Tea expert and best-selling author Patricia Farmer stopped by the Cheddar News studio to talk about the history and art of a proper tea party.

Wake Up With Cheddar

Getting Fancy With Tea Expert and Best-Selling Author Patricia Farmer 

Welcome back to Cheddar News. Everybody. I'm do from Cheddar Studios in New York City. Yeah. Good morning, everyone. I'm Baker and we're getting very posh this morning with our next guest, a tea expert and a best selling author. She's written a book with such an elegant title, Tea Under The Palms from Leaf to kettle, a History of Tea and the Art of a proper tea party. Lady Patricia. Thank you so much for joining us. Oh, it's my pleasure. Thank you for having me. We are so excited. Have you? I feel like more and more people are drinking tea, you and I drink tea every single morning. Tell us about your love for tea, drinking how it started. And um from what I understand it started at a young age for you. It did. I was, I just remember it distinctly. I was seven years old and my mother took me to the Plaza Hotel. Wow. And it was an epiphany. I decided that was how I wanted to live the grandeur of the, the whole tea ceremony. And also there were trees growing in the the restaurants, right? I was just mesmerized by that. And of course, you've set up this whole tea party for us right over here. As everybody can see, is there a proper way to sort of serve the tea and also drink the tea? There is a tea party should be fun but having said that there are a few um ways we can go. Ok. So um you have your tea right? And please always use real tea tea bags. No, no, no, no, no. It takes a minute more, more, so much better and you use your strainer to strain out each one and you're doing that just so that way you collect any sort of loose tea that might basically still be in there because you can either have loose tea in here or a tea ball, right? You put the leaves in and then you don't have to bother with the stream, right? So you uh typically there's a host, someone who in England, they say I'll play mother so you strain it out and then you pass it to your left and, and uh take their own um, milk or sugar. OK. And then, um, you know, help themselves to that drink. Have some conversation. What, what about the pinkies? What has the sort of proper way and like drink this? Do I need to have my pinky out? Read the book that is one in the chapter called up for debate up for debate. Some people say pinkies up is too precious, you know, but, you know, uh, breakfast at Tiffany's Audrey had pinky and there was a reason behind it, which is long and involved. Ok. Are there any cardinal mistakes that we can make that are especially frowned upon? I mean, obviously we don't want to mess any of this up here. But like, what time does the time of day matter? Is there a difference between morning, you know, drinking in the morning and maybe in the afternoon. No, not really of that, but the food can goof you up. You know, uh We have AAA key tier here, which is gorgeous. It's very easy to maneuver and you start from the bottom and you work your sweet. No, because you have your, your writing how, you know, you want to say it and then you have your uh savories, your and you don't get your treats until you. That is, are there any real? Don't? Yes, there is. And it's counterintuitive because we think this posh tea knives and forks. No, no, no. Yes. Patricia Far, our book, tea under the palm is out now. Cheers right back. What a tea party.