Flowering Tea as An Art
Art brings so much joy and beauty to our lives. One of my best friends is an artist and is always looking for new ways to express her creative abilities. She also thoroughly enjoys cooking, so was searching for a way that she could combine her culinary interests with her artistic talents. My friend decided to invest time in searching through some of her favourite cooking and art websites and discovered something that in time became one of her favorite hobbies – creating flowering tea.
I wasn’t familiar with flowering tea, so my friend patiently explained to me that it originated in China and was gaining popularity among tea drinkers around the world. It involves painstakingly sewing together specially-selected tea leaves and herbs with certain flowers chosen for their holistic health benefits and aesthetic qualities, including jasmine, hibiscus, lily, globe amaranth, chrysanthemum and osmanthus.
Flowering tea is a beautiful and entertaining gift idea that will be remembered and cherished by your recipients. My husband and I were both charmed with the flowering tea bags that my friend offered us recently as Christmas gifts. Instead of an ordinary tea bag used in regular tea, a lovely flower and tea leaves are sewn together with cotton thread and often wrapped in cheese cloth.
Blossoming tea makes a striking artistic statement when hosting dinner parties or get-togethers with friends and family. For creative people like my friend who are interested in making their own blooming tea, the flowers can be purchased as individual tea blossoms or as a complete flowering tea set. Once my husband and I started serving flowering tea, we began receiving many genuine compliments from our dinner and party guests. Everyone agreed that drinking blooming tea is a wonderful and simple way to dress up any gathering.
For variety, one can purchase flowering teas in various shapes, including oblong, mushroom and round. The blooming teas are designed by stiching together specialized tea leaves into one single bundle utilizing cotton thread. Then a stylish dried flower is sewn carefully into the centre. Tea drinkers can enjoy a nice variety of teas, including white, black and green. My family and friends like experimenting with various tea flowers, such as lily, chrysanthemum, marigold, peony, rose, jasmine and hibiscus.
Thankfully, a variety of tea suppliers are beginning to carry flowering tea packages. Try searching on-line for good-quality brands. Take some time to wander around your local specialty tea stores. Some restaurants are beginning to offer blossoming tea to patrons.
For people artistically-inclined like my dear friend, look into taking a course in creating flowering tea at your neighborhood community college or local community center. A collection of helpful and inspiring books on blossoming teas are now available, both at privately owned bookstores and at national chains. I just purchased a delightful book on blooming tea that we have begun reading together. Our enthusiasm is catching on to our family and friends, who are becoming curious about the wonderful drink known as flowering tea. Flower lovers and tea drinkers can now unite over a common interest.
Check out Amazon. They carry a large amount of flowering tea products, perfect for any tea lovers.