An English Tea Party in Florida

Hello! Can anyone believe we are a week into July already? I only have six weeks until I head up to D.C. for college. These last few weeks will definitely go by quickly.

Anyway, a few weeks ago Mom and went to the Taj Hotel in Boston for afternoon tea. While sipping on our tea and munching on tea sandwiches, we decided to host our own tea party. We got some nice invitations to send out to a couple of my friends and their mothers. We took inspiration from our tea at the Taj and Downton Abbey.

Four our menu we decided on doing two courses: sandwiches and then sweets. Our sandwich choices were: cucumber and cream cheese, coronation chicken salad, shrimp salad, egg salad, prosciutto and melon and salmon and cream cheese. We had a variety of breads for these sandwiches: rye for the egg salad, and salmon and cream cheese; whole wheat for the cucumber and cream cheese, coronation chicken salad and some of the prosciutto and melon; and white for the shrimp salad, and some of the prosciutto and melon.

For the sweets I baked scones with raisins and golden raisins and made little lemon tarts. For the lemon tarts I bought same phylo dough cups and scooped some lemon curd into each one. I then placed a blueberry on all of them and refrigerated them until it was time to serve. We also bought chocolates from Sweet Divas, and some benne wafers and ginger snaps from Southern Sisters Bakery in Charleston. There were also some strawberries, Devonshire cream, and Raspberry Peach Champagne Jam.

Now onto to the tea, which is arguably the most important part of the event. I mostly drink black teas, but Mom wanted to get a variety of teas to try. Went to the Hooker Tea Company to get Earl Grey, a white tea and a green tea. After smelling a whole bunch of teas, we decided on a white tea called Peachy Keen and Matcha Genmaicha, which is a green tea. We also had my favorite tea, Twining’s The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Tea, which I have three tins of because it was limited edition.

About ten minutes before the guests started to arrive, we plated the sandwiches on a three-tier stand and other glass platters, we set out ten cups, saucers and spoons, and we boiled the water. After everything was set and ready, I snapped a pic and then socialized with my guests.

When people started slowing down on the sandwiches, Mom and I brought the sweets out. These disappeared much faster than the sandwiches!

Overall, the only piece of food that wasn’t devoured was the coronation chicken. So next time, I will change that out with a plain chicken salad. Personally, my favorite sandwich was the prosciutto and melon sandwich and my favorite tea was Peachy Keen. Mom and I hope to do another tea party around the holiday season. Are there any sandwiches that you would serve?