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Are you a tea or a coffee person?
I was a coffee drinker... in the way that coffee drove my day... I wasn't great without it but I was super charged with it. My mornings, wherever they were spent, revolved around my double shots of espresso... My first thoughts on waking were always the same ... Where will I find my perfect coffee? How I loved those first few sips... and I really think it was a true love... a lifetime's affair...
I don't drink coffee now... not because I don't want to... I do, I really, really do... but because it doesn't agree with me. I know that maybe one little cup every now and then wouldn't hurt... but truthfully, I don't want just one little cup... I want the whole long, aromatic and delicious experience... So now I drink tea... green tea in the morning and herbals in the afternoon. My body thanks me but my psyche doesn't.... Not a day passes that I don't miss my espresso... There is something so incredibly right about a morning coffee, an espresso after lunch... and a chat with the girls is so much better over a coffee... Why is that?
Now that I am a tea drinker I am into all the associated goodies... the cups, the saucers, the strainers, the pots... the pots are my favourites... and the teas... finding the tea and making the tea... I even grow certain herbs for my herbals and climb up ladders to pick the lime blossoms when they are in flower... I am not a ladder climbing type so that suggests my dedication to my new beverage...
I started thinking about tea because Tina from The Enchanted Home, one of my favourite, favourite blogs, asked me a question about tea as part of her 'one word' series... Everyone knows I talk too much so I am afraid my answers aren't exactly one word... I but I didn't stray too far from the brief when I mentioned tea... You can visit her fabulous blog, be caught up in her enchanted world and read my interview here...
I like to make my green tea in Japanese cast iron or stoneware teapots... and my way when entertaining is to serve my guests individual pots with their choice of tea... especially after dinner...These are very similar to the ones I have...
The cast iron...
and the stonewares...
Can you imagine how pretty these would look served in a group? And I love this bamboo tray to place them on... and for me, this is the best style of strainer...
If you like a bigger mug of tea in the morning like I do... these stonewares with their own lids are gorgeous...
This dosen't mean to say that I don't like older style porcelain teapots, cups and saucers... that's another story for tomorrow... xv
Oh yes, I love tea and all the beautiful objects around it. They are so diverse and aesthetically beautiful! Oh, and the tea leaves, especially the ones with flowers and fruit in it are so pretty. Definitely a tea lover
ReplyDeleteHi Vicki....I am a big coffee drinker, a bit of an addict actually! However have started drinking a lot more tea and must say I am really enjoying it, especially green tea, chamomile and peach tea. I love Mighty Leaf...have you tried that brand? Thanks for the generous mention....it was so my pleasure to feautre you, have you on my blog and share you with everyone...as I suspected everyone LOVES and ADMIRES you and with good reason!! Have a fabulous day.
ReplyDeleteLovely selection of teapots here! I'm a tea and coffee drinker - just depends on the time of day. English breakfast, green tea, lemon and ginger...espresso, cappuccino, mochachino - the list goes on. I love my inherited china tea sets and cute espresso cups but I also have a lovely black cast iron tea pot just like The Shogun here.
ReplyDeletehttp://missbbobochic.blogspot.com/
... yes, we all admire vicki ... the caffine in coffee doesn't agree with me anymore, so I drink decaf ... if the quality is good, illy for instance, then I don't miss it .. but I too love the taste of good coffee .. green tea as well, it's very good for you but an acquired taste ... enjoy your day
ReplyDeleteIn all honesty I love both depending on my mood and the time of day.
ReplyDeleteI don't drink either. By a sad misfortune of youth, I drank a cup of coffee when i was about 12 as part of my mothers 'eat everything you are given when a guest' mantra. I was very very very ill. I have never drunk it since, nor do I like tea. I adore the smell, and am content to while my time in a cafe while my husband enjoys his extra strength expresso or browse in a coffee shop. That doesn't stop me collecting cups though!
