Tea Activities To Do At Home

It's been a tough few weeks, and I know many people have it far worse. Living in the middle of a huge COVID-19 outbreak in NYC has been tough, but my family and I are trying to take it one day at a time. Sometimes one minute at a time when even a day becomes too much.

Blogging has been tough lately as I'm working from home while making sure my family is healthy and safe. But I thought it would be helpful to put together a few tea-related things to do if you are staying at home as much as possible.

Support Small Tea Vendors
Independent tea vendors need our help now more than ever. Brick and Mortar stores have had to close, but most places are doing online sales. Pick your favorite vendors and either purchase tea, teaware or gift cards if you don't need any products right now. There are so many places to choose from. I will work on a post highlighting a few vendors soon. If you have a favorite vendor, let me know in the comments of this post and I'll include it when I write about them.

Host A Virtual Tea Gathering
It's important to stay connected to our friends, and taking some time to raise a cup with a few is a great way to connect. You can use programs such as zoom, houseparty, google hangouts or facebook messenger hangouts to get together. I'd love to set up a few hangouts so let me know if you're interested.

Take Some Tea Outside
For those of us that are able to get out of the house and walk through a park or other outdoor space, try to take your tea outside. Or even just have tea on a fire escape, balcony, or by an open window. All you need is a thermos of hot water, a brewing vessel and a cup. I've been trying to do this as much as possible, and it has helped tremendously. Feeling the crisp fresh air, listening to birds, and sipping tea while staying socially distant.

Try A Tea Meditation
I recently wrote a post about doing your own tea meditation. Just take a few minutes for yourself and really focus on your tea. No matter how you do it, give yourself a little bit of time to completely unplug from the world. I promise it'll help.

Dig Deep Into Your Tea Stash
I'm sure most of us have a sizeable tea stash at home. This is the perfect time to go through it and try some teas you've forgotten about. Or maybe teas you were saving for a rainy day. Those expensive samples? Break them out! Why not treat yourself!

Share Your Tea Knowledge
If you live with family, teach them a little bit about tea. Host a little family tea tasting. Or host a zoom session with friends who may be curious about tea. Sharing what you know is a great way to interact.

Create Tea Pairings
You know I'm all about tea pairings. It's fun to get creative and see what flavors work together, and what doesn't. Get some snacks, maybe cook or bake a few things, and get pairing! You can read a little bit about tea pairing 101 here and here.

Use All Your Teaware
Let's admit it, we all collect teaware. If you're like me you've got your favorite pieces and those that usually get left behind. It's time to dust off the things haven't used in ages. You may just find you have a new favorite that's been lurking in your cabinet, waiting for its time to shine.

Create With Tea
Do something creative with your tea. I mentioned tea pairings earlier, but you can also take tasting notes, write a tea-inspired story, paint with tea, or take photos of your tea. I look forward to my Instagram sessions, and my Tween Tea Critic has been joining me most days. I love to see what my fellow Instagrammers are doing!

Find A New Tea Book
I have a library of tea-related books, and I haven't opened every single one. When I'm ready to focus I'll probably crack a new one open and get reading. There are endless tea books out there, and even tea-focused stories. In that future post I mentioned, I'll also be listing tea books to read. Feel free to suggest your own in the comments and I'll include them.

Accept That You Won't Be Productive
Finally, please note this post is a list of things you can do, but it's not a list of things you must do. Accept that these are difficult times, and we can't focus and accomplish things the way we did before. Yes, we're at home, but that doesn't mean it's easy to get things done. We're all stressed, anxious, and distracted. Let's find ways to try and make things enjoyable, but it's not important to write a novel, become a tea scholar, or even clean the whole house. Just do what you can to get through the day.

So what ideas have I missed? I'd love it if you shared some of your tea-themed stay-at-home entertainment tips!

Getting Kids Interested In Tea

I've written a little bit about teaching kids about tea through tea parties, and as I watched my 9 year old son sip on a cup of chamomile tea, I realized I should post another article in this series. Kids are naturally curious about everything, and it's never too early to start teaching them about tea. There are so many interactive things they can get involved with to start forming a relationship with the leaf.

Tasting Tea
If the children are old enough to hold a cup independently, you can let them taste! Due to the caffeine I can't really promote giving them camellia sinensis to taste (but I admittedly give my kids sips of pure tea), but there are so many other things they can taste that will encourage their love of tea.

Herbal tisanes are perfect for kids. You can pick things that are fruity, sweet, and floral. Even if a tisane isn't naturally sweet, adding a little honey or other sweetener of choice is totally fine. I'd recommend having them try the brew without sweetener as well, so they can get an idea of what the infusion really tastes like.

The tasting process is really a lesson in mindfulness. The kids get to clear their mind, and focus on the flavors. Ask them what they are tasting, what it reminds them of, and how it makes them feel. You'll be amazed at the words they use to describe the brew. Children have a unique and unbiased perspective.

To get them even more involved, consider growing your own herbs that are great for teas. The kids can help your herbs and flowers grow, pick them when ready, and learn how to brew the tea. This is a great way to get your kids involved in the entire seed to cup process! Herbs such as mint, lemon verbena, and lemongrass are easy to grow and make great tea, and there are so many others.

