We’ve written about Tregothnan Estate many times at this site and here’s the proof. It’s noteworthy for the fact that it’s the only significant producer of tea in a place where tea is consumed with great enthusiasm – the United Kingdom. Recently, it was announced, as one of the British papers put it, that “English grown tea will be available for the first time in British supermarkets.” That’s Tregothnan tea, of course, which is also exploring the option of exporting their tea to China, as well as opening their own chain of tea houses.

If “cereal tea” is something you’ve never heard of before, you’re not alone. I was in the same boat until I ran across a few references to it recently. It’s apparently designed for anyone who thinks that cereal saturated milk found at the bottom of a cereal bowl is something like fine cuisine. According to this instructional article it’s prepared like tea, but it apparently doesn’t contain any actual tea – though you could probably throw some into the mix if you were so inclined.

I seem to recall a few previous references I’ve made into these pages to clothing that has been dyed with tea. Along the same lines, here’s an article about a designer who creates fabric from kombucha, among other things. Kombucha is a cultured drink that’s not tea in the strictest sense of the word but which is usually mixed with tea.

Then there are zany novelty tea infusers. I try not to let too many of those columns pass without a reference to at least one. This time around I’ll point you to not one but rather a fine assortment of twenty tea infusers, courtesy of the good people over at the Mashable site.

Speaking of zany and novelty, there’s teapots. If you happen to be in Pomona, California this spring you might want to stop by the Big Fish Small Pot teapot event. If you miss it there’s always next year. After all, this year’s incarnation is billed as the Sixth International Small Teapot Competition and Show. More here. For more on teapots, there’s always the teapots teapots teapots site, where they feature such offbeat items of interest as this one.

See more of William I. Lengeman’s articles here.

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