After the gardens, Mom met Dad and me at the Empress hotel. It’s pretty hard to miss so I figured it was a good landmark. As luck would have it, given that Canada is basically like Europe, they do tea and the Empress had a fine tea service. Without too much convincing, Mom and Dad agreed to join.
We had a great time. They started us off with some fruit with whipped cream. Next they brought out the tea which you see above. We decided to go with their signature black tea which was quite good. They gave us each a box of it to take a souvenir when we left. I haven’t had mine yet, but looking forward to it.
After the tea had finished steeping, they poured for us and brought out the foods. It was on a three tiered serving platter. The first tier was “real” food. Little sandwiches including salmon cheese rolls, curried chicken salad on whole wheat, herbed salad croissants, mushroom pate crostinis and seafood salad sandwiches. All delicious.
The second tier was standard tea fair. Raisin scones with cream and jelly.
And the top tier was desserts. Yum. Lots of chocolate. Shortbread, green tea mini-cheesecakes, chocolate cups filled with chocolate ganache, neapolitan chocolate cake and lemon curd tarts. Again, all delicious if the chocolate was a little rich.
I love tea and I wish it were more of a practice here in the states. That’s one thing we should have kept. :-/