ReplyDeleteVicki, I can answer this with one word.......NESPRESSO!!!!!!
ReplyDelete( but in summer I adore an iced tea ).
Yep, knew I couldn't keep it to one word...lol!
Linda x
since i am a turk and i grew up in istanbul, i drink them both. for coffee you should try the turkish one (it's also known as greek coffee-there is no difference between the two). and for tea, why not trying the black one? i drink approximately 4 cups of it everyday. but to be more specific, i should say we use different cups for coffee and tea. maybe that's why we can drink more cups but less coffee or tea. hugs: )
ReplyDeleteI am a coffee drinker, but my daughter turned me on to drinking hot water with lemon. Its good! You should try it....Thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving a comment.
ReplyDeleteI've been a coffee lover since my grandfather spoon-fed me grandma's egg coffee when he was supposed to be feeding me my bottle (when scolded by grandma, he apparently answered, "Well, she kept reaching for mine so I thought she wanted some.") Not even kidding. And my mother would wonder why I was a screaming terror of a baby when I came home from my grandparents' house...caffeine withdrawal!
ReplyDeleteI gave up coffee many years ago when I gave up meat went on an organic health kick. But something happened in November - I just couldn't make it through the day. These days, one or two little cups of coffee turn me into a whirlwind. It's lovely. Though I'm stuck drinking crappy office coffee some week days when I can't make it to the coffee shop before work, the weekends are reserved for really good stuff made in my French press. With real cream.
Oh, coffee.
How strange (if re-assuring; I wouldn't like to think that I've developed some neurological or physical disorder)...... I turned fifty this past year and have been wondering why, after decades of drinking coffee (particularly during my late 20's and early thirties, when I was teaching, waiting tables, writing a danged dissertation on Thomas Hardy, and consequently drinking about twenty cups of coffee per day), it suddenly just doesn't "agree" with me. It used to give me an energy-boost; nowadays, it just makes me jangly. It used to smell and taste wonderfully like "coffee"; now, it just tastes and smells surprisingly distasteful (or just plain dull&dutiful) to me. I don't know any other men who've experienced a similar phenomenon in their latter middle-age, but several of my good, longtime female friends have said the same happened to them. Following their advice, I switched to tea about a year ago...and that's all I drink now (in terms of the tea/coffee realm)...whether I want a caffeine boost or just a comforting, all-too obviously Freudian "oral fix" to play around with while I read or take a break to watch the birdfeeders. It's a bit odd....rather like the time (in our mid-thirties) when I and almost all of my friends, male and female, and after at least a decade of beer-guzzling, suddenly began looking at a beer and thinking "God...that looks sort of gross....could I just have a glass of wine, please?".
ReplyDeleteWell, our bodies DO change, and my impression is that our "conscious" minds are, actually, usually behind the learning curve.
thanks for the intriquing post. I'll look forward to reading the responses, since this development is something that's puzzled me. My first guess is that, at a certain age, you simply get over the thrill (major or minor) of ingesting something that necessarily "does something" to you.
These late days, I happen to like feeling like myself; I'd rather ingest something comforting and pleasant, rather than something that "stimulates" me. I should also emphasize that, as someone who makes his living by wielding a rapidograph pen or watercolor brush, the post-coffee, shakey-hands business really doesn't do much towards earning the next mortgage payment and/or veterinarian bill.
Level Best as ever,
David Terry
www.davidterryart.com
Oh, I'm actually very frightened of the day I need to give up coffee! There are already certain times where it doesn't sit well with me, so I imagine it will only get worse as time goes on. My "addiction" is great - I'm planning on getting pregnant in the next year or two & having to give up coffee is one of the scariest aspects of that!
ReplyDeleteOh dear I am coming to the very sad realisation that it is my morning latte that is now giving me a very bad afternoon so it is with great disappointment that I make the decision that coffee must also leave my life...after this weekend!!!!
ReplyDeleteI'll have to try the herbal teas.
