St. Valentine's Day Countdown (4)

For today I'm going to review an herbal Valentines Day tea "for sweethearts."  This tea is from Republic of Tea and is called Raspberry Rose Hibiscus.

The website describes the tea as follows:

"Herb Tea for Sweethearts - Every day should be a celebration of love. Raise a cup of this romantic blend with a base of flavorful, healthy Nigerian hibiscus. Sweet, ripe raspberries and delicate rose petals add fruity and floral notes. Enjoy this caffeine-free blend with the ones you cherish."

It is a yummy tea with a nice raspberry taste with floral notes.  The tea is sweet with a slight twang of sour (it is raspberry), so I enjoyed it with a little bit of splenda, but I enjoy my teas on the sweet-side.  The tea is also a lovely (and very appropriate) red.

Because it is an herbal tea, it has been a great tea to unwind to at night this month.  The tea is in the round teabags typical to Republic of Tea.

I am showcasing the Sweethearts tea in my Lady Hamilton cup and saucer set by Royal Albert, which, as you can see, has hearts in the design and is red and gold with roses and other multi-colored flowers.  This is one of my favorite three piece sets (I also have a matching plate). 

St. Valentine's Day Countdown (5)

This week I thought I would go for a Valentine's Day theme.  For my first post, I want to share a Homegoods find from a couple of weeks ago:

I'm very excited to start using them!  I thought the one with the crinkly sides might be fun for a scone.  I already have plans for two other cookie cutters that might show up later this week :).  Can you tell what the shape at the top left of the box is?  Here is a hint--every shape in this set is of a heart.

Tea Samplings, Part 2-- Snow Geisha White Tea

Today I'm reviewing Teavana's Snow Geisha White Tea.  Teavana's website describes the tea as follows:

"Luscious Morello cherries plucked straight from the billowing, gorgeous Sakura tree characterize this Eastern treat. Sip this rare blend of delicate rose petals, soft white tea leaves, luscious cherries and candied cranberry that will take you on a sublime journey of the senses.

Light and refreshing cherry infusion with floral rose undertones"

This pictures shows the rose petals in the tea, including a small rose bud.  If you look really close, you can see a few tiny pieces of dried fruit.

 

It is a very nice floral white tea with an aftertaste of fruit, mostly cherries to my taste buds.  Even though it is called snow geisha, to me it tastes like spring flowers with a hint of new summer berries.  It is a beautiful color and the smell is a delicious perfume.

 

The tea cup displaying the Snow Geisha tea matches the images the tea gives me of spring and is a multi-colored floral Royal Grafton bone china cup and saucer set.  I found this set at the D.C Big Flea at the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, Virginia last month at a booth with all non-tea stuff (mostly toys actually) for $5.00.  Now I just have to find a plate to match!  

 

Tea Find

Isn't it fun when you are out shopping and you come across a new tea find?  I ran into a Ross to take a quick look to see if they had trays (I have only had one for about a year now, and I do tend to eat dinner in front of the T.V.).  They only had two trays one of which was:

 

This is obviously the tray I ended up with! And when I'm not eating dinner on it, I could use it as a tea tray. 

T(ea).V.--Sherlock

Tonight I am watching the last episode of Sherlock Series 3.  If you aren't familiar with Sherlock, it is a British show about Sherlock Holmes (go figure) living in modern day London.  Benedict Cumberbatch plays Sherlock and Martin Freeman plays Dr. John Watson.  Now, as a stereotypical British T.V. show, tea shows up in every episode.  Usually, it's a mug made by John, but every now and then there is a special moment.

 In Series 2, Jim Moriarty (Sherlock's arch enemy) shows up at Sherlock's flat--unexpectedly to the audience.  Sherlock, because he is Sherlock, is expecting him so, what does he do:

Prepare the tea tray!  When Jim shows up, he serves him tea from bone china cups, complete with creamer and sugar bowl.  You never see Sherlock making tea in the show, but for Moriarty--tea is served.