Learning About Tea Rituals
Once children are a little older (around 1st grade), it's fun to teach them about tea rituals. Cultural tea practices such as gongfu cha, british afternoon tea service, and Japanese chanoyu are just a few ways of combining social studies with tea. I've done a few classes at my daughter's school on tea rituals around the world, and the kids are always fascinated. I love how many hands go in the air when I ask questions!

Let's take the Chinese gongfu tea preparation as an example. To get my kids started with gongfu preparation, I explained a little bit about the process and history, and we watched a few brewing videos on YouTube.

whole dried chamomile flowers in the gaiwan

The most exciting (and frustrating) part is learning how to use a gaiwan. To find a tisane for my children to try brewing in a gaiwan, I looked for something with fairly large pieces. I wanted to prevent too many bits escaping into the sharing pitcher and creating more frustration. Many large leaf herbs would work, but I settled on whole chamomile flowers, since they are fun to look at and taste sweet. The large size of the flowers are easier to keep in the gaiwan and out of the sharing pitcher.

Teaching the gongfu tea method to my son turned out to have a second benefit, which is dexterity. My son has issues with motor skills, and learning how to hold and pour a gaiwan has been a fun way to get him to use his hands. I selected a small gaiwan that holds about 60ml. It's inexpensive and easy for a small hand to hold.

As you can see from the first photo in this post, I started the practice by having my son place his hand on top of mine, to get a feel for the movement of holding and pouring a gaiwan. He's still not pouring independently, but he loves the process and he's learning yet another important skill, patience.

These are just a few ways to get your kids more interested in tea. Whatever ways you choose to, it'll be a rewarding experience for everyone involved. You'll open their minds to new flavors and experiences, and they get to learn about different cultures. They'll even learn a little bit about themselves along the way.

Teaching Kids Through Tea Parties

Throwing a tea party is a fun way to teach kids about tea, and they can learn important life skills too. Children benefit from all forms of play where they're able to use their imagination and get creative. Why not use a tea party to fuel those growing minds? I've written about the benefits of sharing tea with kids, and tea parties are a perfect way to help kids learn the etiquette of tea party manners, taking turns, learning to be mindful, and get a little knowledge about tea along the way. Children as young as 4 can enjoy sitting at a tea party and learn the importance of interacting with friends. I recently written about the history of tea sets for kids, but why not take those tea sets and make them more than just toys?

Setting Up
You don't need a fancy tea set-up for your kids' tea party. Adult or kid sized cups will do, and actually mismatched cups make things more colorful and fun. You can do any sort savory and sweet foods you'd like. I like to serve everything as finger food, since that's a traditional way to serve afternoon tea treats. You can even just keep it to a simple tea sandwich and a few cookies. Get the children involved in the planning and set-up, they'll feel more ownership and involvement in the party.

For the tea, you can use all sorts of herbal blends. I've done workshops for kids using floral, fruity, and herbaceous blends and the kids really are game for trying everything. I wouldn't recommend giving children large amounts caffeinated tea, but a a sip or two of green, black, oolong, or white tea could help them better understand different types of tea. If you're serving even a sip of caffeinated tea to children other than your own, you should get permission from the parents first. Also having the leaves available to touch and smell is a great way for them to interact with the tea.

Learning Life Skills Through Tea Etiquette
Throwing a tea party will teach kids valuable life skills through tea etiquette. Here are a few examples:
-Learning how to behave around a table. Sitting (relatively) still, listening to the individual talking, and learning how to ask questions are all things you do at a tea party, and these are important skills to work on at an early age.
-Waiting your turn is an important skill, and the tea party setting makes it fun. Waiting your turn to take tea and sweets, or waiting your turn to ask or answer a question.
-Sharing! Need I say more?
-The absence of electronics- knowing when to put the devices away is so vital these days.
-Saying 'please' and 'thank you'. This takes constant practice and repetition. Putting it in the context of a tea party makes it fun, and it will become second nature after enough practice.
-The fun in tasting and trying new things. Kids will be more interested in trying new foods if it's in a setting where they see their peers enjoying it. They'll also learn to slow down and taste.
-Learning that tea is for everyone, not just adults, and for both girls and boys.

Learning Basics About Tea
Through a simple tea party, kids can learn simple basics about tea. Here are just a few of them:
-Learning how to prepare tea in a pot. You can use loose leaves or tea bags, but it's helpful for kids to learn how tea is made.
-If you're using loose tea leaves, kids will get to see how tea can vary in shape, size, and color based on how it's processed.
-They'll learn there are different types of tea, and also how different herbs and flowers can be used for tisanes.
-Children will see how a tea set isn't just something you play with, it's for enjoying tea with friends.

Once children are in elementary school other subjects can be added, such as:
-How different cultures drink tea.
-Historical tea facts.
-More in-depth information on tea growing and processing.

As you can see, there is so much children can learn through a simple tea party! Teaching kids about tea is a new series I'll be featuring much more on the blog in the coming months. I've given tea seminars to children in the past, and as a mother of two little ones I have a bit of first hand experience in the matter. I look forward to sharing more with everyone soon.