It's All About ... .The Caddy's!

My boyfriend looked at my newly tidied Twinings Corner (as I call my tea collection!) and was extremely impressed. He puts up, with good spirit, my obsession with tea. Recently, my kitchen was looking a right state, with boxes of tea everywhere. In the end, it drove me mad, so I decided to tidy everything up and I don't think I've done too bad a job!

I love my caddy's. I could tell a little white lie and say how I adore the fact that it keeps my tea fresh, protects it's delicate leaves from the steam in the kitchen and that's the only reason why I buy them. But, although not totally untrue, I will readily admit, the main reason I purchase them is because they are pretty, look cool and have WOW factor!

My favourite caddy's are the Floral range. (For some strange reason I don't have a photo of them all together, but here are three out of the five of them). I love how pretty these designs are. I love the illustrations, I love the Twinings crest etched on the top of the tin, and I love their quality. My favourite out of all of them is the Mulled Spice caddy. Her dress looks almost velvet and you can imagine what it must feel to touch the material. I do not know who the artist is, but they should be applauded.

In an ideal world, of course, Twinings (in paritcular) would produce caddy's for every tea they produce. But, sadly they can't. I don't think it would be possible. So, sometimes you have to be ingenious in how you can produce them yourself.

I have (as you can see above) even made my own! The original caddy came from the 2012 Christmas range from Twinings. Once the refills had run out and I couldn't source them anymore, I wondered what I could do with the remaining caddy's. Then the idea hit me to make my own, therefore allowing myself to keep the tea fresh, and to display them nicely to people who visit our house. I have used a red caddy for Chai tea, and a purple one for Keemun.

 

Christmas 2013 saw Twinings produce some really unique Christmas teas. As you can see both this caddy and the one pictures above for Earl Grey teabags followed the same theme of dark colours with a stark, white, pattern. This caddy contained loose tea, but, in all honestly, I find them hard to use as the opening at the top of the caddy is not really wide enough and when trying to get the tea out,  I quite often spill most of the teaspoon. 

The Diamond Jubilee tea caddys are, without doubt, my second favourite. These store teabags, (I also have the loose tea caddy but it's not easy to use as it's the same shape as the Christmas ones!) but there is no reason that it could be reused to house loose tea. It's hinged lid is very easy to use and gain access to your tea. (I hear there are still some floating around under the sale section of Twinings - maybe you should bag a bargain!). 

Not all of Twinings caddys are tin. This caddy of white tea, sold to commemorate last years birth of Prince George is made from a thick cardboard. It's tubular shape is interesting and I have refilled it with sachets of white tea. There is something quite nice about this caddy, and the tiny icons of tea cups, rattles and nappy pins is really quite sweet. 

But, despite how lovely they look, and in all seriousness, caddy's play an important role. They are, in particular, the tin ones, fantastic at keeping tea, especially loose tea, nice and fresh. They protect your tea from all the excess moisture that you have in your kitchen and are brilliant at stopping strongly scented teas, such as Twinings Sunny Peach and Passionfruit and Yogi's Classic Organic Cinnamon from contaminating more delicate teas, which I have seen happen several times.

The good thing about caddy's is you can get them quite cheaply (Poundland and Wilkinsons sell them at reasonable prices). You can purchase vintage caddy's from ebay and Amazon if you like your caddys looking different. Whatever  you like, they are great things to own, and from what I've seen, are good talking points whenever you have visitors in the kitchen!

Personally, I'm really looking forward to this Christmas to see what Twinings can produce in their seasonal range. I can be sure there will be a lovely caddy or two in there to add to the collection!