Afternoon teas have become a bit of a weekend pastime for my sister and I. It is just nice to slow down and have a pot of tea and a nice meal together. Thankfully, where we live, there are a lot of different tea places to choose from. Some better than others. Some at hotels. Some in stand alone afternoon tea shops. There is a wide variety and we are exploring them all.
My Cup of Tea Dessert has a fun take on the traditional afternoon tea. They have different themed afternoon teas at different times of the year to celebrate the holidays. Their foods are made to compliment the themes such as meringue ghosts for Halloween and strawberry Santas for Christmas. My sister and I attended while they had their Valentine’s theme and that meant hearts and flowers and pink galore.
The sandwiches were not your average cucumber and cream cheese or egg salad. We got pepperoni pizza stuffed bread, proscuitto on garlic toast, and heart-shaped pesto grilled cheese. My favorite was the grilled cheese. Light, warm, and the pesto really added a nice pop of flavor. My least favorite was the pepperoni pizza stuffed bread which seemed out of place, a little sweeter than I would have liked and a bit too robust for an afternoon tea.
They served plain scones as well as lavender earl grey scones. The scones came with whipped cream (I think) and little jars of Bonne Mamman jam. My sister didn’t like the lavender earl grey scones so I got those two and she took the two plain. As a tea lover you’d think I would have been happy but lavender and earl grey just aren’t my favorite flavors. Despite my reservations, with the jam and cream, the scones were really quite good with a warm and flaky texture.
The desserts were also atypical. They consisted of rose water panna cottas with a pomegranate rose water jelly, mixed berry yogurt mousse cakes, and two homemade heart-shaped truffles (one was black sesame flavored and the other was strawberry). Rose water is another flavor I don’t typically love, mostly because every time I have had it it’s been too sweet but the panna cotta was actually quite nice. Personally, I think the pomegranate helped keep the rose water in check which provided a little tart to compliment the sweet. The mixed berry yogurt mousse cakes were interesting as they tasted like mixed berry yop (a yogurt drink) but in cake form. It was good but took a second for my brain to accept the familiar flavor in an unfamiliar way. The truffles were also too cute and while they weren’t my favorite truffles I have ever had, they were a nice way to end the meal.
The tea was presented to us in tiny jars so we could smell them all. There was approximately 30 teas to choose from but I was surprised there were only two plain teas (a tieguanyin and an assam) and very few black teas (most of which were variations of earl greys). I ended up picking a green rooibos called Lime Cooler and my sister went with a fruit tisane called Mango Tango. Our teas were served to us in glass teapots placed on top of pot warmers which I thought was neat. They were boiled but served with tiny glass tea cups that allowed the tea to cool to a nice temperature for drinking quite quickly. The leaf was also in filters in the tea pots but due to the heat of the water, the filters were too hot to remove ourselves and even if we did remove them, we had no where to put them. This was not an issue for our teas but could lead to over brewing of other types of teas.
Tastewise, my tea was minty but sweet from the lime and apple. I thought it went nicely with the foods as it was very refreshing. My sister seemed to enjoy her tea quite a bit too since we sat long after we finished eating so she could drink up the pot. I had a sip and despite its bright hibiscus red color, it wasn’t too tart. It tasted more like fruit punch than mango to me but I enjoyed it nevertheless.
My Cup of Tea Dessert was not the greatest afternoon tea I have ever had but it was unique. Unique and still quite good. Plus, it was relatively inexpensive compared to other tea shops and hotels in the area. I would probably return for another theme to check out their new offerings as it certainly was a fun experience.
Here’s the scoop!
Where to Buy: My Cup of Tea
Description
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Bamboo Tea from My Cup of Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal Tisane
Where to Buy: My Cup of Tea
Product Description:
Rich in fiber and protein, bamboo tea lowers body heat and helps reduce the free radicals that have been shown to contribute to heart diseases.
Taster’s Review:
Wow! I wasn’t sure what I expected this to taste like prior to taking a sip. I have only tried bamboo leaves as part of tea blends, but never by themselves like this. I have to say that I’m really enjoying it!
Something that some people may not know about me is that I spent my teen years on a ranch of sorts. We had horses and cattle, so I spent a fair amount of time around hay and alfalfa. And that is what comes to mind when I sip this tea. It tastes and smells a bit like fresh hay. Not the first thing I would think of when contemplating “delicious” but it is actually pretty tasty.
It is sweet and mild and strangely soothing. Perhaps that is the lowering of body heat that the above description mentions, because it is rather warm and I’m feeling much cooler than I was when I started sipping.
It’s a little different from what I’m used to drinking, but it isn’t unpleasant. Instead, I would say that this tea has been a very pleasant surprise, indeed!
