.

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There are many who absolutely adore tea …

• Tea! Thou soft, thou sober, sage, and venerable Liquid, thou innocent Pretence for bringing the Wicked of both Sexes together in a Morning; thou Female Tongue-running, Smile-smoothing, Heart-opening, Wink-tippling Cordial, to whose glorious Insipidity I owe the happiest Moment of my Life, let me fall prostrate thus, and s—p, s—p, s—p, thus adore thee. Colley Cibber, The Lady’s Last Stake, 1707
• …Mr. Hanway endeavours to show, that the consumption of tea is injurious to the interest of our country…. he is to expect little justice from the author of this extract, a hardened and shameless tea drinker, who has for twenty years diluted his meals with only the infusion of this fascinating plant, whose kettle has scarcely time to cool, who with tea amuses the evening, with tea solaces the midnight, and with tea welcomes the morning. Samuel Johnson
• You can’t get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me. C. S. Lewis
• But indeed I would rather have nothing but tea. Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
• I can drink tea until the cows come home and I love the atmosphere in tea-shops. Zola Budd
• I am in no way interested in immortality, but only in the taste of tea. Lu T’ung
• A hardened and shameless tea-drinker, who has, for twenty years, diluted his meals with only the infusion of this fascinating plant; whose kettle has scarcely time to cool; who with tea amuses the evening, with tea solaces the midnight, and, with tea, welcomes the morning. Samuel Johnson
• Coffee,  Food,  Dessert

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… for whom no day would be complete without it

• Better to be deprived of food for three days, than tea for one. Chinese Proverb
• Wouldn’t it be dreadful to live in a country where they didn’t drink tea? Noel Coward
• Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea? How did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea. I can drink any quantity when I have not tasted wine; otherwise I am haunted by blue-devils by day, and dragons by night. Sydney Smith
• For me starting the day without a pot of tea would be a day forever out of kilter. Bill Drummond
• Arthur blinked at the screens and felt he was missing something important. Suddenly he realized what it was. “Is there any tea on this spaceship?” he asked.”  Douglas Adams

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In fact, tea is a kind of religion to some …

• In the worship of Bacchus, we have sacrificed too freely…. Why not consecrate ourselves to the queen of the Camelias, and revel in the warm stream of sympathy that flows from her altar? In the liquid amber within the ivory-porcelain, the initiated may touch the sweet reticence of Confucius… Okakura Kakuzō
• Teaism is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence…. It is essentially a worship of the Imperfect, as it is a tender attempt to accomplish something possible in this impossible thing we know as life. Okakura Kakuzō
• Religion

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… and the drinking of tea can even be a kind of sacred ritual or ceremony

• As the centrepiece of a cherished ritual, it’s a talisman against the chill of winter, a respite from the ho-hum routine of the day. Sarah Engler
• My hour for tea is half-past five, and my buttered toast waits for nobody. Wilkie Collins
• Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea. Henry James
• When tea becomes ritual, it takes its place at the heart of our ability to see greatness in small things. Where is beauty to be found? In great things that, like everything else, are doomed to die, or in small things that aspire to nothing, yet know how to set a jewel of infinity in a single moment? Muriel Barbery
• There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea. Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady

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No one loves tea more than the English

• Tea to the English is really a picnic indoors. Alice Walker
• I don’t drink coffee; I take tea, my dear. Sting, English musician and actor, title song from An Englishman in New York
• In nothing more is the English genius for domesticity more notably declared than in the institution of this festival – almost one may call it – of afternoon tea… The mere chink of cups and saucers tunes the mind to happy repose. George Gissing
• Tea is one of the main stays of civilization in this country. George Orwell

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Tea is a magical and divine brew …

• Each cup of tea represents an imaginary voyage. Catherine Douzel
• Tea is a divine herb. Xu Guangqi
• The froth of tea burns with brilliance

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… better even than coffee

• When you want tea, tea is it. Coffee just doesn’t cut it. W. Flood
• I don’t drink coffee; I take tea, my dear. Sting, English musician and actor, title song from An Englishman in New York
• Coffee

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Drinking tea brings wonderful rewards

• Tea tempers the spirits and harmonizes the mind, dispels lassitude and relieves fatigue, awakens thought and prevents drowsiness, lightens or refreshes the body, and clears the perceptive faculties. Lu Yu
• If you are cold, tea will warm you. If you are too heated, it will cool you. If you are depressed, it will cheer you. If you are excited, it will calm you. William E. Gladstone, British Prime Minister
• Its proper use is to amuse the idle, and relax the studious, and dilute the full meals of those who cannot use exercise, and will not use abstinence. Samuel Johnson
• …Tea. There is nothing saner than tea, he thought. … Tea was the great leveler. It brought calm, quiet, contentment, warmth. And it was something to do. …..Tea– so normal, so mundane, so hot…  …The heat and scent of it permeated his head and cleared his mind. He understood completely the attraction of ceremonies grounded in the ritual of drinking tea.  It required both caution and abandonment of the senses. It demanded that you move into it slowly and savor the moment. And it rewarded you with warmth and delicacy of taste and refreshment.  And after you were done, it could parse out your future.  Thea Devine

