Harney & Sons Tea Catalog

Remember Steve Martin in "The Jerk" exulting over the fact that the new phone book came? Well, that's pretty much my feeling when a new tea catalog comes in the mail ("A new tea catalog's here! A new tea catalog's here!"). Last evening it was the lovely new Harney & Sons catalog, the Spring & Summer 2007 edition. You know one thing I really like about the Harney catalog? They use good, thick cover stock, and the inside pages are a nice quality, too. (I suppose as a magazine editor I obsess over such things more than most, but still ... I appreciate the quality of this catalog.)

The cover shot is pretty, even though I'm not at all tempted by the $180 tea set with a frog on the teapot and handle-less cups. Harney seems to favor simplicity in its teawares, which is fine and probably suits a lot of people; they just aren't feminine enough for me. But fortunately I don't really go to the Harney catalog for teawares but tea itself, and the selections are always endless. On my wish list this issue: flowering teas, the Historic Royal Palaces line of loose leaf teas, and something I think is just wonderful, Harney's own line of 50-count boxes of teabags. These would be perfect for enjoying a quality cup of tea at the office.

There are some new tea cosmetics I've never seen before, but they are part of a gift set and don't appear to be available individually. (Guess who's going to be googling for these shortly?) The catalog also shows a photo of the bottled tea they had at the World Tea Expo and says to check the website since they hope to offer it by mail in the near future. The website is also the place to get on the mailing list for this must-have tea catalog (harney.com).