Table of contents for Winter 2006 in TeaTime

Sometimes I think we plan all year for the 30 or so days between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. After all, these holidays are highlights in the lives of our families and friends. And if you are looking for a way to celebrate the season with those dear to you, look no further. We have planned three special teas with you, and the holidays, in mind. Because we feel that sharing time and talent is a very special gift, we planned a tea we call “High Tea Revival,” with the idea that the meal could be your gift to someone special—be it spouse, best friend, daughter—someone for whom no amount of effort would be too great. We worked with the British Food Trust to select hearty foods that would be perfect…

Pretty Presentation Also known as the “Tuscan trifle,” tiramisu—a combination of ladyfingers, espresso, eggs, sugar, cream, liqueur, and rich mascarpone cheese—is a top pick among dessert devotees. Though difficult to improve upon the Italian treat, when presented in a teacup, tiramisu is as charming as it is delicious. Gather Ye Roses This season as you prepare Christmas cards and notes of thanks to dear friends and new acquaintances, inspire yourself anew with a beautiful faux topiary of roses in your prettiest teacup—an enchanting accessory for your writing desk. Holiday Glow A cluster of glowing candles invites the same sort of quiet, dreamy reflection as a luminous Christmas tree in a darkened room. What a wonderful way to mark the most festive season of the year! Just Desserts What a delicious…

POTATO AND WATERCRESS SOUP STUFFED CORNISH GAME HENS CELERY PEAR STILTON & WALNUT SOUFFLÉ CARROTS WITH MINT AND LEMON HERBED SCONES OLDE ENGLISH TRIFLE Thanks must be given to the Victorians. Not only did our British forebears exalt the taking of tea from simple ceremony to social ritual, they also left behind the legacy of Christmas as it is celebrated today. Before the Victorian era commenced, “tea” was a beverage served with meals. Thanks to the innovations of Anna, Duchess of Bedford, however, the word “tea” now hangs heavy with images of friends and consorts gathered in formal dress sharing sweets and savories, cups of tea, and conversation. Much the same can be said of the celebration of Christmas, a holiday that before the nineteenth century, expressed little of the…

Looking for a cup of hot tea while driving the long, straight path of Interstate 55 between Memphis, Tennessee and Jackson, Mississippi? Those who stop at the Pickens, Mississippi tearoom, My Cup Overflows, can count on two things—great food and serenity. Owner Laura Leathers, who makes both the food and atmosphere possible, regards her work as a ministry. “For me, this is an opportunity to touch lives,” says Laura, who is well known as a Christian speaker and writer. My Cup Overflows, the three-faceted business she operates, seems a natural outgrowth of her travels to speak at various garden clubs and church groups. A few years ago while going through a personal crisis, Laura read the book If Teacups Could Talk, by Emilie Barnes, and felt perhaps tea could bring…

Q What are the duties of a guest at an afternoon tea? A Good guests sing for their supper, or tea as it may be. The ideal guest’s virtues are evident in many subtle ways. First, remove those gloves as soon as you step inside. One does not shake hands, hold a teacup, or eat while wearing gloves. Gloves have been around for more than 10,000 years, and they evolved from the desire to protect the hands from cold weather and from heavy manual labor. Yet there is nothing to indicate they were ever worn while eating or drinking. Indeed, until the seventeenth century, food was picked up with the fingers and conveyed to the mouth. Even long gloves worn with opulent ball gowns were designed to be unbuttoned and…

But it’s not such cachet that captures Carol’s imagination. Rather, it is the feelings and memories those treasured and beautiful heirlooms evoke that make them worthy of her table. The hand-crafted tablecloth was purchased during a happy sojourn to Hong Kong, while the monogrammed napkins at each place setting were hand-crafted by nuns living in a French monastery. Carol loves the delicate linens because they are beautiful, yes, but also because they remind her of exploring the Left Bank of Paris with her daughter during an especially memorable trip. The teacups and other dinnerware are poignant remembrances of her late motherin- law (who hand-painted china) while the cobalt blue chargers are souvenirs of a long-ago family vacation to Virginia. The centerpiece, which varies by the season and occasion, is invariably…

In Shakespeare’s day, the highlight of an English Christmas feast in houses of consequence was most surely the banqueting course. Served last, this course allowed Elizabethan lords and ladies to dazzle their guests (and display their wealth) with an extravagant spectacle of sweetmeats: comfits, confections, and of course, marchpanes. Serving as the centerpiece of the banqueting course, marchpanes were the grand finale of both the feast and the evening. Much to the delight of guests and the pride of the host and hostess, manor chefs molded marzipan into elaborate creations for their marchpanes, from edible plates to coats of arms. Candied fruits and gilding made of real gold leaf were added for extra drama and as a display of the chef’s skill and wit. Today, some 500 years later, marzipan…

