If you’re anything like we are, dear tea lovers, you love giving gifts to the special people in your life, but you have become leery of what has become two full months of lead-up to the gift giving season. Face paint from your epic Halloween costume may still be littering your bathroom counter, but the seasonal aisle at your grocery store is suddenly dripping with tinsel, twinkle lights and mugs in the shape of Santa’s head. It’s enough to make you briefly wonder if your Halloween celebrations were so good that you Rip Van Winkled your way through November.
But hey, we’re not total curmudgeons. We were in the middle of rolling our eyes at another pre-Black Friday sale we found online when we had this not-so-surprising revelation: What if we actually did a little browsing, found some great gifts, and by getting those purchases out of the way, brought a sense of calm back to our typically frenzied end-of-year holiday celebrations? Is it possible that the high achievers we admire in our lives have known this all along, and that’s how they’ll mix you a great cocktail at their annual holiday party in their well-decorated home, and manage to smile and make good conversation at the same time??
Not everyone in your life wants to receive tea or anything even remotely tea related. And that’s fine! Find a small, local business to support and do some shopping there. Come on back when you’re ready to tune into some tea-centric shopping from a bunch of notoriously picky tea drinkers (AKA, us).
This year we have some items that take a thoughtful gift (“You know I love Earl Grey so you got me this London Fog latte mix!”) and level it up (“… along with this high-powered frothing wand to make the lattes super foamy like it’s a special occasion!”).
And since you know how we tend to keep our standards high, there’s not a dud in the bunch. Give a matcha-curious friend some ceremonial matcha, and you can include an all-natural bamboo whisk so they can prepare the drink as its meant to be.
Tea newbies could be pleased to sample our tea sachets while using our favorite style of mug, or perhaps a two leaves tote bag.
We demand a lot from a cup of tea, and we’re never going to recommend something we don’t love ourselves. And now, our recommendations include getting at least some of your gifting plans squared away long, long before you’ve even considered the time it’ll take to defrost your turkey. May we all find time toward the end of 2023 to brew a cup of tea, put our feet up and sip it slowly. Cheers, tea lovers!
