The famed English East India Company formally introduced tea to Great Britain in the 1600s. In due course, tea’s popularity and increased consumption swept across England, and by 1700 tea was available in over 500 London tea houses.

The development of Afternoon Tea or High Tea didn’t develop until roughly the mid 19^th Century, and has been a much-loved tradition in England for over 150 years. In the USA, Tea Time is the fastest growing segment of a robust tea market that has tripled in the last 16 years to over six billion dollars annually.

It’s always Tea Time at Bigelow Tea!

”High Tea” is often a misnomer. Some people may refer to “afternoon tea” as “high tea” as it sounds so regal!  But in Great Britain high tea (also: “meat tea”) is dinner. American hotels and tea rooms have developed a hybrid of the High Tea tradition, calling it…

• Afternoon Tea
• Light Tea
• Low Tea
• Full Tea
• High Tea

Warming and flavorful tea is the constant, regardless of the name. Some of the finest Tea Rooms serve afternoon tea 365 days a year, and offer excellent menu options too. Afternoon Tea is as popular as ever and you can find many versions with special themes, like “A Victorian Christmas”, or “A Jane Austen Tea”, or “A Nutcracker Suite Tea” featuring varying levels of service and participation. And not to forget Presidential Teas and Celebrity Teas!

To help with your tea time search there are several Tea Societies — such as the Victorian Tea Society — that regularly propagates the tradition of tea time. However you finally enjoy your tea time – in full regalia with formal setting and time honored ritual, or casually on the back deck with a mug, it’s always high time for tea time.

What better way to keep your tea warm than with a charming personality-laden tea cozy? The tea cozy (or cosy) may be a common every day object, but it comes from Nobel origins, introduced to Great Britain in the 1660′s to the court of King Charles II. Its use came about to keep tea hot of course, but by the middle of the 19th century it became more popular along with English Tea Time. Tea time was becoming a more elaborate and lengthy event with extensive socializing and visitors, and the tea would tend to get cold. The tea cozy became a useful tool to keep the tea pot hot, extending tea time.

Drawing by David Borzo

Tea cozies started in North America shortly after, and in fact newspapers of the time reveal that tea cozies enjoyed “a sudden and unexpected rise in public favor” among women who hosted tea parties. Newspapers of the time included advice columns on how to make a tea cozy. Today there are dozens of web sites where you can check out cozies, or sites to get free patterns to make your own.

Can you believe that even the tea cozy has controversy? Well, there are two schools of thought on when to use it properly — some people will steep their tea with the tea cozy on…others say that the tea becomes too baked this way, preferring to make their tea, and then use the cozy. Either way, the tea cozy proves a stylish and efficient way to keep your pot warm, extending that “Sunday-morning feeling” so you can enjoy your tea at leisure. So the tea cozy really helps extend that cozy feeling that a great cup of hot tea brings.

“Cozy” up with a warm cup of tea and take time for yourself during the holidays. Hear Cindi Bigelow’s advice here.

This past February we told you just how much Scarlett Johansson enjoys tea – going as far as embracing the English custom of afternoon tea time. Now it turns out that Johansson’s beverage preference is a love she shares with others.

Recently published online photos show Natalie Portman of Star Wars fame joining Johansson in front of the cameras, tea cups in hand. Aside from tea, the two recently shared screen time together during the filming of The Other Boleyn Girl, where they starred as sisters contending for the affection of King Henry VIII.