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Tea is a cup of joy

• I am so fond of tea that I could write a whole dissertation on its virtues. It comforts and enlivens without the risks attendant on spirituous liquors. Gentle herb! Let the florid grape yield to thee. Thy soft influence is a more safe inspirer of social joy. James Boswell
• Perhaps that is the true gift of a teatime celebration: It fills our cups with joy and warmth and friendship. May the echo of the teacups’ message be heard not only at Christmas, not only on special occasions, but anytime friends come together.  Emilie Barnes
• One sip of this will bathe the drooping spirits in delight, beyond the bliss of dreams. John Milton
• The mere chink of cups and saucers tunes the mind to happy repose. George Gissing
• Joy

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Tea is a cup of beauty

• Tea is quiet and our thirst for tea is never far from our craving for beauty. James Norwood Pratt
• When tea becomes ritual, it takes its place at the heart of our ability to see greatness in small things. Where is beauty to be found? In great things that, like everything else, are doomed to die, or in small things that aspire to nothing, yet know how to set a jewel of infinity in a single moment? Muriel Barbery
• If man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty. Japanese Proverb
• Beauty

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Tea is a cup of wisdom and truth

• The Truth lies in a bowl of tea. Nambo Sokei
• If man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty. Japanese Proverb
• Tea is instant wisdom — just add water! Astrid Alauda
• Wisdom,  Truth

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Tea is a cup of comfort

• The most trying hours in life are between four o’clock and the evening meal. A cup of tea at this time adds a lot of comfort and happiness. Royal S. Copeland
• The spirit of the tea beverage is one of peace, comfort and refinement. Arthur Gray
• Comfort

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Tea is a cup of contemplation

• There is something in the nature of tea that leads us into a world of quiet contemplation of life. Lin Yutang
• Contemplation

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Tea is a cup of lubrication for the mind

• It is very strange, this domination of our intellect by our digestive organs. We cannot work, we cannot think, unless our stomach wills so. It dictates to us our emotions, our passions. After eggs and bacon, it says, “Work!” After beefsteak and porter, it says, “Sleep!” After a cup of tea (two spoonsful for each cup, and don’t let it stand more than three minutes), it says to the brain, “Now, rise, and show your strength. Be eloquent, and deep, and tender; see, with a clear eye, into Nature and into life; spread your white wings of quivering thought, and soar, a god-like spirit, over the whirling world beneath you, up through long lanes of flaming stars to the gates of eternity!” Jerome K. Jerome
• Top off the tea… it lubricates the grey matter. Good Neighbors
• Tea is the magic key to the vault where my brain is kept. Frances Hardinge
• I find that both settles the stomach and concentrates the mind. Wonderful drink, tea. Cassandra Clare, City of Bones
• My dear if you could give me a cup of tea to clear my muddle of a head I should better understand your affairs. Charles Dickens
• After a cup of tea (two spoonsful for each cup, and don’t let it stand more than three minutes,) it says to the brain, “Now, rise, and show your strength. Be eloquent, and deep, and tender; see, with a clear eye, into Nature and into life; spread your white wings of quivering thought, and soar, a god-like spirit, over the whirling world beneath you, up through long lanes of flaming stars to the gates of eternity! Jerome K. Jerome

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Tea is a cup of pure pleasure

• I take pleasure in tea, appreciating it with my spirit and therefore cannot explain why. Sen Joo
• Tea and books – Mmmmmm, two of life’s exquisite pleasures that together bring near-bliss. – Christine Hanrahan
• Tea is also a sort of spiritual refreshment, an elixir of clarity and wakeful tranquility. Respectfully preparing tea and partaking of it mindfully create heart-to-heart conviviality, a way to go beyond this world and enter a realm apart. No pleasure is simpler, no luxury cheaper, no consciousness-altering agent more benign. James Norwood Pratt
• Surely everyone is aware of the divine pleasures which attend a wintry fireside; candles at four o’clock, warm hearthrugs, tea, a fair tea-maker, shutters closed, curtains flowing in ample draperies to the floor, whilst the wind and rain are raging audibly without. Thomas De Quincey
• Pleasure

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Tea is a cup of spiritual refreshment

• I take pleasure in tea, appreciating it with my spirit and therefore cannot explain why. Sen Joo
• Tea is also a sort of spiritual refreshment, an elixir of clarity and wakeful tranquility. Respectfully preparing tea and partaking of it mindfully create heart-to-heart conviviality, a way to go beyond this world and enter a realm apart. No pleasure is simpler, no luxury cheaper, no consciousness-altering agent more benign. James Norwood Pratt
• Spirituality

