Tea. If you don’t love a good, strong he-man coloured cuppa as part of your day, there is something wrong – perhaps even criminally – with you. It is a near-scalding bitter nectar of the gods, and in no way equalled by the other bitter-tasting hot drink that some people seem to love so much.
By now, you’ll have gathered that this writer is a fan of tea – and you’d be right. They love tea so much that their loose-leaf collection gives the season of Autumn a run for its money. This is exactly why you’re in exactly the right place as a not-so-avid tea lover, attempting to buy a gift for the very-much-so-avid tea lover in your life and coming up short on ideas. Here you’ll find gift ideas galore, from the basics of tea-making to some of the more esoteric gift items you could pick for your nearest and dearest.
Tea Essentials
Let’s start with the basics. No one ever besmirched the receipt of a hamper as a Christmas gift, and the world of tea is practically begging you to put one together for your loved one. Starting with the teas, you could pick a select handful of tasty-sounding blends from a trustworthy brand or three on the high street; drop in some Christmas teas as well as some year-round sippers, and you’ll cover all the festive angles in one.
Here, a little foreknowledge of your friend’s tea habits may help. If they’re new to drinking loose leaf, maybe you could throw a fun new tea strainer in there for them. If they don’t have a teapot for entertaining a crowd, maybe you could put a tea set in there as the central gift in the hamper!
Bespoke Tea Blends
If you’re willing to dig a little deeper for your loved one, a great rabbit hole to go down is that of tea blending – and, more importantly, discovering some unique blends to wrap up and gift. Rather than settling for pre-packaged blends (nice as they may be), you could go a step beyond and collaborate with a local tea shop, to create a unique blend based on your giftee’s favourite flavours.
If you’d rather they took the reins on that front, you could gift them a DIY tea blending kit for them to make their own fun with – or even send them off to a tea-making workshop to learn the tricks of the trade.
Artisanal Tea Ware
We briefly mentioned the concept of buying tea wareearlier on, in our section on basics – but here, let’s have a closer look at what could be a hugely gratifying gift for your loved one. After all, you don’t need to settle for a high-street tea set or Amazon Basics tea strainer.
Indeed, by going independent you can find an incredibly rich world of bespoke and artisanal tea-making items. Teapots are a great place to start, naturally, with a wide spectrum of potential makers and designs to pick from. If your friend has expressed a particular interest in Japanese tea-making, then there’s scope for you to invest in something special for them: a Japanese tea ceremony set, replete with tea bowl, tea whisk, and tea scoop amongst other thrilling object d’art.