Good strong coffee with heavy cream and sugar but love that earl grey tea!
ReplyDeleteA friend was a coffee fiend until she underwent chemotherapy - now even that lovely aroma that turns most of us on, is nauseating to her.
ReplyDeleteI love one cup of good strong Italian freshly ground every morning - that after some years of seven cups a day! Who was that woman?
Thanks for your exceptionally beautiful blog Vicki - it's the one I always stop and read.
x
I have been enjoying the most beautiful green teas while in HK Vicki...you would love them. I think I am soon to follow in your path with tea..as much as I love my espresso in the morning and afternoon...a wild woman in the evening it doth make me!
ReplyDeleteYou have given us the most wonderful inspiration in this post...I feel calmer already...as always, thank you.. :) xx
Oh how I miss my coffee! When I was around 8 or 9 my Swedish grandmother would give my brothers and I a cup filled with half milk and half coffee before we all climbed into the family car for the 2 hour ride home from our monthly visits. I was hooked. Then my mother would pour a little into the milk that covered our shredded wheat, isn't gourmet but boy was it good. My favorite ice cream flavor is coffee. I couldn't get through a day without at least a couple of pots worth. Then at the age of 50,I had a heart attack, no more caffeine for you, I was told. Tried decaf, I don't care what brand it is, it just isn't the same. Then I went to Tazo teas which are pretty good but nothing, nothing will ever replace my first love, coffee!
ReplyDeleteI drink and love both but I am a coffee addict! So much so, that we bought a Gaggia coffee machine and always have fresh Illy in the cupboard! The first thing I do in the morning is make a cappucino! I limit myself to three a day now and then move onto tea for the rest of the day. For girly afternoon teas I have an old floral china set which I adore with my cakestands! Haven't really got into the whole herbal tea thing but that might change after seeing your beautiful Japanese tea pots - they're gorgeous! They must look stunning on your table when your're entertaining. Thank you for stopping by my blog - really appreciated your lovely comment!
ReplyDeleteSharon
Tea is my brew of choice as well.
ReplyDeleteCoffee instantly promotes hot flashes and there is nothing very lady like about a face that is full of beads of moisture especially after one has painstakingly applied one's make up...even though it is done sparingly!
Those lilacs are a pretty shade of pink...we have lilac and white in our garden.
Hope that you are having a wonderful Spring!
coffee it is .. always has been and am afraid always will be..
ReplyDeletei am unable to become a tea drinker, tried but am UNable....
Oh I totally understand the tea fascination. I wrote about tea just this week on my blog after I stumbled upon the original twinings tea room and museum (I guess you probably know it as you spend more time in London than the country girl that I am, but if you dont I have posted a picture on my blog - it has the most wonderful china men perched above the doorway.
ReplyDeleteI was raving about Earl Grey with Lavender (a new find) but the most comforting, calming hug in a tea cup you could wish for. Now I am on an antique hunt mission to find a pretty early tea bowl and saucer in which to enjoy it.
I just love tea's - mainly herbal and traditional teas with a twist. I find fruit teas kind of disappointing. They smell wonderful and taste a little bland to me.
I adore a good strong cup of French roast. That said, recently I begin my day with a mug of tea and when I get to work (after working out at the gym) I drink just a 1/2 cup,not more than 4 oz, of delicious coffee. Sometimes in the afternoon I'll have a cappuccino. But oooh, I do love a really good cup of coffee, could be from an espresso machine or a French press. Jo @ Let's Face the Music
ReplyDeleteWhat a grand post. I drink decaf. coffee + decaf.tea at night. When I was preg.the smell of coffee made me rather ill. Living in Japan turned me into a tea drinker-even learned the tea ceremony.xxpeggybraswelldesign.com
ReplyDeleteCan one be a tea AND coffee person? I'm a one cup of coffee in the morning gal (but it needs to be a very good blend brewed in my French press or with my Nespresso Cube) and a gree tea gal in the afternoon. Growing up in Europe definitely teaches one the difference between a good and bad cup of coffee (and good and bad chocolate!) so I'm very particular... Tea at Mariage Freres in Paris was one of my favorites ways to spend an afternoon! Thanks for stopping by The Buzz and saying Bonjour!