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Tea is a cup of health and healing

• … was so pale and tragic at breakfast next morning that Marilla was alarmed and insisted on making her a cup of scorching ginger tea. Anne sipped it patiently, although she could not imagine what good ginger tea would do. Had it been some magic brew, potent to confer age and experience, Anne would have swallowed a quart of it without flinching. Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
• Drinking a daily cup of tea will surely starve the apothecary. Chinese Proverb
• Tea began as a medicine and grew into a beverage. Okakura Kakuzō
• Peter was not very well during the evening. His mother put him to bed, and made some chamomile tea: “One table- spoonful to be taken at bedtime. Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Peter Rabbit
• As much as you can eat healthy, it’s also important to remember to drink healthy, too. Tea is very healing.  Kristin Chenoweth, American singer and actress
• I drink a bucket of white tea in the morning. I read about this tea of the Emperor of China, which is supposedly the tea of eternal youth. It’s called Silver Needle. It’s unbelievably expensive, but I get it on the Web. Antonio Banderas
• To get rid of swelling… I put green tea bags on my eyelids. Or I grab cold spoons that I leave in the freezer and put them on my eyes. Shay Mitchell
• So of all the particulars of health and exercise, and fit nutriment, and tonics. Some people will tell you there is a great deal of poetry and fine sentiment in a chest of tea. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Health,  Healing

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Tea is a cup of friendship …

• Perhaps that is the true gift of a teatime celebration: It fills our cups with joy and warmth and friendship. May the echo of the teacups’ message be heard not only at Christmas, not only on special occasions, but anytime friends come together.  Emilie Barnes
• Come and share a pot of tea. My home is warm and my friendship’s free. Emilie Barnes
• Ha, ha, ha: love and scandal are the best sweetners of tea. Henry Fielding
• I hope next time when we meet, we won’t be fighting each other. Instead we will be drinking tea together. Jackie Chan, Hong Kong actor, martial artist, and singer, Rumble in the Bronx
• May you always have walls for the winds, a roof for the rain, tea beside the fire, laughter to cheer you, those you love near you, and all your heart might desire. An Irish Blessing
• On Christmas Day at half past three, Brew yourself a cup of tea. I’ll think of you, You think of me While sitting ’round the Christmas Tree.
• What is the most wonderful thing for people like myself who follow the Way of Tea? My answer: the oneness of host and guest created through ‘meeting heart to heart’ and sharing a bowl of tea. Soshitsu Sen
• When you have nobody you can make a cup of tea for, when nobody needs you, that’s when I think life is over. Audrey Hepburn
• Friendship

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… and a cup of animated conversation …

• Come, let us have some tea and continue to talk about happy things. Chaim Potok
• Find yourself a cup; the teapot is behind you. Now tell me about hundreds of things. Saki (H.H. Munro)
• If she speaks, it will only be a pleasant word or two; should she have anything important to say, the moment will be after tea, not before it; this she knows by instinct. George Gissing, The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft, 1903 (of the housekeeper bringing the tea-tray)
• So I says “My dear if you could give me a cup of tea to clear my muddle of a head I should better understand your affairs.” And we had the tea and the affairs too…. Charles Dickens
• Making conversation

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… but can be greatly enjoyed in solitude too

• Strange how a teapot can represent at the same time the comforts of solitude and the pleasures of company.
• Tea should be taken in solitude… C. S. Lewis
• Solitude

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Tea is a cup of romance

• Cynthia came in quietly and set a cup of tea before him. He kissed her hand, inexpressibly grateful, and she went back into the kitchen. When we view the little things with thanksgiving, even they become big things. Jan Karon
• Great love affairs start with Champagne and end with tisane. – Honore de Balzac
• Picture you upon my knee, just tea for two and two for tea. Irving Caesar, American lyricist and composer, Tea for Two
• Brew me a cup for a winter’s night. For the wind howls loud, and the furies fight; Spice it with love and stir it with care, And I’ll toast your bright eyes, my sweetheart fair. Minna Thomas Antrim
• Romance

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Tea is a cup of coziness …

• As the centrepiece of a cherished ritual, it’s a talisman against the chill of winter, a respite from the ho-hum routine of the day. Sarah Engler
• If you are cold, tea will warm you; if you are too heated, it will cool you; if you are depressed, it will cheer you; if you are excited it will calm you. William Ewart Gladstone
• Our camp-kettle, filled from the brook, hummed doubtfully for a while, then busily bubbled under the sidelong glare of the flames—cups clinked and rattled—the fragrant steam ascended; and soon this little circlet in the wilderness grew warm and genial as my lady’s drawing-room. Alexander William Kinglake
• Surely everyone is aware of the divine pleasures which attend a wintry fireside; candles at four o’clock, warm hearthrugs, tea, a fair tea-maker, shutters closed, curtains flowing in ample draperies to the floor, whilst the wind and rain are raging audibly without. Thomas de Quincey

