Tea at The Empress Victoria, B.C.

After a bus, ferry and another bus we arrived in Victoria from Vancouver. We checked into our hotel and got dressed for tea. I must admit I planned a lot of this trip based on having tea at The Empress. While fall is a bit chilly, it was also pretty, with the vines covering The Empress turning crimson.

Welcome to The Empress Room, this is the original hotel lobby.
The hotel has served tea since it opened Jan. 20, 1908.

Initially tea was served in the Palm Court (reminds me of the Plaza in NYC also a Fairmont property) under this beautiful Tiffany stained glass window. The acoustics of the room was such that guests could hear other guests conversations clear across the room so they discontinued having tea here.

 

 I adore the china, which has its own story.
Legend has it that it was first presented to King George V in 1914 on the occasion of the opening of the Booth china factory. The china made its first appearance at The Empress in 1939 when King George V1 and Queen Elizabeth, (the Queen Mother) had their china pattern shipped to dine in The Empress Room. Hidden away, the china made its next appearance during a visit by Princess Elizabeth (now Queen Elizabeth) in 1951.

The china was then lost and wasn't rediscovered until found in an antique shop in 1995. The pattern is now produced exclusively for The Fairmont.



 

We were seated at the window overlooking the veranda and watched as a large ship came into the harbor. You could imagine viewing the inner harbor 100 years ago and watching the "Thermoplyae" - the fastest of all the tea clipper ships were it was once anchored.

Pink, maroon and green - interesting color choices - very Victorian.
I believe the portrait is of Queen Mary.

 Ready to serve.

Classy tea comes with live music, in this case, a pianist.

Lots of couples taking tea from all over the world.

Jeff sampled salmon pinwheels, egg salad croissant, curried chicken salad and cucumber sandwiches. I enjoyed an egg salad croissant, tomato naan, tomato and cucumber sandwiches.

 Tea would not be tea without currant scones, devonshire and preserves.

 Pear cheesecake, lemon and hazelnut macaroons, pistachio cherry cake, chocolate shortbread and lemon meringue tart.

 

Jeff and I enjoying tea.

 

 We ordered The Empress Tea as well as the Earl Gray.

My version of a candy shop - the tearoom gift shop.
Of course, I came home with a cup and saucer, trivet, teabag rest, and lots of tea!

 



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 :)

 



High Tea at the Heathman Hotel

From mountains to extreme donuts, it was my first trip to the Pacific Northwest, specifically Portland. When travelling for work your time isn't really your own and you'll never know what you'll see in a new city. Having an opportunity to check things out is always a bonus, but even more so when it's tea time!

Even though I had already eaten lunch, I had a couple of hours free in the afternoon and The Heathman Hotel was only four blocks away and happened to have an open table for afternoon tea!

Notice the man in the red in period attire :)

Take a peek behind the curtain it's almost time for tea



Tea was served in a two-story mezzanine
separate from the restaurant.

The room had beautiful woodwork and a
blue and gold velvet staircase

A beautiful spot for tea - I sat in one of the round booths under the window

The tea served was from Fonte Coffee & Tea Co.
I enjoyed a vanilla black tea with
Madagascar vanilla beans.

Classic cucumber sandwich, a deviled egg with chive aioli,
and goat cheese crostini

The Heathman scone was served with mascarpone instead of
Devonshire, which was a an interesting Italian twist.
I also enjoyed Lanai banana bread.

I tried one bite of each dessert as I had already eaten lunch
lemon bar, Haupia - Hawaiian style coconut cake,
Parisian opera cake, Devil's food chocolate tea cupcake
and I skipped the homemade marshmallow

All in all a very enjoyable tea respite. There was only one other table enjoying tea, which made me kind of sad that more people weren't taking advantage of such a wonderful tradition.

 

Until my next tea adventure! Hint, it involves an Empress!