Do you have a tea "space"?

My tea has taken over two cabinets and my equipment is on three shelves. I think I’m an addict in every sense of the word. But then, I have so many enablers here :-)

My tea currently, and most unfortunately, resides in the cabinet above, along a with a Japanese style tea set. It’s dry and relatively cool (considering) but I would rather not keep it so close to the stove. My stash is there so that my kids won’t find it and accidently dump it out all over the floor or eat it.

My electric kettle is on a kitchen counter always ready to fill, along with a favorite everyday teapot. I have one cabinet nearby to store lots of teas. As for the teawares, they are taking over the house, especially the kitchen and dining room. A large collection of teapots is above the cabinets in the kitchen and many more are in the dining room, along with a collection of teacups and saucers.

Electric kettle, couple pots, cabinet, counter, overflowing with tea, couple gaiwans, paer, pencil, scissors. Actually it is in one corner of the kitachen, but I have to keep rearranging it to keep it corralled. Teapots are all over, cups and saucers in one cupboard. Hopeless, huh?

I have one corner in my kitchen dedicated to tea. I keep my teapot and favorite cup on the counter with my everyday tea. I keep my loose teas in a long skinny drawer and I keep my tea bags in an antique sewing machine drawer. The only problem I seem to have is that I like buy new teas before I have emptied the currently full tea tins! I must say that this has been one obsession that I truely enjoy everyday. My DH just groans when I place yet another tea order:)

Many years ago I bought a small rolling cabinet for $5 because it had a broken handle (but was otherwise in perfect new condition). That is my tea cabinet. On top, divided baskets hold my samples and my thermometer. My favorite teas are in tins next to the baskets. The first shelf has the big bags of tea I bought from Upton Tea and Golden Moon to ensure that I never run out of my favorites. The doors below that hold various bagged teas, tea pots, and sundry other things. Someday I’m going to reorganize it.

When I first saw the question, I thought you meant a special place to drink tea. I long for that. I would like to have a small, meditative place to drink my tea and contemplate its beauty.

I keep my teas on the counter in my kitchen under a little shelf (no room in the cupboards at the moment until the roommate moves out just after New Year). The little shelf above holds some Taiwanese tea tools and a lovely Japanese cast iron teapot and cups that my girlfriend got for me this spring. I keep most of my teaware on a baker’s rack in the dining area, which also houses the wine rack.

My teaware consists of a nice pearwood Chinese tea tray inlaid with copper and brass (I saved up for that one!), some gaiwans, a lovely dark clay teapot cured for oolongs that a friend gave me, several sets of small cups and scenting cups, sharing pitcher, two cup and saucer sets that used to belong to my grandmother from just-postwar Japan, and several teapots. I have a lovely brown betty that gets frequent use, a larger pot for use when I have a lot of company, a fancy little elephant-shaped teapot with matching cups and tea tray from Thailand that was a gift from another friend, and two Japanese style pots in different sizes. I just added a new gaiwan to the collection today.

My electric kettle resides on the kitchen countertop – I use it to boil water for cooking as well as for tea. It takes forever to bring water to boil on my electric stove :( My tea resides on one shelf in a cabinet, and that shelf is jammed tight with teas stacked two high. I use a Teavolo infuser, which is on the shelf above. Getting out the tea can take some spelunking, especially if it is at the bottom in the back. I have one small teapot I use daily, and two larger teapots for company which are stored in an open hutch with the rest of my stoneware serving pieces.

I have 2 good size drawers dedicated to tea and only tea. I keep the tea cups I collect in almost every room and teapots the same. All but 3 rooms in my home have something tea about them. Hmmm I will have to correct that. Now how will I inject something tea into the bathroom? Any ideas?

I’ve got a whole corner cabinet in the kitchen dedicated to tea aswell as all my medicinal herbs. The kettle also has a permenant place of honor in the middle of the counter. ;)