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… especially when drunk by the fire on a cold day

• Tea had come as a deliverer to a land that called for deliverance; a land of beef and ale, of heavy eating and abundant drunkenness; of gray skies and harsh winds; of strong-nerved, stout-purposed, slow-thinking men and women. Above all, a land of sheltered homes and warm firesides – firesides that were waiting – waiting for the bubbling kettle and the fragrant breath of tea. Agnes Reppiler
• …a land of sheltered homes and warm firesides —firesides that were waiting — waiting, for the bubbling kettle and the fragrant breath of tea. Agnes Repplier
• The cup of tea on arrival at a country house is a thing which, as a rule, I particularly enjoy. I like the crackling logs, the shaded lights, the scent of buttered toast, the general atmosphere of leisured coziness. P.G. Wodehouse
• When the girl returned, some hours later, she carried a tray, with a cup of fragrant tea steaming on it; and a plate piled up with very hot buttered toast, cut thick, very brown on both sides, with the butter running through the holes in it in great golden drops, like honey from the honeycomb. The smell of that buttered toast simply talked to Toad; and with no uncertain voice; talked of warm kitchens, of breakfasts on bright frosty mornings, of cosy parlour firesides on winter evenings, when one’s ramble was over, and slippered feet were propped on the fender; of the purring of contented cats, and the twitter of sleepy canaries. Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

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Tea is a cup of relaxation and unwinding …

• Tea is drunk to forget the din of the world. T’ien Yi-heng
• A combination of fine tea, enchanting objects and soothing surroundings exerts a therapeutic effect by washing away the corrosive strains and stress of modern life. It induces a modd that is spiritually refreshing and produces a genial state of mind.  John Blofeld
• In nothing is the English genius for domesticity more notably declared than in the institution of this festival—almost one may call it so—of afternoon tea. Beneath simple roofs, the hour of tea has something in it of sacred; for it marks the end of domestic work and worry, the beginning of restful, sociable evening. The mere chink of cups and saucers tunes the mind to happy repose. George Gissing
• Relaxation,  Calmness

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… a cup of idleness and leisure

• Doing nothing is respectable at tea. Saying quoted in Sasaki Sanmi, Sadô Saijiki
• Perhaps it is while drinking tea that I most of all enjoy the sense of leisure. George Gissing, The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft
• Idleness,  Rest and renewal

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Tea is cup of pure calm …

• If you are cold, tea will warm you; if you are too heated, it will cool you; if you are depressed, it will cheer you; if you are excited it will calm you. William Ewart Gladstone
• Tea purifies spirit, removes anxiety and nervousness, brings ease and comfort, and is conducive to meditation.
• Nowadays, people resort to all kinds of activities in order to calm themselves after a stressful event: performing yoga poses in a sauna, leaping off bridges while tied to a bungee, killing imaginary zombies with imaginary weapons, and so forth. But in Miss Penelope Lumley’s day, it was universally understood that there is nothing like a nice cup of tea to settle one’s nerves in the aftermath of an adventure- a practice many would find well worth reviving. Maryrose Wood, The Hidden Gallery
• Harry found the hot drink… seemed to burn away a little of the fear fluttering in his chest. J.K. Rowling
• Calmness

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… a cup of inner peace

• A cup of tea is a cup of peace. Soshitsu Sen XV
• Make tea, not war. Monty Python
• The spirit of the tea beverage is one of peace, comfort and refinement. Arthur Gray
• Inner peace

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… a cup of meditation and mindfulness

• If you ask Zen people they will say tea is not something that you pour with unawareness and drink like any other drink. It is not a drink, it is meditation; it is prayer. So they listen to the kettle creating a melody, and in that listening they become more silent, more alert. Rajneesh
• Tea purifies spirit, removes anxiety and nervousness, brings ease and comfort, and is conducive to meditation.
• There is no need to have any special attitude while drinking except one of thankfulness. The nature of the tea itself is that of no-mind. Pojong Sunim
• Who would then deny that when I am sipping tea in my tearoom I am swallowing the whole universe with it and that this very moment of my lifting the bowl to my lips is eternity itself transcending time and space? T. Suzuki, Zen and Japanese Culture
• In my own hands I hold a bowl of tea; I see all of nature represented in its green color. Closing my eyes, I find green mountains and pure water within my own heart. Silently sitting alone and drinking tea, I feel these become a part of me. Sen Soshitsu
• Mindfulness,  Meditation

