Victorian Tea

When my parents started building their new house, we went to meet them in Delaware. We decided to explore one of the small towns and we came across a tea house called The Victorian Lady. I was so excited and I HAD to go there. You see, when I was a teenager, my mom and I went to a place in NY called The Raspberry Tea Room. Sadly, that place is long gone, but I loved it and all these years later, I've never forgotten how much I enjoyed it. Well, The Victorian Lady, was even better than the Raspberry Tea Room!
We were lucky that there were races in Dover that day so we had the ENTIRE place to ourselves! When we walked in we were "ooohing" and "ahhhing". Sadly, I forgot my camera, and my phone pictures aren't very good, but I'll share what I have. Here is a tea pot and teacup display in the room ...

Now, typically, I don't like such feminine decor, but the house was just incredible with all the teacups and teapots. I marveled at what it must have taken for the owners to put all of it together. The floor was also covered with a big rug (presumably to protect it) but along the sides peeking out was the most incredible inlay I've ever seen.

There was this pile of hats that we were encouraged to wear ...

This is the one I chose ...

... and here is a rare picture of me in my hat! For once, I was not behind the camera. ;-) I loved my hat and wished I could have taken it with me. On the table in front of me, you can see these little crochet things with beads hanging off that were on the water glasses. To keep dust out maybe? Another pretty touch.

On to the food ... I selected a Raspberry Coconut tea. I wasn't sure if I'd like it but it was just delicious. That one was my favorite. The teapot sat on a little warmer with a candle inside. Very pretty and it did the job!

The first course was a Yankee Bean Soup. Yum! I love beans and ended up making this for myself at home the next day. Aren't the mismatched dishes great?


Second course was a white chocolate and apricot scone served with lemon curd and Devon cream. Oh. My. Goodness! I love scones, but this is the first time I've had one that wasn't totally dry. And, the cream was just heaven!

We were already full at this point, but there was more to come. I guess I was too busy stuffing myself to take the last picture, but it was a tower of finger sandwiches on one dish and desserts on another. Despite being full, we ate nearly all of it. We also had about 4 pots of tea between us.

After we were done, we headed to the gift shop to pay the bill but we started browsing. You know how that goes. I ended up buying a tin of the Raspberry Coconut tea, a tiny teaspoon with sugar cubes, the strainer for the loose tea ...

... and I couldn't pass up this gorgeous sugar and creamer that was a nice compliment to a teapot I already had. After we left, we looked at the time. We had been there over two hours! I guess we just didn't want to leave.

Inspired by the tea house, we were looking everywhere for tea cups. We finally spotted these ...

We purchased 9 cups and 11 saucers and split them between us. My mom collects blue and white transferware and they looked great in her china cabinet. I have a blue dining room and all white dishes so they were perfect for me too.

It was really so much fun and I highly recommend doing it if you like tea and have a tea house near you. Children are not allowed until age 7 but I thought this would be such a great birthday present when each of my girls turns 7. In December, they have a holiday tea and there will also be a harpist there. We will be going back for that and hopefully, I'll take better pictures!

Oh, and on the topic of pictures, I mentioned over a month ago that I would be working hard to get a bonus at work. Tomorrow is my last day of hard work. I'll be getting a new camera with part of my bonus. The other camera will stay at my parents house since I never remember to bring one with me!