Super Cute Tea Cups

How cute are these little tea mugs by Mud Pie? They were a perfectly tea-riffic holiday gift from my friend Jewel. Knowing my love for tea and sharing in my affinity for it, she found me one of those wonderfully thoughtful gifts that are given not just for the sake of giving something but because she knew I'd truly love them. I've used the tranquili• tea mug every day since Christmas day.

The periwinkle one says tranquili•tea on the outside and "n. a state of peace and quiet while drinking tea" on the inside.

The aqua green one that says serni•tea on the outside says "n. the absence of stress while drinking tea" on the inside.

Which reminds me, I'm almost out of my favorite Ryokucha tea. Guess I'll have to make a stop at Samovar Tea Lounge sometime soon. Maybe I'll have to have lunch while I'm there. In fact I don't think I ever shared this photo of my last lunch at Samovar... The poached eggs with smoked wild salmon and brown rice bowl. It was so good. And healthy too! In fact I just read on the Samovar Tea Twitter page that their third SF location just opened at 297 Page st @ Laguna. I've been meaning to meet up with my friend Karen Hsu from Grandiflora for lunch. That would be the perfect place!

It was also the first time I'd tried their Kukicha tea. To be honest I almost didn't buy it. At $25 for a small tin I was hard pressed to spend that kind of money on tea. But in the end I went for it. I realized that in lieu of drinking other expensive drinks like alcohol and coffee, to splurge on a nice tin of tea every now and then was just fine.

And it was so worth it. I'll always keep a tin in my cupboard from now on. A nice feature of tea is that you can use one tablespoon to make several cups. The first pour is the one that will contain the highest level of polyphenols. The subsequent pours will still taste wonderful, they just won't be as potent as the first.

I think the Mud Pie tea mugs with one of the elegant cans of tea from Samovar Tea Lounge would make a wonderful gift for your bridal party or just because. In the past few months I've given away 4 tins of the Ryokucha tea. It's a wonderful treat and really makes me feel great when someone tells me they've never had a tea like it before. My hubby says I've become a tea snob. I'm perfectly comfortable with that title. Though snobbishness has nothing to do with good taste imo. I just know when I love something and hate to settle for anything less.