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 :).

Victorian tearoom fun

Wow, I've gotten a bit off schedule again (granted, it's been a while since I've really had a steady posting schedule).  I should really work on that...that said, here is my next post!  Last weekend I joined a friend at Sweet City Desserts in Vienna, Virginia.  Every month this bakery has a special themed tea.  You might have seen that I went there last month for their Valentine's tea. March's theme was a Victorian tea.

The tea started with a scoop of potato salad:

Next for the tiered tray:



First the savories:

On the bottom plate:  apple chicken salad on a croissant (my favorite of today's sandwiches) and cucumber dill on two different breads.  I thought using both wheat and white bread was a neat look.  the second plate held egg salad and olive tapenade (which I didn't like, but I'm not a big olive fan). 

Next we enjoyed two scones each.  Both were cherry and very good.

Finally, dessert:

 Victorian strawberry sponge cake and three cookies (chocolate coconut, a tea cookie, and a pecan shortbread).  Sadly I couldn't eat any of them because I gave desserts up for Lent.  My family seemed to enjoy the leftovers I brought home, so they must have been good!  I was sad to see the cake especially go into someone else's stomach...but Easter is coming soon. 

One fun thing about this party is that Victorian dress was optional.  My mother and I worked out an outfit from pieces in our closets to create a Victorian-esque outfit.

Here I am posing in my mom's dining room after the tea.

(See I told you I didn't eat the cake!  Here it is on my mother's Lenox china, Morning Blossom)

The pink and white Royal Doulton figurine is Margaret (my mother's name) and the yellow is young Queen Victoria herself.





A Valentine's Tea

For my birthday, my parents took me to Sweet City Desserts in Vienna, Virginia, for a special Valentine's Day tea.

Sweet City Desserts is first a bakery and a window display shows some of their lovely cakes.

This was my first time visiting Sweet City Desserts, and I wasn't sure what the seating would look like inside, but there were three café areas set up for tea with a mixture of different seating options, including couches.

(we sat in this first room at the couches along the back wall, so we had a great view of the artwork by Pilipino-American artists that filled the walls)

Each table had different place settings--here is a glimpse of ours.

Tea began with scones and homemade clotted cream.

 We had a choice of different Mighty Leaf teas, with Earl Grey as the recommended choice for the Valentine's tea menu, which sounded good to me.

We each had two scones, which were delicious, and then the very full tiered tray arrived.

Starting with the savories: cucumber dill, roast beef with cheddar and mustard on a croissant, curried chicken with apples on raisin bread (my favorite), and ham with a pineapple cream cheese spread on a potato roll.



I've always thought that the mark of an extra special tea is variety in how the tea sandwiches are served and this definitely hit the mark.  You can also see in the picture above the chocolate heart favor next to my teacup.

After the savories it was of course time for dessert, and, since we were at a bakery, I knew it would be extra special.

We were not disappointed as there were opera cakes (a bit like tiramisu with a coffee syrup), cinnamon shortbread cookies, and raspberry macarons with chocolate ganache.  In the picture below you can see the last dessert--a chocolate covered strawberry garnished with chocolate shavings.  In other words, lots of chocolate!



Even though we were definitely very full at this point, we had seen a British flag at a shop just up the little alley, so we went up to check it out.  When we walked inside, we found that it sold pasties!  We figured this was the perfect ending of our British inspired day, so we left with a couple of sausage rolls and meat pies.  Let's just say I set my diet aside this past weekend.  It was my birthday after all!

I also wanted to share a couple of my birthday gifts.  My parents gave me a teapot I'll share for another time, but my sister gave me these TWO Royal Albert tea trios. 

She definitely knows me well picking these lovely two sets out.

First,

Royal Albert's Ivy Lea.  I think ivy is so pretty, and this set has a bowl cup with pretty interior designs.

The other set is Royal Albert's Inspiration.

This different colors of blue and green roses in this pattern are so pretty!

Thanks so much for visiting!  I'm joining these link parties:

Bernideen's Tea Time, Collage, and Garden Blog Party 

 No Place Like Home

Tuesday Cuppa Tea