The Art of the Tea Tray

I've been wanting to do this video for a long time and today we're going to be talking about making a tea tray. Making something super clear from the beginning is obviously I'm not claiming to have invented a tea tray. This is a ritual that has been done a million times. I'm only re-bringing it to your attention and letting you know that this is such an amazing ritual for like any time of your day, any time of your week when you're in need of centering and like a moment of self-care. I also want to let you know that there's construction happening outside and I'm using this mic hoping that it helps. I have been like waiting for the construction to stop. I don't know when it's ever going to stop. It's literally 24-7 so if you hear some noise I'm sorry but I figured we'd rather do a video than just like not do videos in the future. So let's talk about tea trays. So what is a tea tray? Essentially a tea tray is a tray with a beverage, a warm beverage preferably. I'll do tea sometimes, I'll do coffee, whatever it is and then I pair it with some wholesome snacks and then an activity or two. The purpose of the tea tray is really bringing the ritual back to life and kind of having this centered moment that you can transport anywhere in your apartment, in your house, you could take it outside if you have a garden, if you have a balcony because you're like kind of creating this little world on a tray. I know I say the word intentional a lot but it's a very intentional practice. Obviously to start you're going to need a tray. A lot of people ask me where I get this tray. This one was from a vintage store. As are most of my things, I bought this at a vintage store and you could definitely find them second hand. The items for a tea tray are not strict by any means. You know you can mix and match everything that you see here because the whole purpose is that you're creating this really cozy and comforting sanctuary for yourself. One thing that's kind of a non-negotiable is a tray but you can find that anywhere and I like this one because it's very gorgeous. It's so sturdy, it's wood and then it has this like nice gold detailing and it's my favorite one and kind of like what birthed the tea tray idea. So the next thing I recommend having is like a little teapot. This is one of my favorite parts of the ritual because it allows you to just like keep pouring and kind of what that tells me psychologically is like I have this moment and I have as much time to relax as the tea allows and that's kind of how I experience it but I've also done tea trays where I'm just like I pour one mug of hot tea and that's enough. This one's really great. My mom got me this and this is the reason I started doing the tea trays because I was like if I have an opportunity to just pour myself a million cups of tea I should make it beautiful. And then this is the most recent one I got. This is like my favorite one in the world. It's this beautiful like bronzy kind of I it's such a unique color I think it's gorgeous and these are not stains it's like water that you can wipe off but it's kind of hard to. Over here I have this clearer one because sometimes you want to see the tea leaves because it's really beautiful. I also have like full flower teas that you can kind of watch like bloom while it's steeping and it's just gorgeous. A lot of the tea tray elements I find that make it so nice is that you're just enjoying like the beauty very very small aspects of life whether that's just like having your morning coffee or morning or evening tea or you're journaling, you're reading, you're having a nourishing snack. It's slowing down and really realizing how nice this is. Next you're gonna obviously need your little tea cup. I love selecting a tea cup based on my mood or like the weather. I know it's really excessive but I love it. Again like the whole point is being as intentional and ridiculous as possible. I like using these little cups um if I'm drinking like out of a teapot because it allows me to refill a whole bunch of times and it feels like I'm drinking a lot more tea than I am. This is a really gorgeous one um and yeah you could just have like a variety of these little small ones. That clear teapot I got second hand and it came with like a bunch of these cups. Like there's so many second hand options. There's someone out there waiting to gift you their beautiful teapot collection. This is my favorite mug as of late. I just love it more than anything. This is one um that I purchased a while ago like in 2020 from a Polish artist. This is my Miffy one I bought in Amsterdam um last year and it's so spring and cute so I'm gonna be pulling this one out more often and then I want to share this really really special one. It's this travel tea set which is like kind of unrealistic for travel because it's very delicate but I will definitely be using this on picnics and you best believe that I'm going to be making some picnic tea tray content because that is like I cannot wait for that. You can really create a tea tray with such affordable options and I think would be such a great gift for a friend that you know like loves these cozy things or is a tea lover and you always get them tea but you're like how can I elevate it a little bit? This would be a great gift. I like to have a snack or two on my tea tray and that also adds another element of beautiful decor on the tray. This is one new one. There's some tea leaves on it but this is a polka dot one that I got. It's actually spoon rest but it's perfect for my small snacks. This one I bought from Prague um at a market in Prague and I love it. It's stunning and then this one here is this beautiful ceramic plate that I got from Oaxaca, Mexico in 2019 and I have a whole bunch of these and they're so gorgeous so just depending on what I'm snacking on or I really like to like curate the tray to make it look as pretty as possible and having these different plates the different textures and patterns makes a big difference. This is where things get fun like the little extras. I love having gorgeous coasters and these are ones that I bought in Florence, Italy. They are so stunning and add beautiful color. I also have these that I got in Prague like a month ago but I also have these cute little linen ones. They're just super easy to wash and I think they're gorgeous and again adds like that pretty texture and just you can really like create the mood based on all these different like textures and fabrics. And speaking of textures and fabrics, I love having fabric napkins. This is so easy