tea tradition
We drink a lot of tea in our house. Sometimes it’s fancy, and we take the time to set a pretty table and make up a formal tea tray complete with proper cucumber sandwiches…Other times we just stop and sit on the floor (as my grandgirl, Maddie May, is demonstrating in the photo above.) Any time can be teatime!
I love how tea has become a tradition in our home. I use to sit and have tea with Andie in the afternoon when she returned home from school, and now Gracie is becoming a tea enthusiast as well. I’m glad to see that Andie is passing the tradition down to Madeline. Maddie likes her Assam with lots of milk and sugar and a piece of well buttered cinnamon toast.
I never imagined that walking into a little tea room in White Bear Lake all those years ago would be the beginning of something so huge and significant in my life. To me, tea isn’t just some cutesy thing I do every afternoon. To me, tea is a way to connect with my daughters, my granddaughter, my husband and other people who are special to me. It’s an important, relaxing ritual. It’s my love language. When you walk through my front door and I offer you a cup of tea I’m not just offering you a beverage, I’m offering my friendship. 😉
I’m writing a new book all about tea. All of my experiences, memories of working in tearooms and favorite tea recipes will be recorded on paper, and eventually, published. I can’t wait to share this piece of myself with all of you. It took years of working with amazingly talented, knowledgeable people to get to this point, and writing this book just feels like the natural next step for me. I’m off to go write the next chapter…
XO,
~Melissa
as always, beautiful. thank you for sharing 🙂
Thanks, Maria 😉 xoxo
You’re writing about the tea tradition is leaving a treasured legacy!! I love it!! xoxo
Thanks so much for saying that 🙂 It’s a labor of love. Can’t wait to share it. xoxo!
Oh, Melissa,
This post just touched my heart. You are a true kindred spirit when it comes to tea time. My very favorite tea room was the Buckingham Bee, and I’ll bet that I may have even seen you there many years ago. Kathleen was SUCH a gracious lady, and my mentor for our tea room – Heirlooms.
I am SO excited about your tea book! I would LOVE to have you come for a book signing when it’s published. I would LOVE to chat with you before that, though! I do hope that you will be able to come up this way so we can share teatime and friendship together. After all, we speak the same ‘language’!
Blessings,
Audrey
You sweet ladies are making me tear up 🙂
When I returned to the Bee to have tea with Gracie, I was swept away by memories. Even the smell of the Avalon Mall brought tears to my eyes. I’ll never forget walking into that building with Jeff all those years ago and instantly falling in love with tea. Teacups, the pretty bakery case ROSE PETAL tea (I had no idea something so amazing existed!) We went back every Saturday, sometimes with friends and sometimes it was just the two of us. I was working at Hallmark at the time (and miserable.) I had a brief conversation with Kathleen about my situation and she offered me a job. I was in heaven! I was getting paid to do something I loved. Something that eventually became my passion.
I have so much respect for what you do as a proprietress of a tea room. I’ve never owned a tea room, but I worked in them long enough to know how many hours and how much love and energy goes in to such an undertaking.
I bet I did wait on you at the Bee…and possibly at the Tale of Two Sisters too. I just know that when we meet face to face there will be that recognition you feel when you’re meeting a kindred spirit. We definitely do speak the same language.
xoxo,
Much Love,
Melissa
ps…Audrey, you couldn’t have picked a better mentor than Kath. What a lady! 🙂 Amazing, amazing person.
I will look forward to your book – I have been waiting for you to do a new one. You are such a great writer and artist!
I have a photo of you at McHattie’s Tea Room. I was celebrating my 50th birthday and had a large fancy hat on.
To Afternoon Tea Time!
~Pamela
Hello Pamela!
I was so tickled to get your note! Oh, how I miss The Victorian Times! (McHattie’s.) What a lovely place. I hope you are doing well. Say, if you’re on facebook, pop on over to my ChinDeep facebook and say hello! I’d love to hear from you.
XO,
Melissa
ps…I would love it if you’d post the picture you have of me 🙂
Over time, tea-time turned more into coffee time, as I realised it gave me more of a buzz, and then that turned more into actually drinking coffee exclusively instead of anything else throughout the day (even with my dinner… my wife always scolds me!), BUT – sometimes, I get a massive hankering for a good cup of tea, and my goodness it feels good drinking that bad boy!
My husband use to work for a big coffee company, that started in the Midwest, called “Caribou.” We were complete coffee fanatics for years, and then when I was introduced to tea I switched my caffeine addiction 😉 These days I can only have about a cup of the fully loaded coffee a week…or it makes me cra cra 🙂 Seriously, I become a caricature of myself, LOL… but we do enjoy that pot of French press with our Saturday morning breakfast. I just SO love tea, and I stick with it because I truly enjoy the taste (and the ritual) and no adverse effects 😉
I drink tea and coffee but there is something special about tea. Maybe it’s the beautiful china instead of a mug.
The pretty teacups have a lot to do with what drew me to tea. 😉 Another wonderful thing about tea is the vast selection of flavors. mmmmm!