A well known revolutionary once proclaimed that a revolution is no tea party. However with apologies to him the meme of tea parties has far out lasted his revolution.
The tea ceremony, with its root in China, has been ritualized by the Japanese and formalized by the English as tea parties. It was that English afternoon tea party I planned for my culinary challenge, an acknowledgement to the West for meeting the East.
I was the event organizer plus caterer. My husband was my assistant, who is also the key supporter for the tea party idea. A week before we sent out the eVite, I consulted myself on the theme and menu for the party. The theme is a Rose Garden tea party. My tea sets would not have highly ornated patterns as those by Royal Dalton but would retain the elegance found in traditional English tea sets. There was a red rose bouquet as center piece, rose napkins and rose two-tier server. My guests would enjoy their perfect cup of tea and treats in clear white Bone China tea cups and saucers.
A traditional English tea party is not complete without scones with butter and jam and tea sandwiches. To complete the menu I included crystallized ginger scones, honey cardamom butter, apricot jam. The tea sandwiches were pepper cheese sandwiches, smoked salmon sandwiches and cucumber sandwiches. There were also sausage sundried tomatoes tart, strawberry tartlets, almond paste pear tarts and almond meal shortbread thumbprints. My husband doubted if this extensive menu was attainable. I believed it was do-able because these are all small treats, some of which could be prepared in advance. For more information on the recipes for some of these treats, you can check them out in the recipes collection of this blog.
The tea to be served were Fairmont Empress Organic Earl Grey and Kyoto Cherry Rose. Earl Grey is a must in an English afternoon tea party, according to my husband. He asserted a tea party is not English without Earl Grey with cream and sugar.
I started off my busy week shopping for serving wares, table clothes, bouquet vase and ordering the teas. Bed Bath and Beyond, Sur La Table, Z-Gallerie became my most visited places. I had prepared some food ahead of time throughout the week but not much was done. Instead most of them was done on the party day itself for that just hot-from-the-oven taste. That morning, my husband and I started baking, assembling the tartlets and tea sandwiches, and setting up the table. It was a good nine hours before we are done, barely in time for the arrival of our guests.
Judging from our guests pleasant reactions, my husband and I felt that our labor was handsomely rewarded. They gasped with delight at the banquet set before them. When asked who was the caterer, my husband silently gestured towards me.