for me because I do have a washer and dryer and I just like barely use paper napkins anymore and such a beautiful way to add like some color and texture into the tea tray and into your life. This one is just a cute little stripe one I got from Ikea. I got this at a vintage store so I have like a pack of six of these. These are also from a vintage store and so are these. These are my latest ones. It's like soft pink and so yeah I really like make the tea trays based off of like the season, the mood, the weather and yeah all these like components really help differentiate them. On to like extra extra accessories, this is a teabag holder. I really like having this because if you're taking out the teabag and you don't want it like dribbling all over your like snack on your actual plate and the whole purpose of a tea tray is relaxation so you don't want to get up and throw out in the garbage. Like yeah it really is that serious so having one of these is great and I have another one too but it's in the dishwasher. For your tea essentials, these are some things that you can use to actually steep your loose tea. These are the ones that I use most often. My sister got me this 100 pack from Boston and this has lasted me like over a year and I loved these and I want to buy more. However if you don't want to use a little bag you can get one of these steepers. I don't love that one but my sister actually also got me this heart one. It's so cute and it works so well. It does not look like it would keep the tea leaves in but it does and I really like this one. It is so pretty. Also teaspoons for your honey, for your whatever it is. This is a hand carved little bird that I got from an Etsy seller. I just love it so much and I also have this little brass one good for the smaller cups and that's to like sweeten it with whatever you're sweetening with and I could show you that also. This is a creamed honey I got from Prague. I don't often sweeten my teas especially if I'm having like my evening chamomile or something I won't sweeten that but a black tea I do like to sweeten. This is such a beautiful honey container as well. I got this from the farmer's market but I gotta rinse it out and clean it because this is done for already but I will literally like display this on the tea tray as well as shown because it's just so pretty like why not. This isn't a video where I'm like really sharing my tea recommendations because I'm not that adventurous with tea yet. I just I love enjoying tea and like staying within my comfort zone but I am branching out a little bit and this is what I have right now that I'm really enjoying. This is a creamy mulan by Todd and Holland. It's very lovely. This nightfall one this is my go-to evening tea now. It's chamomile, peppermint, rose petals and then I have this jasmine oolong. Also so stunning and fragrant. This is just so spring to me and then these two that I've talked about so many times um this mariage they're a French tea house. The best tea that I've ever had this is their green which is a rose and lavender mellow green tea. I mean I really cannot say enough good things about this one and then my favorite black tea of all time also by them which I've talked about so many times is this wedding imperial. It's like a caramelly black tea and it's incredible. It's so so good and I've gone through so many of these already. In terms of snacks you can really go anywhere with this. Sometimes I'll make it like my full-blown breakfast tray or like an evening snack. You can do cheeses. That's a great idea. Fruit of course. Grapes. Cut up some strawberries like whatever it is but my recent obsession for my tea trays has been nuts and dried fruit. I really like almonds and I've been getting into Brazil nuts but I also really love prunes. I eat a few prunes every day and it's just amazing. Also these dried figs are so gorgeous and fantastic. One thing I really love to do is like cut up apples as my snack and then I'll be like on my bed having my tea tray and my dog will jump on the bed with me and so I'll share my apples with her and now we are having a little tea tray picnic on the bed. So sharing snacks with her. That's a whole other different thing that I'm actually writing a sub stack on called how to have a tea party with your dog. A whole other thing though. We'll get to that. The final touch to a tea tray. This is where things get ridiculous and excessive and I love it. The more excessive the better because this is your moment and it's all about creating this beautiful vibe. I love like adding a decoration or two to my tea tray like a totally impractical decoration. Here's one of them that I use often. I got this at an antique store. It's a little LED lantern. It doesn't work right now but I just need to replace the battery and then you have a cute little light on your tea tray which you can also use like a little tea light candle or something but I love that that's flameless. This beautiful pomegranate. I got this in Prague also and it has a little dry flower in it. So beautiful. You can also do like little figurines and stuff that you have. Last but not least, choose the activity that you're going to do while you have your tea tray. Choosing this ahead of time kind of just like prevents you from scrolling on your phone the whole time. However, if that's how you want to spend your tea tray time, that's totally fine too because I do that all the time but if you want to like separate this space as like a really nice calming moment, grab your book that you're going to read, place it on your tea tray, grab your journal but be careful because one time I spilled hot water on my journal and it left a really big stain on the other so be careful with that. But you can also have like a little game. I have mini puzzles that I like to work on, like they're really small little jigsaw puzzles, so cute. Or a word game like Q-list, just like a solitaire word game. And it's just these things to get off your phone, really good idea just to be as mindful and as present as possible. Just some little ideas for you. That is the art of creating a tea tray. I hope that you enjoyed. I really hope that you embark on creating your own tea tray in whatever way that fits your lifestyle and your vibe the best. I really believe that you're going to enjoy this practice so much and you're going to see it transform and move into your own beautiful ways. I hope I see you on my Instagram, on my Substack, on everything and I hope that we can chat more and I hope that I'll see you here soon and thank you so much for watching.