ReplyDeletexxoo
The really lovely thing about coffee...after dinner a really good brew completely takes away the desire for desserts. The ritual of tea is what I love most about tea. There is nothing more elegant than high tea is there? Now, I'm going to visit our mutual BFF, Tina. Big hug, Vicki
ReplyDeleteTisanes! Especially home-picked. I envy you your tilleuil, doesn't seem to grow here and the scent is so heavenly.
ReplyDeleteI am a HUGE coffee and tea drinker. I love my morning ritual with coffee. It may sound silly, but it brings me so much peace and comfort. I look forward to it every night before going to bed. However, my doctor just put me on a month long detox...and coffee is not allowed (not even decaf) due to its acidity. I have no problem eating veggies for a month....but leaving my coffee behind...it's heartbreaking to me! haha. Needless to say, I am counting the days down to that next cup. But, I'm still finding time to enjoy herbal teas...they are getting me through! :)
ReplyDeleteHi Vicki, and thank you for stopping by at my not so known blog yet(:
ReplyDeleteI have to let you know about my favourite tea, here in Calgary ... (steepstea.com) in a local tea shop, they sell Rooibos of all different flavours, but I love the Provence Rooibos mix with fruity floral flavours of Provence and touch of lavender in it! So delicious, and need not to say, that it is one of the best teas out there, highest amount of antioxidants ((: Having said that, I love love good coffee, Lavaza and Tchibo ....
So I drink both in the morning...first Rooibos with my son and then he helps me make my coffee ((:
Thanks for the inspiring tea pots images, I like the ocean green blue ...as it follows my colour scheme and is my fav !!
have a great day! Z
I love both. My mother is a tea drinker and I grew up loving tea parties and all the accouterments that go with it. The ceremony of tea is so appealing to me. I have a girlfriend who always has a pot brewing and it makes me think of long afternoon chats with her.
ReplyDeleteHowever, everyday that first sip makes me happy. I truly love the aroma and flavor of coffee, it feels like me time in every cup. Cheesy but true. I love it in the morning in particular and then after dinner it is my preferred beverage. Morning sunshine, a good book and a cup of coffee is this girl's idea of what heaven will be like.
My choice is tea; no surprise here.
ReplyDeletebest, teaorwine
I am basically a tea person, China greens and malty assams, with an occasional pot of oolong. This has been a daily ritual for many years. However, the fact remains that a perfectly extracted cup of espresso is amazing. So, I induldge once or twice a week. The bean and the leaf each provide their own special space in time. They are both a lovely ritual, but totally different in the experience.
ReplyDeleteCoffee!!!! One of my favorite movie lines is Paul Newman in Nobody's fool when asked "do you want tea?" he says "Not now. Not ever." That's me!
ReplyDeleteStacy
It was a fabulous interview, Vicki!!
ReplyDeleteI am a coffee drinker in the morning, but I love tea in the afternoon and evening. My daughter is driven by tea, and loves to collect everything tea.
Thank you for sharing with us!
Teresa
xoxo
Darling Vicki!
ReplyDeleteOh, I am a TEA PERSON! Le thé, s'il vous plaît! I cannot handle coffee; my heart just starts beating too fast. But the aroma is heavenly.
Thank you so much for coming by to visit me! I so enjoyed seeing you over at Tina's blog and you are such a beauty! I wish you a lovely springtime in France and enjoy maybe one cuppa a week?
CIAO! Anita
Either, in small quantities: coffee when I'm working, tea when I'm chatting or musing. <ore importantly, thank you for that gorgeous photograph of the lilac blooms. Are they from your bushes? This spring? Here in Portland, Oregon, with our moderate climate at sea level, the lilac blooms are about three weeks away.