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Tea is a cup of fragrance

• The man breathed in deeply—of rosebuds and mint, of sunny meadows and salty cliffs, of streams in no hurry and the sound of bagpipes. Ethel Pochocki
• With melted snow I boil fragrant tea. Mencius
• …a land of sheltered homes and warm firesides —firesides that were waiting — waiting, for the bubbling kettle and the fragrant breath of tea. Agnes Repplier

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Tea is a cup of feminine energy …

• A tea set is good for a newborn girl. It is a gift that instantly makes the room a girl’s room. Phoebe Cates
• Wine is the drink of gods, milk the drink of babes, tea the drink of women, and water the drink of beasts. John Stuart Blackie
• Surely a pretty woman never looks prettier than when making tea. Mary Elizabeth Braddon

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… but quite acceptable for men to drink

• There are those who love to get dirty and fix things. They drink coffee at dawn, beer after work. And those who stay clean, just appreciate things. At breakfast they have milk and juice at night. There are those who do both, they drink tea. Gary Snyder

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Tea is a cup of life itself

• Tea with us became more than an idealization of the form of drinking; it is a religion of the art of life…. Teaism was Taoism in disguise. Okakura Kakuzō
• Tea … is a religion of the art of life. KakuzōOkakura, The Book of Tea
• Tea is the elixir of life. Eisai, Kissa Yojoki

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There is no problem that cannot be diminished by a cup of tea

• When the news reporter said “Shopkeepers are opening their doors bringing out blankets and cups of tea ” I just smiled. It’s like yes. That’s Britain for you. Tea solves everything. You’re a bit cold? Tea. Your boyfriend has just left you? Tea. You’ve just been told you’ve got cancer? Tea. Coordinated terrorist attack on the transport network bringing the city to a grinding halt? Tea dammit! And if it’s really serious, they may bring out the coffee. The Americans have their alert raised to red, we break out the coffee. That’s for situations more serious than this of course. Like another England penalty shoot-out. Jslayeruk, as posted on Metaquotes Livejournal, in response to the July 2005 London subway bombings
• There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea. Bernard-Paul Heroux
• A cup of tea would restore my normality. Douglas Adams
• Tea is wealth itself, because there is nothing that cannot be lost, no problem that will not disappear, no burden that will not float away, between the first sip and the last.  The Minister of Leaves, The Republic of Tea
• Dad was at his desk when I opened the door, doing what all British people do when they’re freaked out: drinking tea. Rachel Hawkins
• Okay, this is the wisdom. First, time spent on reconnaissanse is never wasted. Second, almost anything can be improved with the addition of bacon. And finally, there is no problem on Earth that can’t be ameliorated by a hot bath and a cup of tea. Jasper Fforde
• As far as her mom was concerned, tea fixed everything. Have a cold? Have some tea. Broken bones? There’s a tea for that too. Somewhere in her mother’s pantry, Laurel suspected, was a box of tea that said, ‘In case of Armageddon, steep three to five minutes’. Aprilynne Pike, Illusions
• The proper, wise balancing of one’s whole life may depend upon the feasibility of a cup of tea at an unusual hour. Arnold Bennett
• Problem solving

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A simple cup of tea makes you realise the small things in life aren’t little

• A simple cup of tea is far from a simple matter. Mary Lou Heiss
• So the small things came into their own: small acts of helping others, if one could; small ways of making one’s own life better: acts of love, acts of tea, acts of laughter. Clever people might laugh at such simplicity, but, she asked herself, what was their own solution? Alexander McCall Smith
• Tea is nought but this: first you heat the water, then you make the tea. Then you drink it properly. That is all you need to know.   Sen Rikyu, Japanese Tea Master
• The outsider may indeed wonder at this seeming much ado about nothing. What a tempest in a tea-cup! he will say. But when we consider how small after all the cup of human enjoyment is, how soon overflowed with tears, how easily drained to the dregs in our quenchless thirst for infinity, we shall not blame ourselves for making so much of the tea-cup. Okakura Kakuzō
• Life is in the little things

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All in all, tea makes the world seem a better place

• Come along inside… We’ll see if tea and buns can make the world a better place. Kenneth Grahame
• I declare,… a man who wishes to make his way in life could do nothing better than go through the world with a boiling tea-kettle in his hand. Sydney Smith
• The first cup moistens my lips and throat. The second cup breaks my loneliness. The third cup searches my barren entrails but to find therein some thousand volumes of odd ideographs. The fourth cup raises a slight perspiration — all the wrongs of life pass out through my pores. At the fifth cup I am purified. The sixth cup calls me to the realms of the immortals. The seventh cup — Ah! but I could take no more! I only feel the breath of the cool wind that raises in my sleeves. Where is Elysium? Let me ride on this sweet breeze and waft away thither. Lo T’ung
• Where there’s tea there’s hope. Arthur Wing Pinero
• Outside of a teapot life is but thousands of dusty affairs. Terri Guillemets
• I say let the world go to hell, but I should always have my tea. Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• Tea is drunk to forget the din of the world. T’ien Yiheng

