Tea at the Unicorn Wine Guild

Tea-related education and events, the enjoyment of the beverage and the culture of tea

Dec 26

A New Year’s Tea

by teaattheunicornwineguildllc

The excitement of the season is drawing to a close.  A new year  is about to begin.  You resolved that on  New Year’s Day you will make resolutions.  The end of the world didn’t happen on December 21.  Maybe 2012 was a great year for you.  Maybe not.  The United States sure went through it’s traumas from mass shootings to election woes and financial cliffs.  Still, you have survived and maybe thrived. When the New Year’s Eve party is over and you have served your traditional New Year’s dinner, whether it’s kraut and pork or Hoppin’ John or whatever is traditional for you, perhaps a Jasmine or Earl Grey tea will do.  Or maybe you will be ready to curl up with your notebook, calendar and a chocolate chai.  Today is the day to take some time for you.  Take a breath.  Ponder on your resolutions.  Yes, enjoy the football games if you desire, but maybe your tastes run to a good movie.  Or maybe you are spending some time with your significant other or immediate family planning how to be more prosperous, healthier and connected this year.  Thank you notes can wait until tomorrow or get them out of the way now and then relax.  The important thing to do is take time for you.  Relax.  Meditate. Think about the last year.  Did you meet your goals?  Did you have to set them aside for something more urgent?  Is it time to bring those goals forward again? Regroup and make plans.  If they are big plans break it into manageable pieces.

Maybe your tea is a party with friends or club members.  The same goes.  Take the time to plan the coming year.  Review last year.  Were goals achieved?  What are the new goals?  How will you measure success?  Are they achievable in the time you have given it?  Does the goal or the time need adjusted?  You cannot lose 50 pounds in a week and trying to lose it in a month is dangerous.  But a year?  It’s doable.  Maybe treat yourself  to a pretty notebook and calendar set.  Mark your goal deadlines on the calendar.  Keep a diary.  Reward yourself for your little successes.  Maybe your goal is to save money.  Think of ways to do this.  Maybe couponing and saving $10 a week is a doable goal for you.  Maybe eliminating that fancy coffee drink twice a week (and still saving that $10) will work for you.  Maybe stopping smoking is one way.  That could save you even more down the road by saving hospital bills.  Maybe it’s time to learn a new skill.  Use the library and the internet to help with that or research ways to get that training for free or with financial help.

Take a couple of hours to sit and dream.  Plan and make notes.  Whether it is by yourself, or with family or circle or club, take the time to enjoy tea, think positive thoughts and may 2013 be a brighter year.

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Dec 8

Holiday Tea Party Themes

by teaattheunicornwineguildllc

The holidays are here and you want to spend some time with your friends.  You feel you should host a party, but don’t have the funds for a huge holiday blast.  An afternoon tea can be more relaxed and can even provide a sense of accomplishment.  Here are several ideas other than the traditional tea.  If you have a Christmas set of dinnerware, use it.  You can decorate in the traditional red and green colors or expand to the new themes of lime and blue, blue and silver, brown and cream or whatever you desire.

Tree trimming.  This theme can have a variety of sub-themes.  You can decorate your tree, make it a progressive party and decorate each others or decorate a tree for charity or for a shut-in or care facility.  In our area there is a tree decorating contest each year with the trees being auctioned and the money going to a charity.  If you do decorate for a shut-in be sure to arrange to take them down after the holidays.

Card writing.  This is a great time for each of you to do those special cards for family and friends.  You can meet at someone’s home and each of you provide part of the needed items.  Someone might buy the postage stamps, someone may be into scrapbooking and have colored pens, stickers, and other embellishments for the cards.  Someone may bring the cards and others might bring the food.  Have a fun time for the afternoon.  Have a table to place the cards while they dry.  Have a table for the food and plenty of work space.  Already have your list done?  Send cards to shut-ins or to our military personnel away from home.

Peppermints and the Nutcracker Suite.  Use peppermints for decorations, as table favors, and in the foods served.  The either go to the live performance (or have the tea after the matinee), what it on TV or just listen to the music in the background as you share an afternoon of catch up.

Exchanges.  There can be several types of exchanges.  Cookies, ornaments, tea cups, tea (a great way to sample new teas without having to buy a lot), gifts, books and more.  Bring enough for each person of whatever you are exchanging plus one for sampling at the event – or bring two.  One for those present and one for a shelter or charity.

Christmas Bling or Divas.  This is the time for you to bring out the best, or worst, in you.  Dress up in your antlers and jingle bells,  the holiday tiaras and the blinking Rudolph pin.  It’s up to the hostess as to whether she was classy or campy for the party.  There could be prizes.  Or maybe you dress up and go to tea out in public.  You don’t have to be a Red Hatter to do this.

Candles and Firelight.  Ward off those dreary days and evenings with a table set with candles and a cozy fire burning.  Candles bother you?  No fireplace?   Bring on the twinkle lights.

Christmas Carols.  This theme could also mix with some of the others.  Enjoy the tea and add a caroling event  to a  nursing facility or hospital.  You’d look great in your Christmas Bling.  Or just sing along around the tea table.

