A kid in a tea candy store

It's rare that I go in a World Market store and don't leave with some new tea-related product. I've bought tea and tea mints, teawares and teatime cookies. My latest find? This tea candy from Bali's Best.

The candy is naturally flavored and really does taste like iced tea and green tea latte. And at just $1.99 for a bag of 40 pieces, I thought this was a good value. In fact, I haven't filled the candy basket at work for a while, so I'm going to add these candies and see what sort of reviews they get.

A few years ago, a co-worker gave me an article she'd found listing the results of the Life Savers (Candy) Dish on Office Life poll. It found:

• Candy dish owners believe they're more organized, hardworking and creative.

• The typical candy dish owner is female, Republican, married and twice as likely as others to be satisfied with her job.

• Candy dish owners are more likely to have gotten a bonus (43 percent) in the past year.

• Six of 10 candy dish owners reported getting a raise in the last year.

• Those sad souls who work in an office without a candy dish? They're three times as likely to be job hunting. So if you want to add to office peace and harmony, fill that candy dish!

Green Tea Zucchini Bread

When friends are as generous with the fresh vegetables as ours have been this year, you can afford to experiment, so that's what I've been doing over the weekend!

The first time I made this zucchini bread recipe, I used too much butter and it was too spongey in texture. Plus, I decided it could stand another bag of the matcha tea, and now I think the flavor is just right, since you get that little zip of "something extra" from the tea. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did!

Green Tea Zucchini Bread

4 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup grated zucchini (with peel)
1/4 cup fat-free plain yogurt
Contents of 2 Double Green Matcha tea bags from Republic of Tea (about 1-1/2 teaspoons of dry tea)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
Dash of cinnamon (or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine ingredients in order listed, mixing after each addition. Prepare a 9 x 5-inch glass loaf pan with cooking spray, add batter and bake for 50 minutes or until brown on top. Yields 1 very moist loaf. Refrigerate any unused portion.

Here's what the batter looks like when you add the dry tea.


And yes, you can drink this tea as well as eat it!

July 4th tea-infused Jell-O

If you're like me, on the Fourth of July each year you've probably made your share of Flag Cakes (stripes out of bananas and strawberries, stars out of blueberries) and red, white and blue Jell-O concoctions. Today, I planned to use some of the girlfriend-grown blueberries in some berry-flavored Jell-O I had in the cabinet. Only I got ready to make it, and all I had was sugar-free LEMON Jell-O. Uh-oh. Yellow, white and blue just wouldn't do.

Enter those Strawberry White Tea teabags from Snapple and a few drops of red food coloring. I infused the 1 cup of boiling Jell-O water with the strawberry tea, added a couple of drops of red food coloring, and voila: very berry (and patriotic) Jell-O. You know what they say: Necessi-tea is the mother of invention! Happy Fourth, Y'all!

B-L-Tea Sandwiches

The e-mail from a friend had the simple subject line "Mayo and Bread," but it was enough to make me cheer. I knew this was her way of letting me know the tomatoes were in, so yesterday I was at her house with my hands out for tomatoes - literally - and left with an enormous box of them, along with side orders of green beans, cucumbers, eggplant and blueberries. My husband had just brought home some squash and zucchini he had received, so we are going to be eating well around here over the July Fourth holidays!

But I have to say the tomatoes excite me most, because I love-love-love a good tomato sandwich. When the salmonella scare broke out a few weeks ago, I craved a fresh tomato sandwich even more. After I picked up the mother lode of tomatoes yesterday, I ran by the store for that one loaf of white bread I indulge in each year and made a sandwich for a late lunch. The order is this: Bread. Mayo. Tomato slices. Freshly ground salt and pepper. More mayo. Bread. Yum!

For supper, my husband fried up some bacon so we had BLT's on toasted bread. Just delicious! Then, I was reading through a new tearoom cookbook at bedtime and came across an idea I'd never considered before, the BLT as a tea sandwich. It suggested crumbling up the bacon in the mayonnaise, spreading it on tiny, cut-out bread slices, then layering the lettuce and tomato. I think that would make a fine tea sandwich! Don't you? (Hint: It's also great for breakfast!)