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The making of tea makes beautiful sounds …

• The sounds of the tea being made invite the peach blossoms to peep in through the window. Uson, quoted in Sasaki Sanmi

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… especially the sound of the singing kettle

• Remember the tea kettle, although it is up to its neck in hot water it keeps on singing.
• Come oh come ye tea-thirsty restless ones — the kettle boils, bubbles and sings, musically. Rabindranath Tagore
• My kettle coughs a steamy tea. Terri Guillemets

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There’s nothing like a cup of tea in the afternoon …

• Afternoon tea should be provided, fresh supplies, with thin bread-and-butter, fancy pastries, cakes, etc., being brought in as other guests arrive. Isabella Beeton
• There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea. Henry James
• Stands the Church clock at ten to three? And is there honey still for tea? Rupert Brooke
• Surely everyone is aware of the divine pleasures which attend a wintry fireside; candles at four o’clock, warm hearthrugs, tea, a fair tea-maker, shutters closed, curtains flowing in ample draperies to the floor, whilst the wind and rain are raging audibly without. Thomas De Quincey
• Tea! Bless ordinary everyday afternoon tea! Agatha Christie

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… except maybe a cup of tea in the morning …

• I drink a bucket of white tea in the morning. I read about this tea of the Emperor of China, which is supposedly the tea of eternal youth. It’s called Silver Needle. It’s unbelievably expensive, but I get it on the Web. Antonio Banderas
• My favorite meal would have to be good old-fashioned eggs, over easy, with bacon. Many others, but you can’t beat that on a Sunday morning, especially with a cup of tea. Gary Oldman
• This morning’s tea makes yesterday distant.

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… or a cup of tea after dinner

• Another novelty is the tea-party, an extraordinary meal in that, being offered to persons that have already dined well, it supposes neither appetite nor thirst, and has no object but distraction, no basis but delicate enjoyment. Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

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There is nothing like the first sip of tea

• The first sip of tea is always the best… you cringe as it burns the back of your throat, knowing you just had the hottest carpe-diem portion. Terri Guillemets

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Tea is best sipped slowly and reverently

• Accepting a cup of tea when you’re in a hurry, resulting in hundreds of tiny, excruciatingly painful, rapid-fire sips. Rob Temple
• Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves — slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future. Thich Nat Hahn
• Enjoy life sip by sip, not gulp by gulp. The Minister of Leaves, The Republic of Tea
• Slow down

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Tea is best drunk strong

• …I maintain that one strong cup of tea is better than 20 weak ones. All true tea-lovers not only like their tea strong, but like it a little stronger with each year that passes…. George Orwell
• A great idea should always be left to steep like loose tea leaves in a teapot for a while to make sure that the tea will be strong enough and that the idea truly is a great one. Phoebe Stone
• A woman is like a tea bag – you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water. Eleanor Roosevelt
• Indeed, madam, your ladyship is very sparing of your tea: I protest, the last I took was no more than water bewitch’d. Jonathan Swift

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Tea is best drunk sweet some say …

• I put hibiscus flower in every cup of tea I have. It’s sweet, sexy, and cleansing. Mario Batali, American chef, writer, and restaurateur
• Ha, ha, ha: love and scandal are the best sweetners of tea. Henry Fielding
• I’m an afternoon tea type of girl. I come from a Russian background where we love our teas. So between lunch and dinner after training I come home and I love a nice cup of tea with jam in it, as we drink it there. Black English Breakfast tea with raspberry jam is my favorite. – Maria Sharapova, professional tennis player
• Stands the Church clock at ten to three? And is there honey still for tea?  Rupert Brooke

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… while others disagree

• I know very well that I am in a minority here. But still, how can you call yourself a true tea-lover if you destroy the flavour of your tea by putting sugar in it? It would be equally reasonable to put pepper or salt. Tea is meant to be bitter, just as beer is meant to be bitter. If you sweeten it, you are no longer tasting the tea, you are merely tasting the sugar; you could make a very similar drink by dissolving sugar in plain hot water. George Orwell

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Tea is best drunk hot …

• The perfect temperature for tea is two degrees hotter than just right. Terri Guillemets
• Discovering you’ve missed your tea’s perfect drinking temperature by a fraction of a second. Rob Temple

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… but iced tea can be most refreshing on a hot day

• American-style iced tea is the perfect drink for a hot, sunny day. It’s never really caught on in the UK, probably because the last time we had a hot, sunny day was back in 1957. Tom Holt
• Iced tea is too pure and natural a creation not to have been invented as soon as tea, ice, and hot weather crossed paths. John Egerton
• Iced tea may not have as much wisdom as hot tea, but in the summer better a cool and refreshed dullard than a steamy sweat-drenched sage – leave sagacity to the autumn! Linda Solegato

