My Vintage Tea Party
Ramblings and Reviews From a Lover of Tea and All Things Vintage
I cannot express how excited I am to formally start my blog! I finished up my summer class on Monday night, so I will finally have time to begin posting on a regular basis. To begin, I was going to do a "two in one" review of a couple of tea rooms I had the pleasure of visiting while on vacation with my mother in Boston this past May, however I think the post would end up being too long so I will stick to one for today and do the other one in a separate post. As I mentioned in my introductory post, I love tea. A lot. Luckily my mother does too, and every year when she and I take a trip together we always make a point to visit a tea room (or two...or how ever many we feel like). For the past few years, we have happened to be on our annual "Mother Daughter Vacation" on Mother's Day, and what better way to spend Mother's Day than relaxing together while taking tea in an elegant salon? This time, it was afternoon tea in the French Room at the Taj Hotel. "Elegant" does not even begin to describe it. In my humble opinion, atmosphere is everything when it comes to tea rooms-- it can set the mood and determine whether your tea taking experience will be whimsical (much like the Crown and Crumpet tea room we visited in San Francisco many years ago), high class, or casual. The Taj delivers a high class experience with all the bells and whistles that one would expect from afternoon tea at such a swanky hotel. Personally, this kind of tea experience is my favorite. With my love of the Victorian era, I like to feel like I am a high class lady in the 19th century taking my tea in style.
We opted for traditional afternoon tea fare, with a selection of finger sandwiches to start with and then scones and small desserts. I thoroughly enjoyed the smoked salmon and shrimp sandwiches, so I ended up eating both mine and my mother's and I gave her the ones I didn't like. I have...particular taste. Both the sweet and savory treats were served on a silver, three tier stand and laid out in an aesthetically pleasing fashion (I am all about aesthetics). My favorite detail was the lovely silver strainers that were placed on each tea cup. For those of you who might not be so familiar with making tea, these strainers are used when loose leaf tea is added straight to the hot water in a tea pot, and when you are ready to pour your tea the strainer catches the leaves so they don't sneak into your cup. I love it when tea is served this way, as I prefer loose leaf tea and the strainers that sit on the tea cup are just so pretty and dainty. I don't refuse to use tea bags, there's just something about preparing and drinking tea the traditional way that makes me happy. Maybe I'm a snob, but there are worse things to be snobbish about I suppose. The French Room itself is an enclosed area, whereas many of the other fancy "tea rooms" I've been to have been more open, visible spaces. I really have no preference, but places like the French Room are more intimate and cozy-- much like taking tea in a private parlor. This was certainly one of my favorite tea rooms, and that is saying a lot since I have visited my fair share of them across the country. Hopefully I will find myself in Boston again someday, and if I do I will surely have to make a point to visit the Taj again.
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About Me
Greetings, readers! My name is Jordie, and I am a tea obsessed, history loving young lady who just happened to be born about 60 years too late. Archives
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