All that glitters is not gold

On Friday, I stopped by the Newnan Antique Mall since I hadn't been in a while and you just never know what you might find. I saw this vintage tea strainer and bowl (marked "server warmer") and thought $5 was a good price, so it went home with me. I just love to have some new tarnished piece to bring back to life. I was also surprised when the cashier said "Oh, you found a tea strainer!" I asked how she happened to know what this is, and it turns out she is a tea lover so we swapped stories and she has my business card to call me if any great new tea things come in. How cool is that - another new tea friend!


Once home, I pulled out the trusty Wright's Silver Cream and went to town. I had wondered how to keep the polish from dribbling down the wooden handle on this strainer, but it turns out the handle screws off for cleaning, so that was nice. I just love watching the tarnish disappear and the true silver color come forth.


A short while later, and I had an almost perfectly-polished tea strainer. (I see I missed a few spots, but I'll get them next time. That blob in the bottom of the strainer bowl is just ... me taking the photo!) The only bad thing is, I didn't have anything else that needed polishing.


But wait! I remembered those pretty vintage silver iced tea spoons a friend gave me a few years back. They needed polishing, and in summer it's always nice to have pretty iced tea spoons on hand. There. Do you have any silver I can come polish for you?

How do you spell T-E-A?

Do you like dictionaries? I do. I guess because spelling is such a big part of my life, I have always enjoyed looking up words in the dictionary. Today, I am more likely to turn to dictionary.com, but I still love the dictionary, which is probably to be expected from someone whose maiden name was "Webster." So when I visited Etsy and came across some jewelry made out of old dictionary pages, I promptly e-mailed the designer about making something from the word "tea" for me. As you can see, there was quite a lovely outcome!


Shortly after I wrote to her, Dana Klopfer e-mailed back images of both the 1892 Webster's and another vintage dictionary's entries of the word "tea." I immediately fell in love with the 1892 version, largely because the word "teapot" happens to be featured as well. But lo and behold, Dana had also come across a vintage dictionary illustration of our beloved camellia sinensis, so I wanted that necklace too. To give you an idea of the size, the smaller one's on the back of a Scrabble piece (mine is a Q), the other on a small wooden piece. Both come with silver ball chains, and look how nicely they were packaged!

I know she had at least one "tea" definition left, and it may be possible to get others, although I learned she uses only original dictionary pages and does not copy them. She can do a custom order for just about any word you like, and she also makes similar designs from old maps and atlases, so if there's a city you're partial to, just ask. She also makes magnets, keychains, bracelets and more. I got my items super fast and couldn't be a happier customer. To see more of her designs, visit her Etsy shop here or her blog here.

Sweet Tea Pie

The minute I heard a new cookbook was out with a recipe for Sweet Tea Pie, I *had* to have it. As soon as my copy of "Screen Doors and Sweet Tea" by Martha Hall Foose arrived, I went right out and bought the ingredients to make the pie. But here's the thing about me and pies: we don't get along well. Sweet Tea Pie, however, I would conquer. The recipe for this crust contained just three ingredients. How could I botch that?

Alas, the recipe contained a pretty significant error and listed twice the amount of crust ingredients needed for a single pie. Now if I were a more experienced (and less insecure) pie baker, I would have realized this when the piecrust alone filled up nearly 3/4 of the glass pie pan, and the thing weighed 27 pounds when I put the crust in the fridge to cool as I prepared the filling. I cooked it, and cooked it some more. Then when the filling finally set, I refrigerated it, and refrigerated it some more. It was a soupy, disappointing mess. Another potential blog post down the drain!

Suspecting the crust was the problem, I googled an old newspaper article about the author, which included the recipe, and discovered that the crust recipe in the book was accidentally doubled. Well, these things happen. When I was a newspaper lifestyle editor, I once typed in a recipe for the weekly food page and listed one of the ingredients as 1/4 CUP of nutmeg instead of 1/4 TEASPOON of nutmeg. Oops. So, over the weekend I tried Sweet Tea Pie again, halving the crust ingredients. Perfection! And this custard-like pie really does taste like sweet tea! Hallelujah!

