Christmas Tea at Tea with Thee

Dec. 13, 2014

We enjoyed a special five-course Christmas tea at Tea with Thee by Victoria in Madison, AL.  As you can see below, the tea service at our table was a festive Christmas pattern.  We started off with a raisin scone with lemon curd and devonshire cream paired with their Victoria’s Tea blend – a hearty black tea.

Then we had their chicken velvet soup which is always smooth and creamy.  After that we had a crisp salad with pears, candied walnuts and bleu cheese.

Next, they brought out five different canapés for each of us on the tiered plates.  We had a smoky sweet turkey & cranberry finger sandwich, strawberry cream cheese with almonds served on a baguette slice and a pickle layered on roast beef, herbed cream cheese and spinach.  An open face peanut butter sandwich topped with banana and bacon was a surprising favorite.  The salty bacon really set off the sweetness.  The roasted red pepper hummus served on a slice of red bell pepper was crunchy and crisp, light and refreshing.  It made us feel a bit virtuous after everything else we ate.

For dessert, we had Italian Cream Cake, four layer chocolate pie and a Pumpkin Harvest cake with cream cheese icing.  It was so good, I forgot to take pictures!  So sorry.  Totally distracted by the food.  They did change up the tea at this point and paired the sweets with their “Christmas in a cup” which smelled like red hots but was mild and smooth at first but once you got to the bottom of the cup you could really taste the sugary red hot candies which must’ve been chopped up and blended in.  I don’t think I’d go out of my way to order this tea but my friends liked it.

Overall the food and tea were nicely balanced.  One item didn’t overpower the other.

The owner gave us all two presents.  A gift bag of cinnamon potpourri which is my car right now and she let her granddaughter sing the Charlie Brown song “Christmas Time is Here.”  It really was touching and beautifully sung with perfect pitch.  Here is the original song on YouTube – Charlie Brown Christmas – Christmas Time is Here.

The best part, as always, was enjoying a leisurely lunch with special friends.  I believe we’ll have to make this an annual event!