Canadian Gift Guide

You know, I tried finding the manufacturer’s website to no avail for today’s gift suggestion. Last time I was going to write about tea, I ended up writing about coffee, but today I promise I will actually write about tea. In case you haven’t noticed, a good chunk of the gifts I suggest are things I covet – if not directly, I at least covet the perfection of giving these gifts to someone and knowing they are *right*. Um, but a lot of them are things I might actually not mind owning (if I don’t already).

Today’s gift is one such example – the Curve tea infuser mug. I’ve seen them at every Chapters, Indigo, and Coles I’ve set foot in over the last month (PS – their giftware section is amazing, and features the Ecojot journals I recently talked about!) and been wanting one ever since. They’re basically individually sized tea mugs / pots / infusers all in one pretty, sleek, colourful little package. The concept is simple. You put your tea leaves in the infuser. There’s a holder for the infuser within the mug. You put the lid on for a few minutes, and presto, yummy tea is yours to have, perhaps while paging through a tome you picked up at Chapters.

The thing I like about this is it’s sort of like tea 101. I myself didn’t really enjoy tea until the last year, and admittedly, I’m aware Starbucks Chai Tea Lattes aren’t exactly tea, but I’ve grown to just like it on its own (with a bit of sugar and cream on occasion), and the idea that it could actually be *good* for me is just icing on the cake. If you’re trying to bring a friend around who is a bit of a tea noob or skeptic, this is a pretty practical way to test the waters instead of springing for a full creamer, sugar, tea pot, and tea set.

It’s also good for the single friend, the friend who truly loves buying gourmet teas fresh from their local tea shop, or the friend who simply loves to sip giant, tall glasses of tea over an increasingly chilly fall night. Plus you know…colours! As per a suggestion I made half a sentence ago, a tea mug set probably wouldn’t be complete without some you know, tea, so pick up a baggie of some fresh exotic blend at your local gourmet tea shop (or browse the web for some ideas).

You can buy the Curve mugs at any of the aforementioned book stores (although not online), plus I found them at TeaCentre.ca and MightyLeaf.ca. They also offer a range of other similar products, including a teapot with built-in diffuser, or an Asian-style tea mug. Cheers!