamb’s Ears. Tea Wares: Sugar Tongs Page 20: Sugar tongs, Tricia’s Treasures. Enchanting Details Page 21: China, Anthropologie. Magical Mudans Page 23: Teapot, Anthropologie. Perfectly in Place Page 24: Mother-of-pearl plates, Christine’s. A Summer Scone Page 37: McKenzie-Childs’ Chelsea Luster teapot and plate, Christine’s. Rainy Day Picnic Page 40: Pillow and throw, April Cornell. China, Anthropologie. Garlic and rosemary jelly, available through Beth’s Farm Kitchen. DIRECTORY OF COMPANIES Anthropologie, www.anthropologie.com, 800-309-2500. April Cornell, www.aprilcornell.com, 802-879-5100. Beth’s Farm Kitchen, P.O. Box…

Keepsake Menus Between cups of tea and bursts of confiding conversation comes first the savories, followed by warm, golden scones, and finally the sweets. And so it goes with afternoon tea The order is not necessarily sacrosanct, nor is it even the point of this time-honored tradition. What matters is the moment, that elusive trickle of time that exists both in seconds and nuance. Once that moment and the guests are gone, and the last bit of tea has been sipped, what lingers of the occasion is the memory of it, hopefully one that will be treasured by all. A deft and congenial hostess, of course, longs for her occasions to be remembered. To that end, her teapots and tiered trays are always full, her guest lists lively, and her…

Queen Victoria is rightly remembered for many things, among them her famously detailed journals, which were published after her death. Totaling more than 100 manuscript volumes in all, the queen’s diaries provide an amazing—and frequently amusing—glimpse of life at court, from a behind-thecurtains perspective. In an entry dated June 28, 1838, Victoria describes her coronation as queen. “I was…seated upon St. Edward’s chair, where the Dalmatic robe was clasped round me by the Lord Great Chamberlain. Then followed all the various things; and last (of those things) the Crown being placed on my head—which was, I must own, a most beautiful impressive moment,” the newly crowned 18-year-old recalled in her diary. Not all parties can be coronations, of course—but why not borrow a page from Queen Victoria’s book in planning…

TEA WARES Every properly set tea table requires the addition of a pair of silver sugar tongs. As beautiful as they are functional, lustrous silver sugar tongs are the only acceptable way of handling the sugar cubes that sweeten our cups of tea. The inception of this requisite tea tool dates back to the early eighteenth century. It was introduced in Europe when sugar was sold in compressed cones. The name “tong” is derived from the European-Indonesian word denk, which translates as “to bite.” In fact, early renditions of the sugar tongs were called sugar “nips” or “nippers.” These tongs resembled scissors in both shape and operation, and were quite efficient at breaking serving-sized pieces from the sugar block. From the initial scissor-like versions evolved the more commonly recognized bow-shaped…

“Sweet April showers do bring May flowers,” wrote sixteenth century naturalist Thomas Tusser in his work Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry. Those same showers produce another sweet bounty—the inimitable strawberry. Tusser, as it happened, also wrote of the strawberry in his resourceful book, calling their cultivation the proper work of women. And, indeed, the cultivation of strawberries was an early and popular pursuit with the ladies of England and beyond. Women at court in France during the same time period are known to have grown the plump berries in abundance, most particularly so that once ripened, they could be sliced and served with dollops of sweetened cream, a dish that continues to grace summer tables around the globe. An easy adaptation for the tea table, our strawberry cream scones…

Fabulous Florals With the arrival of the warm summer weather, it seems the whole world is alive with flowers! Roses, daylilies, and peonies add their glory to the garden. Join in the floral celebration with these lovely things to brighten your summer days. 1. This adorable faux tea set from Sweet Peas gives whole new meaning to the term “floral teas”. Simply line the wire cups with moss, fill with potting soil, and plant your favorites posies. A colorful silky ribbon woven through the teapot adds a measure of charm. Sweet Peas Garden Shop, 205-879-3839. 2. Like a finely spun web, this exquisite lace tea cozy from Beverly Ruff shows off beautifully detailed handiwork. Beverly Ruff Antiques, 205-262-9434. 3. Two for tea? Serving jasmine tea from this fetching floral tea…

Look out London! Tea is once again the fashionable beverage for consumers of all ages in New York City. Early Dutch settlers in Manhattan were drinking tea long before Londoners. By the time George Washington was inaugurated as president at the old City Hall, he was said to breakfast daily on three cups of tea. Tea water pumps, erected over freshwater springs, provided the President and citizens with the best potable water, delivered to their doors, for a penny or two a pail. By the eighteenth-century, New York boasted 200 tea establishments. Gardens, named Ranelagh and Vauxhall after their London counterparts, sprang up around the Lower East Side and the Bowery. Here, city sophisticates could stroll through leafy glades, flirt, or sit to sip tea. East Side, West Side, all…

Summer's First Fruit Inside every strawberry, there exists a bit of summer. Plump, colorful, lush, and light, strawberries are the season’s first and finest fruit. As though timed by Mother Nature herself, the first strawberries of the season begin to ripen in summer’s earliest days, popping up in patio gardens, in green fields, and even wild in the woods. Whether eaten with sweetened cream or fresh from the picking pail, the taste of strawberries is as ephemeral and sweet as summer itself. Poet laureate Robert Frost once wrote that nature’s first green is gold, but it can be argued that nature’s first “green” is, in point of fact, berry red. Mr. Frost noted in the same poem that nature’s “early leaf’s a flower…but only so an hour.” And so it…

Each spring in our nation’s capital, flower-gazers gather alongside the Potomac River Tidal Basin for hours at a time, surveying in solitude the seasonal spectacle of cherry blossoms in bloom. Like soft clusters of clouds, the multitude of delicate pink and white blossoms covers the 3,000 ornamental cherry trees that were donated to the United States in 1912. The trees were a gift given in friendship from Japan, where the viewing of cherry blossoms—or sakura—is an ancient and sacred custom that celebrates the flowers’ ethereal, yet fleeting, beauty. Because the fragile, but still spectacular, cherry blossoms bloom for only a few weeks, the Japanese have for centuries exalted the flower as a potent symbol of the beauty of a single moment and more deeply, the fragility of such beauty. This…

“I grew up in the northeast, in Philadelphia, and we had peaches—those were easy to get— but not apricots,” recalls the founder and owner of the Charleston Cookie Company. “Apricots are my favorite, favorite, favorite fruit. I just love the scent. If someone made an apricot perfume, I’d wear it.” Judith’s chef, Judy Papadimitriou, is no maker of perfumes, but cookies are another matter. As a special gift, she developed these apricot yogurt cookies for Judith. A fan of tea and tisanes, Judith says the apricot confections are perfectly paired with a cup of tea because the honeyed taste of the fruit, rather than scads of sugar, lend the cookies their sweetness. “They would be wonderful with a light-bodied black tea,” she says, adding she enjoys the cookies with a…