And you know what? Despite the error in the recipe, I really, really like this cookbook and the author. (Besides, an editor or proofreader should have caught that error.) A lot of southern cookbook authors, in my opinion, are trying too hard to impress their culinary peers and want to elevate something like, say, grits by adulterating it with overly-fancy ingredients. Martha Hall Foose clearly respects southerners and southern food, and I like that. She is also opposed to store-bought pimiento cheese, as am I, and we could be friends on that basis alone. (I made her pimiento cheese recipe and it turned out beautifully.) I'm also eager to try her gumbo and teacake and salmon croquette recipes. She introduces her recipes with stories and a lot of sass, and I like that. So here's the recipe for Sweet Tea Pie as I made it. Enjoy!



SWEET TEA PIE

Crust

3 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1-1/4 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour

Filling

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
8 large egg yolks
3/4 cup strong steeped orange pekoe tea, cooled (I used Red Rose)
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

To make crust: Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and butter until combined. Add flour, mix until dough forms a ball. Pat dough into 9-inch pie pan. Chill in refrigerator (the crust, that is) while you prepare the filling.

To prepare filling: Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar on medium til light. Add yolks one at a time, beating on low after each addition. Slowly add the tea, zest and lemon juice. Scrape down bowl. Add flour, cornmeal, salt and mix well. Pour into crust and bake for 45 minutes or until set. (I had to add 10 minutes until mine was set.) Cool completely on a wire rack, and then chill for 2 hours in refrigerator. Yields one 9-inch pie. I'd love to hear how yours turns out!

The Girl with the Pearl Teapot Earrings

For the past month or so I've been scavenging for cheap costume jewelry. Antique malls, thrift stores, eBay and Etsy.com have all proven to be good sources for the search, and though I haven't bought a lot (yet), I'm sure having fun looking! Once, I even got the original box with a set of earrings I bought, this one from Wm. H. Griffin Jeweler, 104 Broadway, Newburgh, N.Y.

Inside? This sweet little set of gold-filled and cultured pearl earrings. They have those screw-on style posts, and I actually like that style best in vintage jewelry because clip-ons - which I will buy if they are pretty enough - tend to pinch the daylights out of my ears. I wore a pair of clip-ons I love the other day but took them off every hour to restore circulation to my earlobes. (They were also large and kept banging into the telephone at work when I answered calls. But then no one ever said looking elegant would be easy...)

Sometimes I marvel at the sheer number of items which have featured a teapot or teacup as a design motif, from paintings to linens to costume jewelry and more. (Frivolitea has even found a "tea and design" book I need to get my hands on.) Obviously, our affection for tea has been around a long time. These Wm. H. Griffin earrings weren't made in the nineties, y'know? And while I'm not quite ready to sit for Vermeer, today I'm happy I get to be "the girl with the pearl teapot earrings."

Time to play (teabag?) tag!

Yesterday I received a comment from Marilyn Miller of Marmalady's in Portland, Oregon, whose wonderful tea jams and jellies I have written about on this blog before. She is also a new blogger and was letting me know I've been "tagged." (And isn't there something very appropriate about a tea lover being tagged?)

Do you know what it means to be tagged? Here are the instructions as provided by Marilyn:

"The rules of the game: Each player answers the questions themselves. At the end of the post the player tags 4 people and posts their names, and goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment letting them know that they've been tagged asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you've posted your answers."

So, here we go:

10 years ago ~ I was working as the lifestyle editor of The Times-Herald, a daily newspaper in Newnan, Ga. Even then, I enjoyed *almost* everything about my job. But I have to admit that when we bought this magazine and I got to be the editor, I was delighted that I would never, ever have to work with an overbearing mother of the bride on her daughter's wedding announcement ever again.

5 things on my list today ~ 1) Write cutlines for "Web Extra" photos going up on our website when our new print magazine hits the streets tomorrow. 2) Search for new tea book I left at the office. 3) Meet with one of our freelance writers to finalize story ideas for the September/October issue. 4) Call the friend whose phone call I forgot to return until it was too late last night. 5) Tonight, remember to check the eBay bid on that gorgeous vintage rhinestone bracelet I've been watching for the past week.

Snacks I enjoy ~ M&M's, occasionally Fritos and French Onion Dip, any Cucumber Cream and/or chocolate truffles left over from a tea party, and lately I'm into the new herb-flavored whole-wheat crackers.

Things I would do if I were a millionaire ~ Build that house in the country my husband and I want with a huge, well-stocked pond and individually-outfitted writing cottages for both of us. (His would be more masculine, mine would double as a tea house for friends.) I would also hire the brightest and best writers, photographers and designers I could find and launch a new, nationally-distributed women's magazine for thoughtful women of all ages with an appreciation for history, the arts, literature, homemaking, gardening and beauty in all its forms.

Places I have lived ~ Austell, Ga.; Buchanan, Ga.; Carrollton, Ga.; Newnan, Ga.

You have now been tagged:

Rhonda, The Path to Simplicity
Kathy, The Empty Nest
Rebecca, Better Make It Through Today
Nichole, Mommy Days

A&P Fine Teas

A friend sent me a card the other day, and inside was tucked a most wonderful treat: an ad for A&P Teas from a 1958 issue of Woman's Day magazine! Although I remember going to the local A&P store as a child, I haven't seen one of these in years but have read there are still some up north. It was only as a result of my tea studies that I learned A&P began as the Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company.

Mrs. A. von Dedenroth of Walled Lake, Mich. is the lady providing this testimonial type ad, promoting the fact that she saved 34 cents on A&P's teas over another well-known brand. So even 50 years ago, they liked to advertise products that save you money.

I also think it's interesting that the front of the packages of tea in this ad are very specific about what's in these blends of "OUR OWN tea bags" and "NECTAR tea bags." They contain "pekoe and orange peckoe and cut black tea." And of course the ad ends reminding everyone that "A&P teas prove fine tea needn't be expensive." I'm thankful that fine tea is still a good value today!

Strictly Strawberries

"Strawberry Shortcake, Huckleberry Pie! V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!" Anybody remember that old cheer? The flavor of these summer fruits is just so yummy, and since I don't grow strawberries I yielded to their siren call at the grocery store. The packages of shortcakes were just sitting there staring us shoppers in the face as we walked in, and although you all surely know I Much Prefer To Make It Myself, this is one of those times where I just wanted to eat it, not make it. So, I am thankful for the small mercies of ready-made shortcakes and low-fat (if frozen and not quite pretty enough for company) whipped cream.

But did I get my fill of strawberries? Oh, no. In fact, I was delighted to see this Snapple Strawberry White Tea at the grocery store because it's another, even easier way to enjoy the taste of strawberries.

I'm still into "refrigerator brewing" my tea this summer, so I made a small pitcher full to keep on hand. I also tried it hot, and it is delicious that way as well. Strawberries and cream, anyone?

Gotta getta guywan

With the Summer Olympics set to begin in China in just a few more weeks, I have my hopes up that some, if not all, of the tea in China will be featured in the TV coverage. You know how the Today Show and others tend to provide lots of "cultural coverage" during the Olympics? Well, I'm counting on them having some segments on China's tea tradition, and looking toward that I have pulled out my trusty guywan.

I first discovered the guywan (sometimes spelled "gaiwan") at The Tea Room in Savannah years ago. A guywan is simply a Chinese covered cup with a saucer. The set is designed to be held together while you use it, which let me tell you, takes some doin'! Basically, you sort of pinch the lid and saucer in your hand (thumb on top) and - with the lid tilted ever so slightly - use it as a strainer to hold back the tea leaves as you sip. Helpful hint: You might try wearing old clothes (and letting your tea cool a bit) when you first experiment with a guywan!

These come in all kinds of designs, but I wanted something that looked Chinese. I've since discovered there are also clear glass guywans, and I think it would be helpful to have one of these because then you could *see* the tea as you are about to spill, I mean "sip," it. Google "guywan" or "gaiwan" and you'll find lots of information about these classic teawares.

Tea table book: "The Book of Tea"

Now here's a book that has been on my Wish List for a longggg time. I started to say it was a high-end "coffee table book," but that just wouldn't be right, would it? So we'll just say it's a nice "tea table book." At any rate, "The Book of Tea" from Flammarion was $60 when I first came across a copy at a bookstore some years ago, and I just knew I'd find it on sale one day. And I did. A few weeks ago, I was looking for tea books on eBay and came across this one for 99 cents. It's quite a large book (9-3/4 x 12-1/2 inches), and I am so enjoying reading through it and looking at all the amazing photography.

