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HARRISBURG, Pa. Mary Klaus has one rule for hosting a tea party.

There are no rules.

You dont need to dress up and have your pinky out, said Klaus. This is 2024 ... were not that fancy.

That was one of the many pearls of wisdom Klaus served up Thursday morning at the Pennsylvania Farm Show. Her talk, simply titled How to Give a Proper Tea Party, was attended by approximately 100 fair-goers.

While Klaus aimed to take the stress out of hosting a tea party, she did offer several helpful guidelines for achieving the perfect brew.

Never make just one cup of tea, said Klaus, who only uses loose tea for brewing. I make a teapot every time. And you dont throw it away ... you have iced tea.

Klaus also doesnt use tea balls or other infusers to keep leaves separate from the hot water.

You need to allow the tea to be loose in the pot so it has a chance to circulate, she explained. But you do have to strain it before it goes into the cup ... unless you want to tell someones fortune.

After steeping the loose tea in boiling water for two minutes, Klaus employs a tea butterfly to pour tea for her guests. It has a little sponge on the end and also keeps your lid on, so (the tea) doesnt go on your guests.

To keep her teapot warm, Klaus uses these cozies she collected over the years.

Once the first round of tea is poured, Klaus uses one of her many tea cozies to keep the teapot warm. It looks somewhat like a toaster cover, but is very thick.

Klaus said sometimes she uses a tea press (which many know as a French press) to quickly steep her tea.

When it comes to adding milk, sugar or lemon to tea Klaus says its all a matter of personal preference.

I drink my tea without milk or sugar, she said. But my guests can have it however they choose.

This "lemon bird' allows guests to squeeze fresh lemon into their tea.

If her guests prefer lemon in their tea, Klaus has a clever little lemon bird that allows a slice of lemon to be squeezed out of the metal birds mouth. You can also use a lemon squeezer or wrap half a lemon in cheese cloth, she added.

If you come to her house for tea, Klaus said youll get a menu with four different teas. Everyone gets their own teapot and four little cups so you can sample all the teas.

Klaus recommends creating a menu of the teas that will be sampled at the tea party.

Similar to a wine pairing, Klaus will also match her teas with sweet treats. If Im serving cranberry tea, Ill make cranberry scones to go with it, said Klaus, adding she also likes to make lemon- or apricot- flavored madeleines using the shell-like cake molds.

Klaus is always looking for ways to have fun at her tea parties. One of them is to offer fancy hats for everyone to wear.

I have five boxes of hats, Klaus said. Some people say, I dont look nice in hats, but they just have to find the right hat.

Klaus also wears many hats in her professional life. Her impressive career includes more than 30 years as a journalist as well as service as a Hospice nurse and missionary.

I have done tea parties all over the world, Klaus noted. I once served tea in a Sudanese prison.

Klaus also did a tea service for women in Maldova (a neighbor of Ukraine). Since the house had no electricity, she brewed her tea over an open fire in a bucket.

It was not my standard, but they were happy because they had hot tea and a cookie, she said. Tea always demands some type of sweet.

Klaus said she also serves tea at Hospice.

Families are stressed out and Ill say, lets have a cup of tea. If the patient is healthy enough we all have tea together, put hats on and they forget theyre sick.

Even a burly bunch of firefighters has a tough time resisting Klaus enticing brews.

At the firehouse Ill serve tea to guys that think they dont like tea, Klaus said. So Ill bring (one with a) cool name like Congo Bongo ... thats almond and coconut.

As Klaus and her friend Janice Shuty poured raspberry tea for the audience, Klaus shared a memory of why tea holds a special place in her heart.

When I was a little girl my mom would serve me tea in bed Saturday mornings. And I would drink tea and read Nancy Drew books, Klaus recalled. Thats a treasured childhood memory.

Personalized placeholders make guest feel extra special.

Debbie Tornfelt of Lancaster and her friend Rachel Mundis both felt they learned something from Klaus presentation.

We have a gourmet group together and it would be fun to do a flight of teas, Tornfelt said. Mundis added, I thought it was interesting she used a French press for loose tea. ... I never really thought of doing that.

Klaus concluded her presentation by saying the perfect tea party is one where youre relaxed, your guests are relaxed, the tea tastes good and youre having fun.

Its not for a queen, its for you, Klaus said. Youre all queens and kings in your own right.

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How to Host a Proper Tea Party It's Easier Than You Think! - Lancaster Farming