Skye's Tea Etiquette for a Shabby Chic Tea 5/15/10

When you are serving an elegant dinner, you might want to break out your Wedgwood, Spode, or other fine bone china but a great tea party starts with TEA, The finest teas you can buy? Well lets say 4 ounces of 4 spectacular tea, need not set you back more than $30 - $60, but you can buy 3 ounces of loose tea of a great variety, and quality for about $25. shipped or $18. if you have a great local tea purveyor, much less. Mix your china tea cups and saucers, allowing each guest to choose the tea cup, they would like to be served in. If you don't have a lot of tea cups, but a tea party is the party you want to throw, remember there is an age old custom, from the early 1900's that is a wonderful way to accentuate a Victorian theme, and that is to ask each guest to kindly bring their favorite tea cup, ask them to prepare a story about how they received it, or where they found it, and where is there favororite place to find accoutrements. In the case of mismatched tea cups, take a hint from the Shabby Chic element, make everything mismatched, cover your tables with 1950's linens. Choose to serve 3 savories and 3 sweets, and serve 4-6 different types of tea and keep it flowing.