T hough the Colonial era pre-dates the introduction of the afternoon tea service to polite society by at least a century, taking tea as it turns out, symbolized to early Americans those same cultivated qualities it does today. Then as now, an important element of serving of tea was its presentation—no small matter in polite society, according to Colonial Williamsburg historian Betty Leviner. “It was a vehicle for showing your gentility, and gentility was a very important concept in the eighteenth century,” she says. As Betty points out, “there was a certain amount of trendiness to tea wares,” many of which were imported until the dawn of the eighteenth century, when Colonial artisans began producing the necessary equipage, including teapots, hot water urns, sugar bowls, tea canisters, serving trays, and…

Vickie had begun to notice a trend of tearooms and all things tea being featured in a slew of magazines, but realized there wasn’t anything available locally. After attending a convention with her husband, Tommy, two years ago in Destin, Florida, opening a tearoom went from mere idea to near certainty. “I had a feeling before we even went that we were going to do it; that was just the icing on the cake.” The White Lily has been in operation ever since. Nestled in a cozy corner in the suburbs of Birmingham, Alabama, The White Lily is a quaint place to take tea. The two adjoining rooms, one painted pale pink and the other pale blue, evoke a sense of calm and peace. The tables are dressed with pink…

Seasonan Serenity It often seems that the happiest time of year is also one of the most taxing. The last-minute frenzy of shopping, the shuffle of parties, and the to-do lists that never seem done can begin to overwhelm, robbing the season of the very joy it is intended to inspire. Why not infuse the holidays with serenity instead, and celebrate the season over a cup of tea? Pausing for such reflection is the very essence of tea time, and in Christmas there is much to consider. As author Norman Vincent Peale once put it, “Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.” And through this hazy view what comes sharply into focus are the things, and more importantly, the people that…

While a figgy pudding may hit the spot, it holds not a candle to a warm, buttery Christmas cookie. Like little chronicles of Christmases past, the cookies we bake and share with others each season tell our holiday stories, speak of our cherished family traditions, and, most importantly, remind us what Christmas is really all about. Inside a simple little cookie, you see, there is love to spare and sentiment as sweet as the taste. In that spirit, our Hoffman Media family chose this season to share our favorite Christmas cookies—first with each other at the office, then here, on these pages, as our Christmas gift to you, our readers. We do indeed wish good tidings to you and all of your kin, and it is our hope that you…

Mention the Boston Tea Party and immediately a vision comes to mind: independence- minded patriots, in a great act of defiance against their mother country, dumping nearly fifty tons of tea into the water to protest “taxation without representation.” Not really a party at all, was it, especially after the colonists realized this created quite a deficit in their supplies for cherished afternoon tea. Just a ten-minute drive from Boston Harbor, scene of the aforementioned soirée, is Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, home to exquisite works of art, including The Art of the Americas Collection. This assemblage features works by American artists, including John Singer Sargent, Homer Winslow, and Mary Cassatt, whose charming painting The Tea (1879-80) is featured on the cover of the museum’s cookbook, Boston Tea Parties. A…

Cover and High Tea Revival Page 28: Holly Berry china, Royal Worcester, available at Replacements, Ltd. Cookbook available through British Food Trust Teacup Chic Pages 16-17: Teacups and saucers, available at Bromberg’s. Tiramisu dessert, courtesy of Edgar’s Bakery. Floral arrangements by Homewood Florist. Legacy From the Past Pages 40-41: Tavern teapots available through Colonial Williamsburg. A Colonial Collation Pages 42-49: Relish bowls, flatware, and scalloped-edge cake stand, Williams-Sonoma. Silver charger and studio cake stand, Pottery Barn. Blue Shell Edge china, Hartley Greens & Company, available at Williamsburg Craft House. Cookbooks available through Colonial Williamsburg. Collecting Cookbooks Pages 52-53: Boston Tea Parties available through Boston Museum of Fine Arts DIRECTORY OF COMPANIES Alda’s Forever, website: www.aldasforever.com, 800-253-7627 Boston Museum of Fine Arts, website: mfashop.com British Food Trust, website: www.greatbritishkitchen.co.uk British Goods Online,…