High Tea! How Are You?

Anna is getting married. She is the one standing just to the right of me in this picture.* Anna was the maid-of-honor at my wedding nearly 23 years ago. She was married about a year later and has two beautiful grown daughters and a well-deserved divorce under her belt. Anna and I, and the rest of the ladies in the picture at right, all went to high school together (more than 25 years ago) and we still get together for dinners about once a month.

In honor of Anna's wedding we all went for high tea at the Ritz Carlton last Saturday afternoon. Anna loves tea (as evidenced by the 6 million tea cups we all packed up about a month ago for her to move in with her beau). I think they all love tea. Me? Not so much. It was really a beautiful setting and we all had a really good time. I did my best not to embarrass the rest of the group. We were seated at a couch and chairs around a low table in a corner, so crossing my legs was out, as was, my personal preference, putting them up on the table. So I tried to remember to cross my ankles so that my legs did not naturally splay as tends to happen if I don't have a footstool of some sort. I did pretty good, but I did forget occassionally. The finger sandwiches did not tempt me even a little bit and luckily one other person did not eat their's so I did not feel quite so conspicuous. The others happily ate our leftovers. The next dish was a fresh scone with clotted cream. They put "clot" right in the name so that no one would have to wonder if this was a health food or not. The scones and cream were very yummy. Then they brought out a tower of fancy cookies, tarts, and other assorted desserts. Again, not tempted even a little bit. Give me a bag of Oreos and I am a happy woman. The strawberries marinated in Gran Marnier were pretty good, but not something I would give up my Oreos for. The yummiest thing at the tea for me was the drink at the start, a Kier Royale. I am not much of a champagne drinker (heck I am not much of a drinker period) but this might change my mind.

All in all it was a delightful afternoon and I am glad I did it. If you are tempted to do this yourself, know that it cost us about $35 a head, but one of us did get to take home the leftover desserts.

*If you don't know which one is me, who are you and why are you here?