Chapters in the book are titled Tea Gardens, Tea Barons, Time for Tea and The Taste of Tea. This spread is from the chapter on tea gardens. The photo at right shows the inside of a factory in India. There are lots of photos showing the growing, plucking and production of tea. I've seen such photos before, but rarely are they as beautiful as they are presented here.


I really like the book's historic photos, including this one of ladies at tea time in New England circa 1900. There are also lots of images of tea-themed art through the ages, and it is so lovely to have this much "tea beauty" in one volume. If you're looking for a copy, Alain Stella wrote the first chapter but often seems to be listed as the author of this book. Anthony Burgess wrote the preface, so you might try searching with his name as well. This is definitely one of my favorite tea books of the year!

A cranberry drink made with tea

Often, I am writing this blog post during my morning viewing of The Today Show. Yesterday during the show, I saw a commercial for Cranergy Energy Juice Drink and thought I heard them say it was made with green tea.

I absolutely love cranberries and cranberry juice anyway, so there was nothing to do but head to the grocery store and see if this product had hit the shelves yet, and it had. It was $3.89 for the pack of 4 bottles, and I bought the "raspberry cranberry lift" flavor. (They didn't capitalize so I won't either, but please know that I am pro-capitalization when it comes to product names.)

Some thoughts: I like the taste. It has that tartness I like, and the 12-ounce bottle is a good size for a single serving. It has 100 percent of the RDA of Vitamin C. I read it contains 20 percent fruit juice, so what's the other 80 percent? Well, the first ingredient listed is filtered water. I'm surprised to see it contains Splenda. I drink artificial sweeteners because I know it's either that or eat the sugar bowl for me, but I realize this will be an issue for some. And I'm not sure how I feel about seeing the word "Energy" on the label, although I realize so-called "energy drinks" are hot with some consumers these days. Mostly, I was just intrigued that Ocean Spray made a commercial specifically mentioning its product made with green tea (green tea extract, actually). Would you buy it? Would you try it?

Tag! You're it!

Today I come to ask your help. A reader who is an artist (and very attuned to the visual side of paper) tells me she recalls once seeing some tea bags with larger than usual, decorative tags. When she mentioned this it did ring the vaguest of bells with me. Any idea who made these teas with decorative tags? She thinks they were once featured in one of the original issues of Victoria magazine. I checked out some of my current tea bag tags by ripping open packets from Numi, Twinings (the tear-off-the-packet kind of tag; I really don't like this type) and Bigelow. And yes, it's possible to tear off the old one and make your own tag to staple to the thread, but ... we want to find those pretty ones that are already out there!


While not exactly "decorative," this raspberry tea a friend brought me from the Czech Republic last year does have a teacup on the tag.

And of course the loveliest tea bag tags around right now, I say, are the Tea Forté tea bag tags, but what we're looking for are traditional flat tea bags with large, decorative tags. Can anyone help? I'll be looking through those old issues of Victoria, but if you have any info on unusual tea bag tags, please share!

Teatime at the Spa

Well, OK, I haven't really been to the spa, but thanks to a thoughtful friend I have some new "True Blue Spa" products made with tea from Bath and Body Works, and these are some of the yummiest things I've used in ages.

For Heaven's Saké (heaven's saké! how funny!), a bath and body wash, is made with Japanese saké but also with camellia sinensis leaf extract. In the shower, this oil-to-cream body wash works up to a rich lather, and the scent is just divine.

Equally yummy is this Self Meditating Body Butter. (I have to say that the editor in me wonders how a CREAM can be self meditating. Or am *I* supposed to meditate on self while I'm using it? I'm self-centered enough as it is, thank you, so I think I'll let the cream worry about the self meditating). At any rate, the body butter is made with rice bran oil and green tea. Great products, and a great gift!

Nifty and thrifty tea books

Bloggers have made me a savvier shopper. When I first got hooked on reading blogs a year or so ago, I began to notice that all these women with lovely homes and decor were often finding the goods at their local thrift stores. Here in Newnan, I made my inaugural visit last week to a fairly new thrift store, the One Roof Ecumenical Outreach Alliance on Temple Avenue. If I hadn't been on my lunch hour I would have spent more time browsing the wares, but I saw a sign that said books were 25 cents and made a beeline to the room with all the books! (OK, so I briefly got distracted and picked up this 25 cent napkin on the way. Any fabric with teapots on it is going home with me.)

