Tea gifts for the person who makes a whole thing of the kettle
Tea people are not really buying a drink, they are buying four minutes with nothing else happening. That is why a tin of something rare is a worse gift than a mug that feels right in the hand, and why every box here is built around the sitting down rather than around the leaf. I pack every box myself here in Canada and write your message onto the card by hand before the lid goes on.
Tea people are buying four minutes with nothing else happening. I pack every box by hand here in Canada.
Eight boxes with tea at the middle of them, at $99 and $119, and six of the eight come in two sizes.
Most of these have a mug or a cup in them, and that is deliberate.
Anouk. Sit down for ten minutes. That is the whole gift.
Love, Cal
The boxes I would send a tea drinker
None of these is filed as a tea box in my catalogue. They are the boxes with tea and a cup at the centre, which is the only claim worth making about them.
Showing all 8
The Leisurely Morning Tea Box
From$99Tea with lavender through it, a mug thrown by hand and a jar of Canadian honey.
The Cozy Cup Comfort Box
From$99A warm drink, a mug to keep and something sweet to stir in. The simplest one on the page.
The Afternoon Break Box
From$99Built around an unhurried break: the tea, a cup to drink it from and something to nibble.
The Desk Hydration Box
From$99Loose leaf and the thing to steep it in, for someone who drinks tea at a desk all day.
The Couples Tea Box
From$99Packed for a couple, which only means there are two mugs in it rather than one.
The Cozy Comfort Box
From$99A throw, warm socks and chamomile, for the cup that happens at the very end of the day.
The Tea & Stationery Box
$119Tea and a mug made by hand, with a hardcover notebook and pens for the hour after.
The Ultimate Cozy Retreat Box
$119Tea, a heavy mug, something to wrap up in and a candle. The fullest one here.
Which one, then
Tea gifts split by when the cup happens, not by what is in it. A desk at three in the afternoon, a kitchen at seven in the morning and a sofa at ten at night are three different boxes, and the person you are buying for almost certainly has one of them in mind. If you want the arithmetic on how much to spend, how much to spend on a gift in Canada covers it.
By when the cup happens
Three boxes from $99 to $119: the Leisurely Morning Tea Box, the Afternoon Break Box and the Desk Hydration Box. Morning, the middle of the afternoon, and a desk where the cup goes cold twice before it is finished. The last of those is the only one with something to steep loose leaf in.
If the tea is an excuse to stop
Two boxes at $119: the Tea & Stationery Box and the Ultimate Cozy Retreat Box. Both of these treat the cup as the start of an hour rather than the point of it: one adds a notebook and pens, the other adds something to wrap up in and a candle. Send either to somebody who has trouble sitting still.
If there are two of them
One box from $99 to $119: the Couples Tea Box. It is filed under a couple in my catalogue and that is all that means: two of everything you would want one of. If one mug is enough and the budget is the smaller end, One box from $99 to $119: the Cozy Cup Comfort Box.
Two sizes on a box, and where the bigger ones are
The boxes on this page run $99 and $119, and six of the eight come in two sizes. The larger size of a box is everything in the smaller one and about two more things, picked the way the rest of it was picked. On this page the larger size usually means more to drink rather than a second mug, because the mug is already the part that stays.
Eight boxes on the site run a ladder of three sizes instead, and the luxury boxes at the top of it are the fullest things I pack. If you came here meaning to spend more than this page asks for, the links under this are the shortest way there.
The card outlasts the tea by about a year.
You type the message when you order, up to 280 characters, and I write it out in pen on a real card. Tea is gone in a month. The card ends up inside the cupboard door, which is where I find mine.
If you are stuck, people write things like:
"Sit down for ten minutes.""Thought of you and the kettle.""No reply needed."
The card, the tissue, the tape and the rest of what happens to a box before it leaves.
This is a licence to sit down. Use it before the kettle goes cold.
Love, Cal
Other things they might be into
A tea drinker is usually two or three other things as well. If one of these is closer to the truth, the shelf is here.
Half the people who drink tea in the evening drink coffee in the morning, and the coffee boxes are built the same way, around the cup rather than the bag.
If the tea is really about the blanket and the closed door, the whole page for somebody who cancels plans on purpose is a better fit than this one.
And if they are deliberate about sleep, water and slowing down generally, the boxes for that are on their own shelf and lean further that way.
Questions people ask me
Is a tea box different from a coffee box here, or is it the same box renamed?
Different boxes, not one list with the noun swapped. Nothing on this page is on the coffee page and nothing on the coffee page is on this one. Each box has its own page, and that page says what is in it, so you can check that it really is what this one claims.
Is the tea loose leaf or bags?
Both, depending on the box, and each box page says which. One of them comes with something to steep loose leaf in, which is the one to pick if they are serious about it. The rest are simpler than that, and the box page for each one says exactly what is in it, which is worth reading if they are particular.
They already own a lot of mugs. Is that a problem?
Everybody who drinks tea owns a lot of mugs and has two they actually use. Several of the mugs in these are made by hand and heavy, which is the kind that ends up in the small group rather than at the back. If you would rather not risk it, the boxes built around a break instead of a mug are the ones to pick.
Can I send it to their work address?
Yes. You put whichever address you want at checkout and the box goes there. No price on anything inside the box, so it opens as a gift rather than as a number. Shipping is free anywhere in Canada and a box is 1 to 7 days in transit. There is a field at checkout where you pick the delivery date you would prefer.
What do the two sizes mean?
The larger size of a box is everything in the smaller one and about two more things, picked the way the rest of it was picked. The boxes here run $99 and $119, and six of the eight come in two sizes. All sales are final, so check the address before you order.
A mug is a better tea gift than tea
Ask somebody who drinks a lot of tea what their favourite thing about it is and almost nobody says the flavour. They say the kettle, or the ten minutes, or the fact that it is the one part of the morning nobody talks to them during. The drink is the excuse. The ritual is the thing.
That is why a rare tin is a worse gift than it sounds and a good mug is a better one. The tin gets used up and forgotten inside a season. The mug is in the hand every day for years, and every time it is, the person who sent it is standing there a little bit. Every box on this page has something to drink out of in it for exactly that reason.
These are packed by hand in Canada and sent with a card written by hand in your own words. Shipping is free anywhere in Canada and a box is 1 to 7 days in transit. If you want the whole catalogue instead, every box on the site sits in one grid sorted by price.
While you are here
- Small Gifts With Big ImpactWhy the cheap thing often lands harder than the expensive one.
- How to Write a Gift Card Message That Does Not Sound Like a CardThe part most people get stuck on.
- How a box is packedThe card, the tissue and the rest of it.
If you are not sure which box to send a tea drinker, tell me who it is for and roughly what you want to spend and I will tell you what I would pack. I read every message myself, at team@swipegifts.com.