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Tea is best drunk after a walk

• The return from the walk, and the arrival of tea, should be exactly coincident, and not later than a quarter past four. C. S. Lewis
• One of the shining moments of my day is that when, having returned a little weary from an afternoon walk, I exchange boots for slippers, out-of-doors coat for easy, familiar, shabby jacket, and, in my deep, soft-elbowed chair, await the tea- tray…. How delicious is the soft yet penetrating odour which floats into my study, with the appearance of the teapot!… What a glow does it bring after a walk in chilly rain! George Gissing
• Walking

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Tea is best drunk with a good book …

• Tea and books – Mmmmmm, two of life’s exquisite pleasures that together bring near-bliss. – Christine Hanrahan
• A book reads the better which is our own, and has been so long known to us, that we know the topography of its blots, and dog’s ears, and can trace the dirt in it to having read it at tea with buttered muffins. – Charles Lamb
• One sip of this will bathe the drooping spirits in delight, beyond the bliss of dreams. John Milton
• Reading,  Books

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… or while writing one

• When I was in fourth grade, a novelist came to talk to my English class. She told us that being an author meant sitting at the kitchen table in pajamas, drinking tea with the dogs at your feet. – J. Courtney Sullivan, American novelist
• Writing is a job, a talent, but it’s also the place to go in your head. It is the imaginary friend you drink your tea with in the afternoon. Ann Patchett
• Writing

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Tea is best drunk with a slice of toast

• The privileges of the side-table included the small prerogatives of sitting next to the toast, and taking two cups of tea to other people’s one. Charles Dickens, English writer, Martin Chuzzlewit
• I’ve never cooked. I can’t do much more in the kitchen than make a cup of tea and some toast. Ethel Merman
• That I survived the Holocaust and went on to love beautiful girls, to talk, to write, to have toast and tea and live my life – that is what is abnormal. Elie Wiesel
• I don’t drink coffee I take tea my dear. I like my toast done on one side …  Sting, (Englishman in New York)
• My hour for tea is half-past five, and my buttered toast waits for nobody. Wilkie Collins
• The cup of tea on arrival at a country house is a thing which, as a rule, I particularly enjoy. I like the crackling logs, the shaded lights, the scent of buttered toast, the general atmosphere of leisured coziness. P.G. Wodehouse
• Tea would arrive, the cakes squatting on cushions of cream, toast in a melting shawl of butter, cups agleam and a faint wisp of steam rising from the teapot shawl. Gerald Durrell
• Bread and water can so easily be toast and tea.

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Tea provides some metaphors for life

• A true warrior, like tea, shows his strength in hot water. Chinese Proverb
• Remember the tea kettle, although it is up to its neck in hot water it keeps on singing.
• A great idea should always be left to steep like loose tea leaves in a teapot for a while to make sure that the tea will be strong enough and that the idea truly is a great one. Phoebe Stone
• Enjoy life sip by sip, not gulp by gulp. The Minister of Leaves, The Republic of Tea
• A woman is like a tea bag – you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water. Eleanor Roosevelt
• Metaphors to live by

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Tea abounds in children’s stories

• Come along inside… We’ll see if tea and buns can make the world a better place.  Kenneth Graeme, Scottish writer, The Wind in the Willows
• Christopher Robin was home by this time, because it was in the afternoon, and he was so glad to see them that they stayed there until very nearly tea-time, and then they had a Very Nearly tea, which is one you forget about afterwards, and hurried on to Pooh Corner, so as to see Eeyore before it was too late to have a Proper Tea with Owl. A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner
• “Take some more tea,” the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly. “I’ve had nothing yet,” Alice replied in an offended tone, “so I can’t take more.” Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
• The mug from the washstand was used as Becky’s tea cup, and the tea was so delicious that it was not necessary to pretend that it was anything but tea.  Frances Hodgson Burnett, A Little Princess
• He’d never in his life been so hungry and tired. What wouldn’t he give for a simple mug of tea and a humble fried egg sandwich? Jacqueline Kelly, Return to the Willows
• Peter was not very well during the evening. His mother put him to bed, and made some chamomile tea: “One table- spoonful to be taken at bed-time.” – Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Peter Rabbit
• Then Mrs. Tiggy-winkle made tea – a cup for herself and a cup for Lucie. They sat before the fire on a bench and looked sideways at one another. Mrs. Tiggy-winkle’s hand, holding the tea-cup, was very very brown, and very very wrinkly with the soap-suds; and all through her gown and her cap, there were HAIRPINS sticking wrong end out; so that Lucie didn’t like to sit too near her. Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle
• Would you like an adventure now,” he said casually to John, “or would you like to have your tea first?” – J. M. Barrie, Scottish author and dramatist, The Adventures of Peter Pan
• On the hob was a little brass kettle, hissing and boiling; spread upon the floor was a warm, thick rug; before the fire was a folding-chair, unfolded and with cushions on it; by the chair was a small folding-table, unfolded, covered with a white cloth, and upon it were spread small covered dishes, a cup and saucer, and a tea-pot; on the bed were new, warm coverings, a curious wadded silk robe, and some books. The little, cold, miserable room seemed changed into Fairyland. It was actually warm and glowing.  Frances Hodgson Burnett, What Happened at Miss Minchin’s Boarding School

