Today at Character Café, we’re welcoming Rebecca McVitty from The Tea Maker’s Blend by Caroline Johnston. She cycled in… thankfully without crashing through my café door. Although after reading her story, I kept the teacups well away from the entrance just in case.
Amy: Rebecca! Welcome to Character Café! We have dry towels, hot tea, and I promise the floor isn’t slippery.
Rebecca: That’s reassuring. I’d hate for my first impression to involve broken crockery again.
Amy: I have to admit… I laughed at your first meeting with Ewan.
Rebecca: Everyone does.
Amy: To be fair, falling at the feet of a handsome stranger has become something of a romance tradition.
Rebecca: Perhaps. But I wasn’t trying to start a romance. I was trying to avoid a concussion.
Amy: Fair point. Speaking of Ewan… when you first met him on the overnight bus, did you have any idea you’d keep running into him?
Rebecca: None whatsoever. Scotland isn’t exactly a tiny village… or so I thought. Apparently, if you’re me, every road eventually leads to Ewan Robertson.
Amy: Or his tea shop.
Rebecca: Which, incidentally, has the most misleading name imaginable.
Amy: The Tea Beard.
Rebecca: Exactly! I spent ages imagining some grizzled old tea enthusiast before discovering… well…
Amy: …that he actually was a bearded tea enthusiast.
Rebecca: I know! It’s almost annoying when reality turns out to be exactly what the sign promised.
Amy: One thing I really appreciated was that neither of you was desperately searching for romance.
Rebecca: That’s because life doesn’t stop just because someone attractive smiles at you. I had plans. University. England. A future I’d worked toward for years. Falling for someone in the Highlands wasn’t exactly on my carefully organized itinerary.
Amy: Yet your heart clearly didn’t receive the memo.
Rebecca: Hearts are terribly uncooperative things.
Amy: You know what made me smile? You noticed everything. The mugs. The colors. The old fireplace. Even the tea labels.
Rebecca: That’s what tea shops do. They invite you to slow down long enough to notice ordinary things. Sometimes ordinary things end up changing your life.
Amy: Was Ewan’s tea your favorite thing about him?
Rebecca: (laughs) Nice try. Let’s just say the tea caught my attention.The blue-green eyes complicated matters.
Amy: Your friends, Grace and Ann, seemed to enjoy every awkward moment.
Rebecca: Friends are like that. If they can’t embarrass you after you fall flat on your face in front of a handsome man, are they really your friends?
Amy: Without giving anything away… what do you hope readers discover in your story?
Rebecca: That God’s timing is wiser than ours. Sometimes we cling so tightly to our own plans that we don’t notice He’s quietly arranging something better. Not easier. Not necessarily what we’d choose. But better.
Time to Order!
Amy: Our Character Café has one rule. Every guest has to choose something from the menu before they leave. Today we’ve got shepherd’s pie, scones with jam and cream, Victoria sponge, sticky toffee pudding, and one very tempting tray of…
Rebecca: Lamingtons.
Amy: I had a feeling you’d say that.
Rebecca: Absolutely. Soft sponge dipped in chocolate and rolled in coconut? There’s no competition. And if you have a pot of good tea to go with it… Well… I might just stay awhile.
Amy: I was intrigued by the Lamingtons served in the Scottish Highlands being that it’s an Australian dish, isn’t it? But then I thought of all the travelers who came to stay on Heather Wynd. Here is the recipe from All Recipes we use here in the Cafe: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/17201/lamingtons/
Rebecca: Yes, I met all sorts of interesting people from all over the world on Heather Wynd. It’s become my favorite place on Planet Earth. A baker named Imka Louw introduced these to Heather Wynd. You’ll have to read The Baker’s Pickle to find out more about Imka and where she is from.
Amy: I definitely will. Now, let me think of a tea that will pair well with chocolate and coconut — and represents your Our House on Heather Wynd tale…
Rebecca: Ooo! I like what your menu says about Highland Heather Breakfast tea: A robust Highland breakfast tea blended with Assam, Ceylon, a whisper of Keemun, and hand-harvested Scottish heather blossoms. Smooth, malty, and lightly floral—the perfect companion to chocolate and rainy afternoons.
Amy: Readers, here’s a blend that you can easily purchase from Amazon since you probably won’t be able to visit the Cafe in person: https://www.amazon.com/Taylors-Harrogate-Scottish-Breakfast-Teabags/dp/B000MN6Y46
If you enjoy sweet romances filled with cozy Scottish villages, chance encounters that seem anything but accidental, memorable friendships, plenty of tea, and a gentle reminder that God’s plans often unfold one unexpected meeting at a time, you’ll want to spend an afternoon with Rebecca and Ewan in The Tea Maker’s Blend. Just be warned—you may find yourself craving a pot of tea… and a lamington before you’ve finished the first few chapters.
Contemporary Christian fiction on Heather Wynd: The attraction is there, but not the timing.
A string of chance encounters – from a false identity on an overnight bus journey to an accident in a tea shop to mayhem at a music festival. It seems that chaos and misadventure are bringing Ewan Robertson and Rebecca McVitty together.
Except, Rebecca McVitty isn’t looking for a relationship. Especially with a man who lives and works in Bieldfell. Her sights are firmly set on returning to England and embarking on her university degree next year.
Ewan Robertson isn’t looking for a relationship, either. He’s got a fledgling business to run and a tea dream to turn into a business plan.
Can The Tea Maker’s Blend bring them together, or are some combinations just never meant to be?
Caroline Johnston is one of my favorite authors and a great friend. She is a Paisley-based author specializing in contemporary Christian fiction, known for weaving themes of love, joy, peace, and hope into her stories www.carolinejohnston.co.uk. She has published five contemporary Christian novels, two young adult books, and a series of collaborative works, all aimed at readers seeking faith-based narratives that are both relatable and inspiring readershouse.co.uk.
Caroline’s novels often address real-life struggles such as domestic abuse, family conflict, and personal growth, while offering hope and redemption through a Christian lens www.allysonkoekhoven-writes.com. Her work is grounded in authenticity, with characters who grapple with questions, doubts, and moments of joy, reflecting the complexity of real people www.allysonkoekhoven-writes.com.
You’ll love meeting Caroline on her Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/carolinejohnstonauthor
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