Tea at the Castle in Vancouver, BC

We arrived in Vancouver on a rainy day and caught the train to the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. Our room wasn't quite ready and we were hungry so we headed to the 900 West Lounge to settle in to the soft wingback chairs.

 

It happened to be afternoon tea time - what a wonderful way to begin our vacation in BC! We sat just outside the high tea seating so Jeff could order off of the lounge menu.

I love the Fairmont china pattern produced by Royal Doulton.

(This china has a story that I will share with my Victoria post.)

I love when I don't have to request honey.

Lunch is served! Jeff enjoyed a huge prime rib burger with onion rings and french fries while I had traditional afternoon tea at The Castle.

 

I loved the exclusively blended Fairmont Versailles earl gray.

I sipped. I savored.

 

 Tea began with savory sandwiches including English cucumber and whipped Borusin on white, roasted vegetable and egg salad.

 

 Then fresh baked raisin and butter scones were served with Devonshire

clotted cream and homemade preserves.

 

The final course of sweet delights included a raspberry tartlet with gold leaf, lemon meringue tart, opera torte, pistachio macaroons and a special petite cupcake in

honor of breast cancer awareness month.

I'm always impressed by gold leaf and edible gold glitter.

 

I'm so glad we decided to stay at this historic hotel that dates back to the 1930s as the other Fairmont property - the Pacific Rim - had an incident with a gunman

and guests could not leave the hotel much of the day.

 

We're All Mad Here (so you'll fit right in)

Saturday I hosted my fourth annual Mad Hatter Tea Party. This year also marks the

150th anniversary of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Clearly I have a problem... an addiction of sorts as yes, it's true, the dishes are new! In honor of the 150th anniversary, a new teapot with Alice adorning the lid, creamer and sugar, teacups and more!

 

The teacups are huge, which is perfect for our group as we drink a ton of tea. I think we consumed eight pots of tea during this party.

 

Don't be late to fill up your plate!

(Don't worry the caterpillar did not crawl away.)

 

The ribbon tea sandwiches were pretty, vegan and a little too healthy for this girl. It's the first tea sandwich that I've ever met that I wasn't in love with, but they were colorful - delicate lettuce, beets, and carrots - they could have used some cheese or cream cheese. 

No tea party would be complete without cucumber tea sandwiches. Kim helped make a chess board of walnut tea sandwiches - these were super yummy - cream cheese, toasted walnuts, fresh herbs, a little nutmeg and white pepper, topped with grape tomatoes and black olives, mmm. Thanks mom for the wooden party picks!



 And then there were Canadian cookies! I swear cookies from Canada are just better! Shortbread with chocolate castles, crème roulèe filled with chocolate hazelnut, five varieties of tea biscuits - shortbread, currant, etc. and you can't go wrong with chocolate shortbread filled with caramel. Jackie helped me top the rosemary and olive oil baguettes with provolone, sundried tomatoes and oregano.

Crackers and Gouda as well as three kinds of English cheddar.

We also enjoyed apple cinnamon scones with coconut curd. 

 

It was cool and gray outside so to warm things up a bit, I made a Roman soup: Pasta e Ceci. It's a simple rustic soup - tomatoes, chickpeas, little tubetti pasta topped with fried rosemary and freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.

 Tea! I had a lot of special tea to offer my guests. The deep blue tin is served at The Empress in Victoria, British Columbia - it's a rich black tea. The yellow tin was acquired at TWG in Vancouver and had candy notes - Kim swore she could taste marshmallows! The black tin was the official Unbirthday tea that Emma brought back from Disney - so good! We were spoiled!

 

Tea time!

 

What tea party would be complete without mad hats?

 Photo bomb! Ha Ha!

 

 Tiffany's hot mama red motorcycle jacket matched the spray roses.

 

The tea party girls enjoying our monthly ritual.

(My new dining room window provided lots of light :)