All About Tea

I mention Star Trek in one of my posts and what doth the tea-drinking universe bequeath upon my little nerdy heart? A mug from Wil Wheaton with the (in)famous Captain Picard quote on it in big bold lettering: “Tea, Earl Grey. Hot.”

See? See!?

(There’s even a Flickr Group Pool for photos of the mug in the wild.)

Who is Wil Wheaton? Peasant! Wheaton is a writer with a talent for heartwarming stories of daily life that we can all relate to, an engaging Twtiterficiando, and an actor well known for – among other roles – his part as Wesley Crusher in Star Trek: The Next Generation. For those not familiar with Wheaton’s current success as writer I recommend reading Just a Geek – a memoir that will illuminate his trajectory from actor to writer and child to adult – as well as Sunken Treasure, a collection of gems from his almost decade-long stint of blogging. The mug is part of Wheaton’s promotion of his newest book, Memories of the Future.

Yes, yes, I know – I’ve said before that I prefer teacups to mugs.

And I do, if truth be told. It’s not just that I associate mugs with coffee, it’s also that teacups do seem to have a perfect balance between the amount of tea in the cup and the amount of said tea that is exposed to the atmosphere. Whether this really makes any difference at all to the tea drinking expereince or, more importantly, to the taste, is probably a matter for scientists. Or Mythbusters. Or somebody other than me. Regardless of actual facts, I’ve always felt that tea just tastes better in a tea cup. Besides which, the volume in a mug is usually off for estimating the cuppage (snicker) from my teapots. And yes, I just made that word up.

But never mind all that! This blog is about sexy tea things and the irrational desire to possess all things tea by a cat loving lady with too many teapots. So I eat my teacup words and declare that this mug is freakin’ hot, baby, and I must get my grubby little paws on one. Seriously! This mug looks like it could beat the pants off of Royal Albert in a cage match. (Don’t tell my mother that because I’m hoping to inherit her entire Royal Albert Old Country Roses collection someday.)

Ooh. I can even brew a cup of Serenitea: Kaylee for the mug and be in AU teanerdvana. Or is that going too far?

Great Google’s grandmother, I haven’t updated here in a while! Too busy drinking tea I guess.

Seriously, I’ve been hoarding lots of delicious tidbits for a while now, but I’ve been too swamped to share them. Until now. Never fear, I’m still crazy for tea and happily pushing the stuff onto my friends.

As atonement for my absence, I offer this lovely little find from Etsy: Haiku teacups by teaspoons & petals:

“There are those few precious moments while drinking tea, when you can just pause, breathe and imagine. My hope is that those who sip their favorite blend from my cups or hang my prints in their home will enjoy those peaceful moments as they read my original haiku. I was inspired to write each original haiku while sipping from my teacup, with only a pen and paper in hand.”

These tranquil cups are hand painted, dishwasher and microwave safe.  Custom cups can be created for that special occasion. You can almost feel the “ahhhhhhh“.

This is the cutest darn thing: a tea cozy cover for a yerba mate gourd.

From the Etsy seller’s site:

When your yerba mate gourd gets a little hot to handle, try this cozy on for size! Crocheted from 100% cotton yarn, this little cozy fits gourds that have a circumference of up to 13 inches at it’s widest point with a bit of room to spare. Top stays put with a brand-new coated elastic band crocheted in….just pull it over your gourd like a sock! Machine wash, air dry and you’re good to go. Gourd, bombilla and small amount of yerba mate in the photos are not included in this listing.

I’m always on the lookout for sexy tea gadgets. I found these at Bed, Bath and Beyond: a tea infuser and an in-mug infuser, both in translucent green.  Both are from the design company, Tovolo.

I admit, I got them only because they looked so striking. Usually I pass up tea infusers like Tovolo’s lolipop design here, because they are hard to fill with enough loose leaf tea and don’t really allow enough room for the tea leaves to expand. This design is not exception, but darn it, it just looks so delicious. Yum.

On the other hand, in-mug infuser work really well. This design is pretty and the strainer doesn’t stain, but I found that the sides of the strainer drip down outside of the little base to set it in. Still, I like this one and I can just set the base on a small plate. (Another trick is to set a used infuser on/in a small Asian soy sauce bowl.)

Ooh. WANT!

Unfortunately it appears I’m too late to get the version with the cute little top hat. According to an archived post at DVICE and Popgadget these were available from Signals back in October of 2007. They’re still available from Amazon.com, but without the hat. Rats. It’s just what my Linux-loving, geeky heart desires. And he really looks spiffy in the hat.