In Series 3, the ritual of tea again shows up.  It's the day of Dr. Watson's wedding and Sherlock is (although he isn't admitting it to anyone) worried that things will change.  Mrs. Hudson, his landlord, comes up and brings him tea.

Sherlock:  Why are you here?
Mrs. Hudson:  I'm bringing you your morning tea.  You're not usually awake.
Sherlock:  You bring me tea in the morning?
Mrs. Hudson:  Oh, where do you think it came from?
Sherlock:  I don't know, I just thought it sort of happened.
Mrs. Hudson:  Your mother has a lot to answer for.

Now, I just have to wait another two years for the next season...patience is not a virtue of mine.
 

Salamander Afternoon Tea

Today I went with a neighbor to afternoon tea at the Salamander Resort and Spa in Middleburg, VA.  Middleburg is in Virginia's horse country and is a beautiful drive through rolling hills and horse farms.  The resort is pretty new and is up the street from the town of Middleburg, where Elizabeth Taylor was known to go to lunch when she was married to Senator Warner and lived in the area.  The Salamander first began offering tea this past December. 

When you walk in through the front doors, it is directly into a large gathering room with a fireplace and large windows looking out into the grounds. 

Tea was served in the library, which was set with only a couple of tables, some near couches and wingback chairs.  It really did make you feel like you were in some grand manor's library enjoying tea at the behest of your host.

The food was well presented and tiny--but there was a lot of it!  The food was served on a three tiered tray and included the following sandwiches, mostly beautifully presented canapés:

Virginia Ham Pinwheels | Fennel-Pepper Jam

Honey Crisp Apple Chicken Salad | Cranberry Walnut Bread

English Cucumber And Watercress Cream Cheese | Toasted Brioche

Smoked Salmon Wrapped Grissini | Caviar Crème Fraiche

Roast Beef With Horseradish Crème | Pumpernickel

There wasn't a scone course per se; instead, the mini-scones (butterscotch with pecans) were served with many different types of breads as well as mini desserts.  There were tiny wild blueberry muffins, slivers of banana bread, and mini-madeleines.  The desserts continued with fruit tartlets, tiny lemon meringues, chocolate truffles, bite-sized raisin and chocolate cookies, raspberry thumbprint cookies, and Russian tea cakes. 

The service was terrific.  The staff came by numerous times to check on us and was very polite.  In fact, my neighbor liked the lemon meringues so much she asked for another and I asked for another scone (they really were very tiny!) and they brought us both one of each, and made sure the scones we got were a bit bigger so we could get a better taste. 

 

The only problem that I had was with the presentation of the tea itself--we picked our bags and they just brought hot water to the table and we steeped it ourselves.  That was awkward because we were left with trying to figure out what to do with the tea bag. 

 

 Again, however, the staff was terrific.  When I asked for a new bag after I had made a couple of cups with the first, they brought out the whole chest again and let us choose new ones.  The Salamander offered a wonderful selection of Mighty Leaf tea.  I tried the Orchid Oolong (described as a peaceful floral balance of oolong tea with soft notes of fruit) and the White Lotus (white tea blended with zesty notes of ginger and nuances of citrusy lemon myrtle).  Both were delicious, but I especially enjoyed the Orchid Oolong.  

Overall, it was a wonderful experience and I would definitely recommend it!  Beautiful setting and presentation (of the food).

Ode to Homegoods

I am totally and completely addicted to Homegoods.  Seriously.  That store has tons of cool stuff!  And, as backup, you can always go to Marshalls or TJMaxx and they might have whatever it is in a different color or pattern!  The stores get random things in too, which is fun because each time you go they have different merchandise.  The only unfortunate part is you really can't wait and think about it--if you don't buy it when you see it, it will be gone when you go back. 

Last weekend I saw this two tiered cake stand:

 

Now, I normally would not have bought it because I am really trying to get a nice 3 tiered stand and I already have a couple of two tiered options.  However, when I walked around the corner into the next row I saw this:

and then they jumped into my cart.  They are both Gracie China and were very reasonably priced at only $13.00 each!