Two of the books, "Meals in Minutes" and "Lunches and Brunches," were printed in 1963, the year before I was born, and I just love seeing what food fashions were in vogue back then. One has a recipe for Spiced Iced Tea (the pre-Tang version), and this one has a recipe for Pink Parfait Pie you make in the blender. Yes, nothing says "elegant tea party" quite like having a blender on the table with the teapot!

A later but still vintage volume is "The Joy of Entertaining," from 1983. It has a chapter on teas and coffees and a recipe for Petits Fours. Reading these retro recipes gave me an idea, too. Wouldn't it be fun to have a "Retro Tea" and ask all your guests to wear clothes from the sixties and seventies? Perhaps a few beehive hairdos, false eyelashes and frosted pink lipstick? The hostess, of course, would have to assemble some teawares with age-appropriate motifs (those "atomic" designs, perhaps), and of course the color palette would need to include Harvest Gold and Avocado Green. So what do you say? Would you come to my Retro Tea Party?

On miniature teacups

Many are the tea things I have collected over the years, but one of the few objects I have managed to refrain from collecting is the miniature teacup and saucer set. These are often very cute and easy to find, but you can't really use them, and they take up lots of valuable space that could best be used on adult-sized pieces like the full-sized trio shown here. So, I rarely buy tea miniatures.


But then there was this, on sale for just a dollar at a local thrift shop. I thought it was so pretty, and maybe I can think of a "useful" use for it. (I'm a firm believer in that old William Morris quote: "Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.")

But the main reason I bought this is that it's obviously a relative of the set of six trios I received as a gift many years ago. A friend of mine's mother found these at a flea market in Arkansas and thought I would really like them, and she was right! I've actually seen a matching teapot in a tea cookbook, but never any of the other serving pieces. Maybe this miniature set is a sign of things to come!

"Tea Art" by Gregory R. Suriano

My favorite tea book is often the latest one I've received, but there's a new one out that I must highly, highly recommend to tea lovers for a place of honor in the tea library: "Tea Art: A Modern Look at Vintage Tea Graphics" by Gregory R. Suriano (Schiffer Books, $24.95). This is the first book to cover the topic of paper ephemera associated with tea, and I'm just sorry I didn't come up with such a great idea myself, because this would have been loads of fun to research!

Have you ever come across a tea-themed postcard on eBay or at an antique mall? I have precisely one (an old tea room near Atlanta), but obviously I just haven't been looking hard enough or long enough. Here are just a few of the images of postcards from "Tea Art."

Have you ever seen a tea advertisement in a vintage magazine? I haven't, although I sure do love the one above right with Ginger Rogers, and you can bet I'll be looking for such ads NOW. In addition to postcards and periodical advertisements, the book also covers prints, posters, book and periodical illustrations, booklets, sheet music, trade and trading cards, labels and packaging. (HINT: Even before I got this book, I started saving at least one teabag wrapper out of every box of teabags I purchase. I'm scanning them to my computer for both collecting and crafting purposes.) "Tea Art" also includes tea history, a nice bibliography and a price guide to these tea-themed paper collectibles, making Suriano's new book an especially delightful read for those of us who love all things tea.

Tea & salt & pepper

Years ago, I had several sets of tea-themed salt and pepper shakers, but I got tired of the counter clutter and sold them at a yard sale. Naturally, I've re-thought that decision a few times. When I came across these little guys for just a couple of dollars at an antique mall recently, I couldn't resist.

They measure about 1-3/4 inches tall and 2-1/2 inches wide. The gilded grape leaves are a little on the gaudy side, but the color is a soft, vintage shade of pink, so I have these on display in a cabinet with some other tea things.

I'm always interested in tracing the history of vintage pieces, and these salt and pepper shakers both have silver foil labels but they're hard to read. I believe the very bottom says Made in Japan, but I can't quite make out the company name. Vongoo? Vongeo? Vongco? At any rate, I continue to be amazed at how many old things used tea or teawares as inspiration, including these sweet little salt and pepper shakers.