So the other day I was sitting down to play some Fallout 3 (an evil run, heheh) and eat a small dinner on the side. On a TV dinner table nearby, I had a Jamaican beef patty and a cup of Teaopia’s Soleil de Provence (which I just discovered that I’ve never added to my Steepster cupboard, making me even more concerned about how disorganized it is – I’m sure I need to remove stuff, and apparently stuff is missing from it! oh no!). I finished the patty very quickly while my tea was still cooling, and then stupidly left both the full mug of tea and the plate of crumbs on the table while I paused my game and left the room very briefly for a reason I can no longer remember.
…Did I mention I have four cats?
Yes, two males and two females. The females are both hell on wheels, and the males – while sweet – are both dumb as sacks of broken hammers. One of them, Kaleb, is a bit smarter than his brother Mustang, but makes up for it by being incredibly anxious and skittish.
So while I was out of the room, Kaleb jumped up onto the table to get the beef patty crumbs. When I came back into the room, he panicked and bolted.
The table – sturdy enough to leave drinks on with no fear, but not sturdy enough to withstand a 12-pound cat launching himself off of it – tipped so fast that Malcolm Gladwell would be shocked. The plate and mug both hit the stone hearth of the fireplace (which is beside the TV, and no, we don’t ever use it) and shattered…although the tea thankfully just sank into the stone and didn’t appear to get near the ton of cables associated with the TV, the PS3, the DVD/VCR player, the PS2, etc.
Not actually that big a deal in the end, except for a broken plate, and, oh yeah, MY FAVOURITE MUG!
tear
It was my Taco Time mug, which I think my boss got us one Christmas when I worked at Taco Time. Yeah, it was not a pretty mug (I mean, it had a fast food logo on it!); but it was a substantial-sized mug that was great for lattes, it was white and reflected the color of the tea, plus it was something I’d gotten at my first-ever “real” job (where I worked for six years!) and just basically had sentimental value.
I know it’s my fault, but I’m seriously bummed about the mug.
But.
This gave me the perfect excuse, didn’t it?
I have wanted a glass tea mug for, oh, just about forever. But I could not justify the purchase when we have so many mugs. Well, I had to make myself feel better, didn’t I? And I needed a bigger mug for lattes. I already have a Perfect Mug that my mother gave me a few Christmases ago – it’s sort of a charcoal color, and I don’t know if they even sell that color anymore. I like it a lot, but because it’s so dark it’s hard to see the color of a tea’s liquor.
So now I have this one! I’m very excited, I love it. The glass feels amazing on my tongue and teeth (I hope I’m not the only one who considers the texture of the cup before purchasing) and I just love that I can gaze at the color of the tea as it steeps and while I drink it. The infuser is less clunky than the old design – hard to explain, but it has less of a “lip” near the top where tea leaves tend to get stuck in my old one.
My only issue with it is that it clearly looses heat faster, and is dangerous to pick up by anything but the handle when it’s freshly steeped. But that’s to be expected – after all, it’s glass.
