In elementary school, I had a friend whose mom had her own tea company, and we’d often go over to her house for tea parties. I remember piles of scones and soaking my black tea with milk and three cubes of sugar. Over winter break, my mom took me to have a little tea party of our own at The English Tearoom.
Our afternoon tea came with four types of finger sandwiches (egg mayo, tuna, ham and mustard, cheese and coleslaw), mini scotch eggs, freshly baked scones (with jam and clotted cream), a selection of cakes, fondant fancies, tartlets, cupcakes, and treats, and a pot of Teapigs rooibos creme caramel tea. Something about afternoon tea makes me feel like a classy lady, even though the reality is that I’m really just gorging myself in a pretty setting.
The floral seats by the window were my favourite! There was also a play area for younger kids.
Our pot of tea came with an hourglass that timed how long we should let the tea steep before we drank it. Then, we took out the teabag and put it on a teapot-shaped saucer. I don’t know if this is a thing you’re supposed to do, but that’s what my mom did. I usually just leave the bag in there because I don’t think about it. But I guess it makes sense to take it out. That way you can save some of the flavour for when you refill the pot with more hot water instead of over-saturating your first pot. Or something??
In all its glory. I ended up eating most of it by myself because my mom wasn’t hungry. We each ate a scone, I ate my half of the finger sandwiches and scotch eggs, and we packed the rest to go. My favourite finger sandwich was the egg mayo, but my favourite of the whole set were the scones. Gotta love a good ol’ scone. Or maybe the Teapig rooibos creme caramel tea. That was pretty good too. I love rooibos.
安泰大街9号院中粮祥云小镇北区10号楼101
(101, Bldg 10, North Complex, Shine Hills, Yard 9, Antai Dajie, Shunyi District)
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PS: maan coffee, throwback to afternoon tea at annvita tea house back when my blog was still on tumblr 😮