High Tea at the Plaza

I recently came back from a trip to New York with my husband.  I have always heard stories and seen movies depicting the high teas of New York and I immediately booked in for high tea in the Palm Court at the Plaza Hotel.

The hotel is absolutely palatial!  It feels like stepping back in time to the era when women were women and men were men.  When tea was a national sport!

The Palm Court itself was a open large area just behind the lobby with an enormous stained glass skylight featuring rose motifs covering the entire ceiling.  The back wall of the space was set with windows inlaid with mirrored panels that made the grandeaur of the space even more apparent.

We were seated at a lovely little table complete with white linen and silver accessories.

We both chose the New Yorker High Tea which featured the usual little sandwiches, scones with a divine peach jam and an array of New York themed mini desserts, including cannoli, chocolate cupcakes and New York cheesecakes.

We both ordered the signature Afternoon Tea blend.  It was a black tea, not unlike English Breakfast.  Whilst I was keen to record the wonders of its flavour and smell, I was a little overwhelmed by the event and instead chose to merely bask in the sights, sounds and flavours of the experience as a whole.

For all its magic there were a few flaws: the maitre d' was not the friendliest of sorts (mind you we were there on the Labor Day holiday and I expect she would have much preferred to be home) and they provided sugar sticks on the tables rather than sugar cubes which rather irked me for some reason.  I suppose I had expected the high tea at such a revered institution to maintain as much tradition as possible in the setting and accessories.

Overall, it was a delightful experience.  I think next time I travel to the Big Apple I'm going to try the high tea at the Waldorf-Astoria as I've heard it's also quite magic.

Queen of Teas

I went to lunch with a former colleague a while ago and he sent me a couple of his favourite teas he picked up in Singapore.

The tea was from TWG Teas.  Established in 1837, TWG has stores in Singapore, Japan, UK and USA.

I received a green and a black tea from my friend and decided I would sample the green tea first.

Called Jasmine Queen Tea, it arrived in a small yellow foil bag bearing the elegant TWG Tea logo.  The tea bag itself is beautiful - delicately woven from cotton like a fine piece of lingere.  An overlocked string leads to a little yellow tag bearing brewing instructions.

The bag smells like fresh hay.  The jasmine is a delicate note in the background.  I am almost loathe to put it in the water instead preferring to inhale the smell of the fresh leaves.

Once brewed, the jasmine comes to the fore.  Sweetly and earthily scented like the fresh flower, it was divine.  I got so caught up in the fragrance, I lost track of time.  I quickly rescued the the cotton pillow from the water before it could overbrew.

It was the colour of a second flush green tea.  Straw yellow and clear.  The taste was smooth with very little bitterness.  It had the classic grassy aftertaste and post-drink astringency; that fussy mouth-feel.  On further tasting, the flavours of passionfruit and guava become evident.

It was extra exciting to imagine the trip the tea had taken to arrive in my cup.

Well, all good things must come to an end, so back to work for me.  Mmm...next time I'm going to try the Earl Grey!

Spring Ching Classic

I had the pleasure of attending a girlfriend's bridal shower recently.  Being a fellow tea lover, she included in her game prizes little tins of T2 teas.

I managed to score myself a tin of Lung Ching Classic!  I was quite stoked as it was a tea I was yet to sample.

The next day, I was at work and decided to indulge in a much needed break and try my new tea.  I filled a glass teapot with an infuser with boiling water and waited until it had cooled to about 80 degrees celcius.  I plopped in a teaspoon of the spear-shaped green leaves and watched them unfurl and dance for about 2 minutes before removing the infuser to prevent the tea over-brewing.

The smell was subtle, but strong.  You could barely catch a whiff of it but when you managed to inhale a few molecules the actual smell was divine.  The tea leaves barely coloured the water.

I decided to jump straight in and taste it.  The flavours were deceptively strong for such a light green tea.  It was an interesting mix of citrus-y lime and woodsmoke.  Both fresh and old.  Strange, but true!  It didn't taste astringent in flavour but it did leave a dryness in my mouth.

It tasted just like the weather that day.  It was raining but you could see pockets of sunshine between the rain clouds creating a strange dichotomy, just like the flavours in the tea.  I imagine in being a great summer/spring tea.  Both cooling and warming all at once.

Ah, what a beautiful break.  Now back to work!

Darjeeling Maikaibari

Recently I had the time to make a visit to one of my favourite tea places, The Tea Centre in Sydney's Glasshouse.

I decided on the devonshire tea which features a tea of your choice from their huge range of teas plus a divine fresh scone (a very large fresh scone too!), strawberry jam and double cream...YUM!

I chose to try their Darjeeling Makaibari FTGFOP (Organic).  Makaibari is a tea plantation in the hills of India and it makes some delicious teas.  The letters in the name of the tea indicate the grade; in this case Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe!  There's a mouthful.  This is the finest grade of tea and I am reliably informed by wikipedia that it also stands for "Far Too Good  For Ordinary People".  I can't say I agree.

Anyway, before diving into my delicious scone I took a deep whiff of the liquid gold.  It smelled smoky.  It also smelled strongly of cooked tomatos with a hint of fresh bread.  Perfect for a cool winters day!

I took a quick slurp to increase the flavour and it exploded in delicious savoury tomato and pepper flavours. 

I am always partial to tea with milk and sugar so I added a little of both.  The tomato flavour remained but now it had a soft sweetness.  The peppery flavours were dampened by the milk becoming a smooth woody taste.

It was like the taste of a lounge fireplace, with a beautiful roaring wood fire, a good book and a mohair blanket.  I daydreamed awhile before remembering my scone was getting cold.

Mmm....now to get lost in the creamy, crumbly scone...