Ten minute tea with Afternoon Tea. Spend ten minutes with Afternoon Tea. In the time it takes to boil one kettle, and let one cup of tea steep, we will have your daily art + music fix covered. Take your afternoon break with our Afternoon Tea curators. Need an extra lump of sugar? One more sip? If you have five minutes more (or ten), we have one more hit.
Today’s tea + soundtrack + visuals curated by Ariana Fig.
Hamilton, ON-born singer-songwriter Ariana Fig shares “I Hope You Love Me,” a fast-moving, emotionally candid pop-folk single lifted from her upcoming debut album, So Long, Sinnerstate! (released August 14th). Written at the edge of a new relationship, the track captures the fragile, electric moment where excitement and fear collide: when falling in love feels like both a leap forward and a quiet plea for acceptance.
“I wrote the song the day before I went on my first date with my partner,” Fig explains. “It’s all about acknowledging how scary yet exciting new love can be, and hoping that someone new can learn to love you and your flaws.”
That emotional tension distills into the song’s title, which serves as both mantra and confession. For Fig, it reflects the internal dialogue of early love and the repetition of hope, uncertainty, and self-awareness that accompanies opening yourself up to someone new. “I would repeat it to myself during the early days of my relationship,” she says.
Stream + share “I Hope You Love Me” now:
Written in collaboration with Emma Whale at Catherine North Studios in Hamilton, ON, the track began as a conversation about fear and the specific hesitation that comes from watching relationships around you fall apart. Instead of leaning into that anxiety, the pair shifted toward optimism, reframing vulnerability as possibility.
“We wrote about the exciting possibility of finding yourself in someone else, and learning to love yourself while being with someone,” Fig shares.
“I Hope You Love Me” leans into a bright, early-2000s-leaning pop energy fused with modern folk songwriting. Built around fast-moving rhythms, warm acoustic textures, and nostalgic melodic sensibilities, the track echoes the feeling of racing thoughts and emotional momentum. Its buoyant arrangement is elevated by layered gang vocals, a signature element that will appear throughout So Long, Sinnerstate!
The forthcoming full-length record is a body of work centered on self-discovery in your twenties; navigating relationships, identity, and the evolving understanding of self through connection with others.
“I Hope You Love Me” captures the nervous brilliance of new love in motion; honest, imperfect, and unguarded.
Song Choice: Rainbows by Dennis Wilson
I chose this song because I just discovered it recently, but from the first few moments I knew it was something that captured the essence of every song I’ve ever loved, this otherworldly gratefulness for being human. It is filled with these lush harmonies, and it feels like a ray of sunshine on your face on a chilly fall day. It’s such a beautiful song about Earth and the human experience of it being documented through song.
I chose this video because it is one that I continuously go back to over the years. I really became a Queen fan when I was in highschool and it never fails to amaze me watching Freddie Mercury control an audience the way he did. Some call it talent but I think that man was pure magic.
Tea Choice: Twinnings Camomile, Honey & Vanilla
This is my favourite tea, it’s light, it relaxes you and it’s my go to whenever I’m writing a song.
Tea + Me 