Tea Parties

The tradition of afternoon tea goes back a long time. It was started in England as far back as the 1840’s.  Tea is typically taken in the afternoon and if you have watched Downton Abbey you will have seen the Dowager indulge many times.  It is an elegant and relaxing event and if it is done right the ambiance is wonderful.

I live in Arizona and there is one tea shop in the whole area of Scottsdale and Phoenix that is authentic it is called the English Rose Tea Garden in Carefree.  It is cute and is very much like the tea shops you can visit in England.  It is run by an English lady with the perfect English accent, so she knows how it’s done.   One of the issues I have with some of the tea’s I have been to in USA and London is that they are overdone.  The food is too fancy, remember this was a tradition in the afternoon you were still going to eat dinner, so at a genuine tea party the food is much simpler.  In many of these cases I could not eat most of the food it was too much and too rich.  My daughter and I went to high tea at the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin and it was beautiful the Lord Mayor’s room is stunning and the atmosphere and ambiance was amazing.  However, the Petite Four (deserts) the top layer of the serving plate was just too rich and impossible to eat.  High tea is about simple sandwiches and scones served with clotted cream and jam. You can get clotted cream in Arizona at AJ’s.  Typically, and this is how I serve it, the bottom layer contains savory sandwiches, the middle layer contains scones and the top layer a desert.  I have seen some beautiful Pinterest and Instagram ready teatime food, but the reality is they are often done for effect and of course the truly fancy stuff means a high price for an afternoon tea.  The dealbreaker for me is when I am served tea in plain white china cups.   I was so disappointed when I had tea at Highclere Castle (Downton Abbey) and it was served in white cups.  I am in love with the beautiful traditional patterned fine china with flowers and fine finishes.  You do not have to have matching cups in fact different cups and saucers make the table prettier and are much more in line with what you get in a traditional tea shop in England. 

You can still buy the beautiful china, or you can save a lot of money and shop the consignment stores and thrift stores for your collection.  Almost all my tea party china has come from consignment stores (I have a large collection).  Two of my favorite’s boxes of china from consignment stores had “Grandma’s China” written on the box.  I was happy to bring Grandma’s china back to life.  I have paid as little as $49 dollars for a 12-place setting vintage Lennox dinner service and $50 for Royal Dalton 6 pieces tea and coffee set. Look for the dinner services which come with cups and saucers and have milk jugs and sugar bowls.  You then have most of what you need and picking up a china teapot is relatively simple.  Goodwill regularly has a collection of china teacups and saucers and you can also pick them up there.  You can also get the 3-tier cake stands in consignment stores.  I have also got really nice cake stands from Amazon.  Search for “3 tier cake stands”