English Tea Party: Peppermint Tea

"O' peppermint tea -
two delights per sip
as steamy hot as passion
cool as a wintry lake dip
~Astrid Alauda"

You may have guessed it, but maybe not. Mary and I made all the fixins' for a tea party. This post is pretty simple because 1. There's no real recipe for our tea besides teabags and water and 2. There are so many mentions of tea in English literature that I'm not even going to bother putting quotes up.
Now, for most people, "tea time" equals English Breakfast or Earl Grey. For others, "tea" means black tea or green tea. However, Mary and I follow the Word of Wisdom and it discourages against tea that is not considered herbal tea. We chose Peppermint tea and what a good choice it was! Peppermint tea has been my favorite of the herbal teas for years. I would drink it when I was sick from the time I was little until now. It has saved my throat many times during performances and peppermint is just clean and delicious.



In case you aren't sure about making tea, the first thing you'll want is hot/boiling water and the next thing you'll want are tea bags. Mary and I used the peppermint tea from my favorite brand Celestial Seasonings. The longer the tea bags "steep", (To soak in liquid in order to cleanse, soften, or extract a given property from) the stronger the tea. I personally like strong tea so I let my tea bags steep for 3-5 minutes. Usually people add milk, sugar or cream to their tea. Two spoonfuls or "lumps" usually does the trick in mine. You can also add a twist of lemon to bring out the flavor more.



The next bunch of posts will be all about this tea party we had. So let me recommend the following post if you ever plan on having a tea party (and it's SOOOO fun!). It's especially entertaining if you read it out loud in a British accent, adding strange inflection (like anger or sadness). http://brendacoulter.com/BrendaCoulterServingTea.htm



Enjoy!! We had fun using really old and beautiful china but you can use whatever you like!