Time for tea

Hello everyone! In the interests of making sure this blog doesn’t just become a documentation of my struggles with lockdown (and also because I’m really really bored and need something to occupy me) I thought I’d lighten things up a bit by combining two of my favourite things – tea, and books! So I had a look through my tea collection and challenged myself to find a book on my bookshelf that goes with each tea, with the aim of perhaps rediscovering what’s actually on my shelf since so many of my books just get taken in and out of boxes every term without ever being read. However, abandoned no more, I now seek to unite them with their life partner in the form of a tea. So, let the matchmaking begin.

• Earl grey

Starting off nice and straightforward. I’ll drink this over ‘normal’ English Breakfast because I prefer the taste, so I went for a classic that’s a bit more of a light read and picked my edition of Oscar Wilde’s plays. Partly because he writes about aristocracy and partly because I like to believe Gwendolen and Cecily drank Earl Grey in ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’.

• Rooibos

This is technically not my tea but my mum’s, but since I’m staying with her and I’ve been drinking quite a lot of it in quarantine, I’m including it! I felt I had to pick a book set in South Africa for this one I think, and while there are many brilliant South African authors the only book on my bookcase that fits is Lauren St John’s ‘White Giraffe’ series which I read and absolutely adored as a child so I’ve gone for the first book in the series. If I was allowed to expand beyond my current shelf I’d probably pick something by Olive Schreiner who I’ve been wanting to explore for a while.

• Peppermint and Liquorice

Okay….this one’s sort of a contradiction and I can never quite decide whether the peppermint of licorice is stronger. Perfect for one of Shakespeare’s late plays, perhaps Cymbeline or The Tempest, because it’s hard to work out if they were supposed to be a comedy or a tragedy. Cymbeline is the one I have a single copy of so I took that for ease (it’s difficult to use Alexander’s Complete Works of Shakespeare for anything other than reference or weightlifting) although Winter’s Tale might have been another good option.

• Elderberry and Echinacea

I have no idea what the point in this tea is but for some reason I always end up taking it to lectures. I could have picked an academic book for it but I wanted to keep secondary criticism out of the pile if possible so I went for ‘Brideshead Revisited’ by Evelyn Waugh because it’s the novel everyone associates with Oxbridge.

• Lemon and Ginger

This is the kind of tea I drink when I feel like I might be getting ill, so I’ve chosen one of Eva Ibbotson’s romance novels which are great light reading for when you don’t feel great. I’ve got three out of five of them on my shelf but ‘The Morning Gift’ is probably my favourite so I took that one. After all, these are all supposed to be enjoyable reads, since I don’t have any teas I hate to go with books I hate

• Cleanse (fennel, nettle, peppermint)

Whenever I’m hungover, I reach for a cup of this tea. In light of that I’ve paired it with F.Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’ because most of this book is told through an alcoholic haze. Seriously, I recommend this tea. I credit it with the fact that I am able to go out and still function in lectures the next morning.

• Feel new (aniseed, fennel, cardamom)

Light, refreshing….I think this one would work well with Jane Austen’s sparkling wit. I’ve got ‘Emma’, ‘Persuasion’ or ‘Pride and Prejudice’ on the shelf, but ‘Emma’ wins for today. It’s a bit less widely read than ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and I’ve never been as much of a fan of ‘Persuasion’. Also I’ve watched ‘Clueless’ (which I adore) twice since I last read ‘Emma’ and I think it’s time I went back to the book!

• Revitalise (cinnamon, cardamom, ginger)

This is quite a warming tea so perhaps calls for some heavier reading – I’ve gone with Dickens because he’s very long and heavy and I have a lot of this tea so it should keep me going. On my shelf I have ‘Oliver Twist’ or ‘Great Expectations’ so I’ve once again just picked my favourite and taken ‘Great Expectations’

• Womankind (cranberry, rose, vanilla)

Obviously need to go for something strong and feminist here so I’ve opted for the ‘Selected Stories’ of Katherine Mansfield which is actually one of the books I really want to re-read during quarantine. I don’t think I’ve read these since I was writing my personal statement for uni and I love them. If you enjoy Virginia Woolf but find her style a bit difficult, Mansfield is the woman to read.

• Raspberry, Cranberry and Peach

I picked this up in Sainsbury’s on a whim and it’s absolutely brilliant, but being loose leaf takes a bit more effort to make. So I’ve taken DH Lawrence’s unpublished writings, which pretty much fit this description exactly, even down to the fact that the censors though he was loose. You also can’t exactly skim read them because of the way he writes, just like you can’t make this tea quickly because it needs a bit of time to brew. (disclaimer: this is actually a library book I had out for my dissertation but since it’ll be on my shelf until uni re-opens I think I can safely count it)

• Singer’s tea (supposed to be good for sore throats)

I don’t know what’s in this because the ingredients are all in Latin so I’ve gone for Piers Plowman which I still don’t understand and which I have thankfully been spared translating because my medieval exam was cancelled.

• Green tea

A nice easy one to finish. This one has to go with Sarah Howe’s ‘Loop of Jade’ poetry collection – Howe writes a lot about her Chinese heritage and green tea originated in China. Also I love both the poems and the tea so why not put two of my favourite things together?

Here is a picture of all the books assembled! They make quite a good reading pile, although whether I’ll get around to reading them all over the next few months I don’t know. Anyway, hope you are all staying safe and enjoyed this fun insight into my quarantine brain! We’ll have to see what I come up with next as the weeks go on.

What are your favourite tea/book combinations? Do comment below or send me a message so I can go and acquire more tea during my weekly trip out for essential purchases.

Cadence x