ReplyDeleteVicki,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for stopping by my blog and leaving the nice comment. I've been following your blog for a few months as I prepare to vacation in Paris for our 30th wedding aniversary. We fly to Belgium and take the fast train to Paris! Your blog is a great resource for me and I thank you so much for everything you write. Your home is beautiful and you also have a wonderful sense of style.
Regarding coffee/tea :) Seattle is known for it's coffee drinkers (starbucks!) and I do enjoy my morning cup, however afternoons are always perfect for a cup of green tea! I drink Yerba Mate with a drop of honey. As I've gotten older I can't have the caffiene later in the day and the benefits of daily green tea has been documented over and over again.
Enjoy your day and I'll look forward to your next post.
Warmly,
Leslie
hi vicki.
ReplyDeleteno coffee for me, and today i was invited to a girlfriend's for tea and homemade scones (orange cranberry). it was fabulous so nice to feel civilized and girly!
i have some catching up on your beautiful blog. following!
smiles to you.
michele
Oh I love them both - equally I think but at different times and for different reasons ;)
ReplyDeleteI'm addicted to both. I *need* a french press coffee in the morning, then I switch to tea - green, black, herbal - I like it all, but it has to be of the best quality. My favorite teas are organic sencha, matcha, and almond biscotti black tea by Teavana. It's heavenly with a little cream and honey.
ReplyDeleteI know exactly how you feel, I am the same, if I drink a cup of coffee I am actually awake all night, it has that effect on me. When I go out with friends I often succumb but have a de cafe latt'e which fools me into thinking I am drinking the real thing but it isn't the same ☺
ReplyDeleteI now fill my day with cups of herbal teas and my little bit of pleasure is finding a new one on the shelves. My latest love is pomegranate green tea.
Love the image its gorgeous.
Lee
Just came from Tina's and I loved your interview, dear Vicki!
ReplyDeleteI enjoy warm drinks in general...mostly green tea. But depending on my mood I go for Earl Grey, Chocolat Chaud, good coffee, hot cider...mood and season dictate my choices.
Mostly, I think I get excited about all of the tea accoutrements!
A lovely weekend to you,
- Irina
I love making my morning flat white on my little coffee machine in my favourite large teacup and saucer {not for the purist but its visual beauty outweighs its rapid cooling capacity}. Currently, my afternoon tea to refresh and recharge is rooibos, but a girl is allowed to change her mind and I frequently do. That's a lovely interview, Vicki!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your visit! Now I know that you are not only gifted and talented...but thoughtful!
ReplyDeleteI noticed in your Provence listings that you said Lourmarin was a beautiful village. I so agree. We rented a house there in the center of town for a week...loved it!
Caffeine..I have tried to cut back. I was so bad at one time that a doctor who said I couldn't have a cup of coffee prior to surgery...agreed to give me an injection of caffeine!.....
I love your teapots (and those gorgeous flowers). I collect vintage teacup sets and have a sweet little vintage teapot too...yes I'm a bit of a tea drinker!
ReplyDeletexox
Dear Vicki,
ReplyDeleteI still have one foot in my coffee cup and one foot in my tea cup! I am just like you with love affair with my perfect cup of coffee. It became a treat for me, that perfect hot aromic cup of black coffee. But then one day, tea took over my thoughts... my perfect cup of tea. Flowers! Green tea! OMG! So now, I am half and half. How did you break the coffee? Btw... there is a video you must watch. It is called "All in the Tea" it is SO GOOD! It is a MUST for you!
xxx's
I'm definitely a coffee gal. Although I always keep to one cup a day and never in the evening. Occasionally on the weekend I might have 2 but that's it. I have it with soy milk and no sugar. I do like green tea, chai & herbals from time to time, but I need a coffee in the morning to get me going.
ReplyDelete~ Clare x