Tea in Culpeper

Hello everyone!  I know, it has been awhile (again).  I started out with such good intentions too.  Oh well, it is now the end of February, and I wanted to share my birthday tea while it is still my birthday month!  My parents took me to one of my favorite tea rooms in the area, Miss Minerva Tea Room and Gift Shop in Culpeper, Virginia. 

The owner, Pat, and our server were so gracious and nice!  We were a bit early, but were immediately seated

at our table with matching Johnson Brothers settings.

Sniffer jars of tea were brought over so we could decide which temped our tastebuds (and nose!). 

After placing our tea order, my sister, mother, and I wandered back into Miss Minerva's closet, to try on hats for a family picture.  They even had a crown for my poor suffering dad! 

After our bit of fun, the tea arrived, and Miss Minerva's does it in style with a full sized teapot for each of our selections (so the table got to try four different teas!).  Our waitress even matched the pot to each tea.

I choose Spring (black tea with ginger bits, apple bits, lemongrass, cinnamon, conconut flakes, pink peppers, cardamom, sunflower blossoms and red currants) served in this spring blossom Asian teapot.  I was VERY happy with my choice.

My dad's cheeky peach (fruity with ginger and cinnamon) in one of two "masculine" teapots.  She said the other one looked the same but was green.

My mother's Cherry Ice (black and green teas, cherries, apple and orange bits, hibiscus petals, safflower petals), which she really enjoyed (somewhat surprisingly to me--she is usually an Earl Grey type)

And finally, my sister's Wedding blend (Chinese mutan white tea infused with lemon, vanilla, and rosebud) served in a pot with little pink rosebuds.

After a couple sips, our food arrived on its three tiered stand.

First, the many savories

Starting at the top clockwise(ish) of the picture below, chicken salad (with fruit) on a croissant, roast beef wraps, mango chutney on crust, humus on a cucumber, egg salad on dill biscuits (my favorite), vanilla blueberry goat cheese on a date (very good too), and cheese and olive spread in a phyllo cup.

We had cherry scones served with jam and Devonshire cream

and desserts, strawberry petit fours, apricot cheesecake, and orange coolers (all wonderful!).  The orange coolers are a staple of the tea room.

But there was one more surprise...

A little cake to celebrate my birthday!  Everytime I have been to this tearoom they have been so gracious and the tea so nice--it had been a couple years since I had last come for tea, and it was wonderful to find it so consistently, well, wonderful!

Culpeper has a nice down downtown area with lots of shops, so we wandered around for a bit to burn off some of the tea calories.

(Really nice Virginia themed mural)

A wonderful birthday outing!  I have had a pretty busy month and one more activity coming up this weekend, so a bunch of new things for the blog (maybe even a party)!  I hope you can join me again :).