Earl Grey is Life

What is the feeling of deprivation? In the case of the UK navy which accidentally ran out of tea bags, it is like a chain rule effect. Tea is equivalent to British morale.

An interesting incident from the high-sea that happened earlier could give a perfect example. The true story is about national identity and international friendship. While the Royal Navy found out they need tea bags supply, the Canadian frigate show their respect and hospitality to the commander of HMCS Winnipeg. 

In the end, they got the three boxes of Earl Grey tea bags, and on top of that, they enhance the friendship of the allied escorts with Canada.

What do you think the madness of UK people is about? They could roughly consume almost 4 million in an hour. How do we/they know? Here is the data https://www.tea.co.uk/tea-facts

Hence, tea is really a big deal for the people of the UK. 

'Things like tea — that steaming amber liquid that steadies frayed British nerves and takes the chill out of almost any wet, weary bone on watch.' The reporter says

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/hmcs-winnipeg-tea-royal-navy-queen-elizabeth-1.6205366?fbclid=IwAR2MR43j08dNVxnV5leHmLfnRinMEpVSkMFpj6P2_NgLSV-Y1T4ghmSm8x0

What if they are astronauts. "Houston, we have a tea problem" (Astronauts in the outer space environment don't use tea bags for sure, this is for fun)

Calendar on Plate and the Tea history combo 2022從心出發：年曆、茶盤與歷史

 Source: https://www.milkconceptboutique.co.uk/products/fornasetti-calendar-wall-plate-2022 

Welcome to 2022, may the tea journey goes on with joys and laughter.  

歡欣鼓舞中迎來2022，有茶相伴的歲月是靜好的。

The ceramic plate industry here is also very interesting in terms of its history related to the Chinese artifact and its own Great British vibrant costume assemble with company's intelligence.

從中國學習到陶瓷的製程技術後，西方世界的文化與其激盪融合，產生許多具有創意的做法。在英國，陶瓷製造商將每一年的月曆印製在瓷盤上，讓其搖身一變成為具有收藏意義與時代感的紀念品。

source: https://fb.watch/ak4XaoeLgi/

Apart from tea bag, tea towel, and tea spoon in category, the other necessity in UK for the tea set is saucer, which is the plate that serve the teacup. 

除了茶包、茶巾、茶匙等類別，在英國很重要的還有茶盤，各種居家語和聚會中必定有各具特色的茶盤。他們或風格獨具，或是與其他茶器融為一體、互相呼應。

source: https://shop.westminster-abbey.org/platinum-jubilee-teacup-saucer.html

This kind of stylish outfit of teacup goes with lid cover and bottom plate can be seen widely in Qing Dynasty. Now some might call them ceramic tureen, which contained the cover, tea bowl, tea saucer. It also contains the philosophy of indicating the world, top-sky, mediate-people, bottom-earth.  

source: https://theme.npm.edu.tw/opendata/DigitImageSets.aspx?sNo=04028903

Three in one tea wear is still commonly use for brewing tea nowadays in the east, since it is neat and portable, especially show much about the tradition value and oriental tea spirit, featuring the profound history in this tea society. 

The landscape is different in UK. The cover escapes/disappears naturally in its culture input, and are introduced in another form. Reasons might be because tea cup gradually grows with handle, sized teapot can brew more for the household, and the tea bag can dense itself underneath the cup, and the flexible of temperature of water.  

In addition, the popular bowl for tea in Japan appear in different way. We also can see cute bowl with its lid for soup, especially Maki-e style, in some occasion tea would sit inside perhaps. 

The vintage calendar plate was popular in the market in UK in old days from prestigious aged-company. One of them occur with tea history was even more unique and rare to tea lover. By the way, if you are a collector of those antiques, the year of 2022 have the same date order as some years before, for example the sequence of 1994. Cheers!

https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/repeating.html

source: https://www.popscreen.com/prod/MTU1MDQ5NjY5/Ringtons-Tea-Plates-by-Masons-2-Story-of-Tea-Teapot-Caddy-