Tea for Two

High Tea Never Looked So Good
Tea drinking is at least a 2,000-year-old habit. If you are an aficionado to the core, here's a quick list of titles that may help you plan a tea party, learn more about tea's place in history, or add a tea-friendly fiction title to your reading list.

Party Planning
Diana Rosen’s Taking Time for Tea : 15 Seasonal Tea Parties to Soothe the Soul and Celebrate the Spirit provides not only recipes, but wonderful menus guaranteed to help you plan a special occasion tea party.

For kids, try Fancy Nancy, Party Planner : Tea Parties by Jane O'Connor. R.S.V.P. oui, oui, oui!

Table Planning
Loani Prior’s Wild Tea Cosies offers 24 step-by-step patterns for knitting unique tea cosies. Full page color illustrations show the finished product along with accompanying material, equipment, pattern, size, and finishing requirements.

Table Settings : Stylish Entertaining Made Simple by Emily Chalmers beautifully illustrates the pleasure of a well-laid table. Many of the more ambitious settings can be scaled back while still delivering tea time elegance.

If you're crafty, Donna Dewberry’s Designs for Entertaining offers a wealth of ideas for painting a variety of dishes, cups, and centerpieces. The author is a regular presenter on the Home Shopping Network.

Napkins with a Twist : Fabulous Folds with Flair for Every Occasion by David Stark gives simple, yet lovely ideas for making the required table napkin an interesting element of your overall presentation. Also try Folding Napkins by Gay Merrill Gross.

What would your tea table be like without candles? Gloria Nicol explains how to undertake a fairly inexpensive craft in Candles : Making, Decorating, Styling. The title showcases 40 step-by-step projects.

History of Tea
The Story of Tea : a Cultural History and Drinking Guide by Mary Lou Heiss and Robert J. Heiss will take you on a 2000-year journey from East to West. Part travelogue, part history, and filled with practical advice -- this very readable title is likely to be a joy for tea lovers.

Less glowing is Tea : Addiction, Exploitation, & Empire by Roy Moxham, who examines four centuries of the British tea industry and tea's impact on world history. This provocative book is well written and well worth a tea (or coffee) drinker's time.

Post by Bev Simmons