My Favorite Things: Make-Your-Own Gourmet Tea Sampler

Inspired by Oprah's "Favorite Things" and the holiday season, I thought I'd do a series of posts with some of my favorite food and cooking-related gift items.  Of course, I can't hand out free items like Oprah can, but hopefully I can inspire a few gifts for the foodies and entertainers in your life.  Enjoy!

Know any avid tea drinkers?  SpecialTeas.com is an awesome online loose tea retailer that sells small sample packages of most of their teas for $1 and $2 each.  Plus, they ship from Connecticut, making standard shipping more or less overnight for those of us in Southern New England.  That makes it easy for you to put together a "Tea Sampler" for someone special.

 Just choose 4 to 6 flavors of tea that you know your recipient will love and add a couple of great items like these:

• A Reusable Tea Filter for mugs
• An interesting and functional teapot for sharing with friends

 Pack everything in a decorative gift bag with a package of shortbread cookies and you have yourself a thoughtful, personalized gift.