Tea Cosy (Win! A Kusmi Tea Prize Pack!)

With winter coming, our top cosy tea picks should help keep things hot and steamy through the season. —Vita Daily

tea for not-too-long. Always on the hunt for a new flavour, we recently came across a limited-edition release by historical tea-maker Kusmi that we love. Tsarevna ($40), a black tea singing with the warm scents of winter-holiday spices like cinnamon, cardamom and aniseed, softened by delicate notes of orange peel, vanilla, and almond and enhanced by a touch of licorice, has become a fast favourite, and we’re stocking up while it’s available—and giving a tin away, along with several other goodies courtesy of Kusmi, to Angela J. of Garibaldi Highlands, B.C.!

mug love. VITA décor columnist Isabel Ong turned us onto Vancouver-based Lindsey Hampton’s incredible ceramics—including her bestselling Ad Hoc mug ($50). Made from speckled stoneware, with a matte exterior, gloss interior and unique “circle-in-a-square” handle, it makes every cup of tea a true pottery pleasure.

prime tea time. Besides being a beauty of a drink, tea is fast gaining a good reputation as a worthy skin-care ingredient. Case in point: Nude by Nature’s Perfecting Primer ($32 at Shoppers Drug Mart), boasting an untinted formula that blends seamlessly into the skin, restoring freshness and helping to fight visible signs of aging thanks to ingredients like vitamins A and E and green tea.

baked goods. Tea just isn’t complete without some sort of sweet accompanying treat. Perfectly fitting the bill: Coco Cake Land founder Lyndsay Sung’s marvelous Milk Tea Donuts, made with an instant milk tea powder found in many Asian supermarkets. We’re sharing the recipe here!

steep & spritz. Fragrance-maker Jo Malone offers a range of scents inspired by rare teas, with Jade Leaf, Oolong, Silver Needle, Darjeeling, Midnight Black and Golden Needle varieties (each $325 for 75 ml or $460 for 175 ml at Holt Renfrew). So, it’s fitting the brand has teamed with Colette Grand Café (also in Holts) on an afternoon tea service that includes a selection of specialty Sloane Tea alongside delicate finger sandwiches and petit fours and sees every guest go home with a gift courtesy of JM (not necessarily those tea-based fragrances, but something certainly as sweet).