So, I drink a lot of tea. My Steepster account shows how bad the obsession is. (Steepster is sort of like Facebook for tea people.) Spoiler: It’s bad. I hoard tea like Ebneezer Scrooge hoards gold. I compare flavors and varietals. I adjust water temperature and steep time according to tea type. I know the difference between gyokuro, sencha, matcha, hojicha, and genmaicha. I’ve tasted all of them.

I know what rooibos is.

Okay, so that’s not much of an accomplishment in the age of the Internet. But it’s safe to say that I’m a tea nerd. (An amateur one, but still!) I couldn’t survive as a writer without it. Tea keeps me calm, boosts my energy, and inspires me. My characters drink it as well. Many of them live in nineteenth-century England, or enjoy it for other reasons. I use tea as a way to experience a part of their lives.

In that spirit, I thought I would take afternoon tea today, and share a few photos.

It seems appropriate to start with the most obvious tea possible. So today I’m drinking David’s Organic English Breakfast blend. (David’sTEA is a Canadian company with a number of stores in the U.S. They have a lot of interesting flavors, and you can check out their teas here.)

Behold my tea mug! Fitting for a writer’s blog, isn’t it?

English Breakfast is a mixture of different types of black tea. The exact blend varies by company. It’s strong and malty, and goes well with milk and sugar. It also has a lot of caffeine. (Less than coffee, but more than most other teas.) Traditionally, you drink it for breakfast—but people have it all the time now. When I visited England this summer, one of the tour guides said that a lot of modern Brits only drink English Breakfast, even at teatime. The strong taste makes it a good choice to pair with food. Speaking of which…

Ginger biscuits! I found these in the gift shop at Highclere Castle during my trip. Highclere Castle, as in, the place where they film Downtown Abbey. I’ll have to write a post about it sometime. (If only to talk about what’s in their basement!)

Well, that’s it for teatime! Have a lovely afternoon.