I love tea. I prefer it over coffee. And over the past year, I've developed more of an interest over having afternoon tea and the art of it. On a trip to Boston last year, my friend Leanne and I had afternoon tea at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel and then was born my obsession. I want to go to afternoon tea every Saturday, but alas, life calls and I can't.
Since I just caught up with Downton Abbey, I thought it would be fun to do a season 2 finale viewing party with my friend Mark and his roommate Cynthia. And what better way to bid adieu to Downton until 2013 than with an afternoon tea party?!!!
I have to say, this may have been my best idea for entertaining yet - - since it may or may not have planted a little seed in my head that I could do this for a living (as in host afternoon tea parties for people at my tea house cafe!). For now, it's a pipe dream, but below is my recap of the afternoon tea extravaganza. It was so much fun planning the menu, the teas, and of course what chinaware I would be using. I would have liked to have made my own blends of tea, but perhaps next time I will be more adventurous with that.
First things first: the flowers. I think my florist thought I had gone crazy when I asked him for a few random beaches of some random "filler" flowers and then 3 roses, but oh well. I had a vision! And it was this:
Next up were the teas. I have plenty of tea in my house so I really only had to go get one traditional English Breakfast tea. Here was the selection:
And onto the fun part: tea sandwiches! Now, I'll admit I was a bit intimidated by this part since I never made a petite sandwich before, but there's a first time for everything!
The "Classic" - Cucumber Sandwich
The Interesting One - Watercress & Goat Cheese Sandwich
The "Other" Classic - Egg Salad Sandwich
The star of the sandwich trio was the Watercress and Goat Cheese. Absolutely delicious. The recipe called for butter to be spread around the sides of the sandwich then rolled in pecans but that just sounded all kinds of disgusting to me, so I instead chopped up pecans and placed them over the spread goat cheese. I loved this sandwich so much, I think I will make a little snack of my own with it!
And here are some other random pictures of the rest of the table:
SUPER delicious biscuits.
Noritake Snack Plate and Teacup (my most exciting antique market find!)
SCONES!
So I kept reading about Clotted Cream in my research for a menu. My trusty ol' Irish Butcher of course had it. And boy was it divine on that scone!
Sugar cubes!!!
Biscuits!
Tea + Sandwich = Divine!
Tea + Desserts = Heaven!
Mark brought desserts, which I foolishly did not take a picture of :( I had them displayed on my nice 3 tier dessert tower. Next time ...
This was such a low-stress, super fun entertaining idea! I think I want to do this more often. So much simpler than preparing a whole meal and not to mention the perfect amount of food for an afternoon bite.
If you want me to plan an afternoon tea affair, let me know! I am all about this right now!
I will leave you with this tea quote:
