A Nice Cuppa

No end of reassurances from your fianc?? or his kind brother can properly prepare you for that moment: the meeting. Lucky for me, my mother-in-law turned out to be the exact opposite of Jane Fonda in Monster-in-law. She was immediately kind and talkative and genuinely interested in getting to know me. My husband and I have been married for almost three years and I can honestly say I look forward to visiting his family as he does mine. We are pretty lucky in that way.

One of the first things I bonded over with Linda is tea. She is pleasantly obsessed with tea, drinking it all day and into the evening. Whether it???s herbal, green or black tea, there are few she hasn???t tried and enjoyed. In fact, my best moments with her are after dinner when everyone had settled down in the living room to watch a movie and the two of us stay behind in the kitchen sipping steaming mugs of tea and chatting.

During a recent visit, she pulled out a lovely box of extraordinary tea bags by Tea Forte. I was immediately smitten. The tea bags themselves are constructed of a very high quality mesh material and are shaped like tall, narrow pyramids topped off with a dainty little leaf handle. With packaging like that, do I even need to comment on the tea? Of course, it was incredible and there are many kinds to choose from. The tea bags are meant to be used once or twice, so Tea Forte created a customized tray for keeping between uses. It is a classy little ceramic square with a square indentation in the middle to fit the tea bag???s base. The best part is its green color which is reminiscent of the Parisian Laduree tea canisters ??? those are a story unto themselves.

*Tea Forte tea and tea trays are available online at teaforte.com