Traditions Around the World.  Each person tells about a tradition, either their family one or each study a culture’s tradition.  Great theme for a club meeting.

Afternoon at the Movie.  Enjoy tea while discussing the movie you just attended or while watching one on TV.  maybe the Downton Abbey Christmas Special (dress in the theme), Christmas Vacation, It’s a Wonderful Life, etc.

Friendship Tea.  This is pretty much your traditional tea.  You can share any of the exchange, the carols, etc.  This is a time to renew a friendship with someone who’s moved back to town or is in town visiting or even that new family that just moved into the neighborhood.

Victorian Tea.  Share the tradition, the dress, the food of the Victorian era.  Maybe combine it with a movie, book review or songs related to the era.

Where’s Santa.  This is like Where’s Waldo.  The person who finds the most wins a prize.  Decorate with Santas, hide a Santa, and wrap gifts in Santa paper.  This could also be the theme for a tea where the attendees also bring a gift for a shelter or for Toys for Tots or the local food pantry.

It’s a Wrap.  This is kind of like the Christmas card party, but you wrap presents for your family or a charity.  This is a great time to share paper, ribbons, etc. And you might even be able to exchange storage space so your daughter doesn’t find her new doll too soon.  It makes the chore go faster and maybe talents can be shared.  It could even be assembly line time.

Cup of Christmas Cheer.  Include a reading of the Cup of Christmas Tea.  Decorate in the Christmas theme.  It can be combined with a visit to a shut-in or a nursing facility.

Holiday Stress Relief.  Yes.  Aromatherapy, a spa day, massages, guided imagery or a Christmas Comedy.  The idea is to relax, take off your shoes and enjoy each other’s company.

See the Sights.  After afternoon tea, pile into the van and drive around town to take in the decorated homes, the lights in the park, etc.  Then finish with another cup of tea before parting company for the evening.

I hope you find these ideas helpful.  Have a wonderful holiday season.  Merry Christmas.

 

 

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Mar 28

The Story of Tea at the Unicorn Wine Guild, LLC

by teaattheunicornwineguildllc

Unicorn Wine Guild Logo

 

 

Through this blog I hope to share with you some of what I have learned (and continue to learn) about tea, tea-related events and products.   

Officially, the story of Tea at the Unicorn Wine Guild, LLC, began in the summer of July, 2007.  While planning our winery, the question came up as to what we would have to offer the designated driver or the tea-total-er.  The answer was obvious.  So, my tea education began in earnest and I have gained a greater understanding of the roll tea has played not only as a beverage, but as a catalyst to change society.

Unofficially, the story dates back to my childhood.  My mother worked outside the home, so my grandmother was often my babysitter.  Mamo and I would have an afternoon snack that included a cup of tea or a glass of milk.  And, to make it special, she had a special cup and saucer just my size. So when she prepared her tea she made a cup for me with the same tea bag.  That small cup and saucer, with a pine cone pattern on the side, was one of the few things I inherited when she died.  Whenver I see it sitting on the shelf in the dining room I think of her.

I also inherited her tea set.  Not a silver tea set.  But the cups, saucers and dessert plates that she had acquired when she married my paternal grandfather.  Mamo was his second wife.  His first wife, my biological grandmother, died when my father was a small child.  So, the tea set of 16 cups, saucers and plates – along with a sugar and creamer – actually had been in the family longer than Mamo.  It is a beautiful set of Haviland China that my mother and I have built to a wonderful service for 16 over the years.  My mother and I wondered at the number 16.  Why 16?  Then one day as I was reviewing the bylaws of the Hyperion Club it came to me.  The membership limit was set at 24 as they met in members’ homes.  Sixteen was probably the most that could be expected to attend any one meeting.  And, of course, the hostesses would serve refreshments to the ladies with their best china.  I am the fourth generation of my family to belong to that woman’s club (a member of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs since 1898) so I am sure that china has served well at many club meetings.

 My mother is a tea drinker, too.  I remember we had Nestea instant iced tea in the summer and Bigelow’s Plantation Mint or Constant Comment in the winter.  I drank tea, too, until college when I had to stay up all night to study.  The sorority house mother kept a pot going all night long and as we dormie’s didn’t have kitchen privledges nor were we allowed a way to make tea in our rooms, our choices were the water fountain or the coffee pot.  It was a 30 cup pot and by cup 20 it could be awlfully strong, but it kept me awake.  About that time I also discovered that coffee in hospitals and restaurants could be a lot fresher than the tea they served.  (Remember, I said “could.”)  As I work in surgery, I often don’t have time to steep a proper cup of tea and the coffee pot is most always on, so coffee became my drink of choice, at least while at work. 

Then my physician suggested strongly that I needed to avoid caffeine and the search for a new source of hot beverage began.  This was about the time the winery was being planned.  Tea came back into my life as the answer.  Not necessarily “real” tea, but herbal teas.  So, prepare yourself a cup of tea  and pull up a chair and through these blogs let’s become friends.

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