Lots of things go with tea. Things like scones, fruits, chocolates, cheeses, and (as a woman in Scotland put it) “neeps, tatties, and haggis.” And things like reading books, watching movies, chatting with friends, even doing laundry. On the other hand, a lot of things definitely do not go with tea, such as driving the lead car at the Daytona 500, archery practice, scuba diving, and giggling. Now, you all probably know the hazards of giggling while sipping tea. The tea snort out the nose. The choking as tea goes down the windpipe instead of the esophagus. But I’m talking about the act of pouring tea when a severe case of the giggles starts.

My recent and educative experience with this particular combination of activities was caused by hubby dearest.

Hubby is hilarious — a very funny guy. Not stand-up funny where everything is often written out and well-rehearsed in advance. He’s more the kind that pops out something unexpected and very humorous and then keeps building on it with ever funnier remarks until the humor builds like the proverbial snowball running downhill. This has frequently resulted in me spilling things, dropping things, and laughing so hard I end up gasping for breath and needing to sit down. He doesn’t plan it that way. He just has that sort of mind that, once it gets started on a line of humor, revs up higher and higher until I say “Stop! I can’t breathe.” This is especially bad when I have a full teapot in my hand.

Full teapots need a steady hand to pour them. Whether you’re pouring from a tiny Yixing teapot that holds 4-6 ounces of liquid, a gaiwan of similar capacity, a kyusu, or a 2-cup, 4-cup, or 6-cup teapot, you have one key task to accomplish: get tea from the steeping vessel into the receptacle. This involves aiming the spout (or cup lip as is the case with gaiwans) at the receptacle (teacup, cha hai, etc.), and tilting the vessel so that tea pours out of the spout or lip into that receptacle.

That’s how it’s supposed to work. Sigh!

How do you hold a teapot steady when you’re giggling like someone demented? You don’t. In my case, the tea started out going into that cup but as those giggles set in and my hand grew less steady, well… thank goodness for sponges and mops is all I can say!

Most definitely, giggling and pouring tea don’t mix. And when you’re drinking a fine tea like Darjeeling White Tips White Tea you don’t want to waste a drop!

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