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Tea comes in a rich number of varieties

• Teas vary as much in appearance as the different faces of men. Hui-tsung
• “What kind of tea do you want?” “There´s more than one kind of tea?…What do you have?” “Let´s see… Blueberry, Raspberry, Ginseng, Sleepytime, Green Tea, Green Tea with Lemon, Green Tea with Lemon and Honey, Liver Disaster, Ginger with Honey, Ginger Without Honey, Vanilla Almond, White Truffle Coconut, Chamomile, Blueberry Chamomile, Decaf Vanilla Walnut, Constant Comment and Earl Grey.”  -“I.. Uh…What are you having?… Did you make some of those up?”   Bryan Lee O’Malley
• Variety

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Adventure is all well and good, but have a cup of tea first

• If someone says, hey, you know, this long weekend, let’s go skydiving – I would say, no, are you nuts? I’d just as soon sit down and have a cup of tea. Rick Mercer
• Would you like an adventure now…. or would you like to have your tea first? Wendy said “tea first” quickly, and Michael pressed her hand in gratitude…. J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
• Adventure

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Of course, not everyone is a fan of tea

• Our trouble is that we drink too much tea. I see in this the slow revenge of the Orient, which has diverted the Yellow River down our throats. J.B. Priestley
• Coffee is not my cup of tea. Samuel Goldwyn

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• Being required by law to say the word “lovely” immediately after taking the first sip of a new tea. Rob Temple, Very British Problems: Making Life Awkward for Ourselves
• Bread and water can so easily be toast and tea.
• Coffee is not my cup of tea. Samuel Goldwyn
• Great love affairs start with champagne and end with tisane. Honoré de Balzac
• In vino Veritas. In Aqua satietas. In… What is the Latin for Tea? What! Is there no Latin word for Tea? Upon my soul, if I had known that I would have let the vulgar stuff alone. Hilaire Belloc
• A woman is like a tea bag. You never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water. Eleanor Roosevelt
• Indeed, madam, your ladyship is very sparing of your tea: I protest, the last I took was no more than water bewitch’d. Jonathan Swift
• Never concentrating so hard than when manoeuvring a full cup of tea whilst lying down. Rob Temple
• Never trust a man who, when left alone in a room with a tea cozy, doesn’t try it on. Billy Connolly
• She had that brand of pragmatism that would find her the first brewing tea after Armageddon. Clive Barker
• The heartbreak of finding an empty teacup when you thought there was one gulp to go. Rob Temple, Very British Problems: Making Life Awkward for Ourselves
• The overwhelming sorrow of finding a cup of tea you forgot about. Rob Temple, Very British Problems: Making Life Awkward for Ourselves
• “In Ireland, you go to someone’s house, and she asks you if you want a cup of tea. You say no, thank you, you’re really just fine. She asks if you’re sure. You say of course you’re sure, really, you don’t need a thing. Except they pronounce it ting. You don’t need a ting. Well, she says then, I was going to get myself some anyway, so it would be no trouble. Ah, you say, well, if you were going to get yourself some, I wouldn’t mind a spot of tea, at that, so long as it’s no trouble and I can give you a hand in the kitchen. Then you go through the whole thing all over again until you both end up in the kitchen drinking tea and chatting. In America, someone asks you if you want a cup of tea, you say no, and then you don’t get any damned tea.  I liked the Irish way better.  E. Murphy, Urban Shaman
• Honestly, if you’re given the choice between Armageddon or tea, you don’t say ‘what kind of tea?”  Neil Gaiman
• Putting a damp spoon back in the bowl is the tea-drinking equivalent of sharing a needle. And I did not want to end up with the tea-drinking equivalent of AIDS. Alan Partridge
• Earl Grey. Hot. And whoever this ‘Earl Grey’ fellow is, I’d like to have a word with him. – Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation
• Sir, I did not count your glasses of wine, why should you number up my cups of tea? Samuel Johnson
• Water is the mother of tea, a teapot its father, and fire the teacher. Chinese Proverb
• The best quality tea must have creases like the leathern boot of Tartar horsemen, curl like the dewlap of a mighty bullock, unfold like a mist rising out of a ravine, gleam like a lake touched by a zephyr, and be wet and soft like a fine earth newly swept by rain.  Lu Yu, Chinese sage and hermit
• After the tea break staff should empty the teapot and stand upside down on the draining board.  

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