The Karawan Teapot
This stunning and aptly named Karawan teapot is available at Mariage Freres in Paris. It's a remake of a nineteenth century orientalist teapot and comes in either sterling silver or silver plated metal. It has a porcelain interior. Although quite expensive (over 1000 € for the plate version), I find it a fabulous piece. It has exotic, traditional, luxurious, whimsical written all over it and combines in a single piece a lot of the values I associate with tea. Although I don't really use it (as I'm afraid to break it), I do have it exposed in my kitchen and just love looking at it whilst I make my morning cup. It's also a great example of why I like to call Mariage the Hermes of tea. They really do understand how transform tea into luxury (and gold ...).
This is a simply brilliant (and cheap...) organic second flush Darjeeling that comes from the Fairtrade estates. It makes a quite delicious brew that is suitable for any hour of the day (save night perhaps...). The idea of organic for tea makes a lot of sense. Indeed, if you consider that tea is an infusion of dried leaves, then the idea of having leaves that are not chemically treated and hence don't leave any chemicals in your boiled water makes it almost seem obligatory. I imagine that as time goes on, at least at the premium level, all teas will become organic even if it means reduced yields. But then again, maybe this is just hopeful thinking.