Yesterday, I enjoyed an elegant, traditional tea at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier. In addition to providing luxe accommodations and overall service, many of their locations also serve an afternoon tea. Tea, scones, clotted cream, jam, pastries, and small savoury sandwiches. Yes, it is pretentious. And girly. But if you enjoy an upscale atmosphere with a light repast and a companion whose company you enjoy, it is a delightful afternoon.
I have enjoyed several Fairmont teas across the country. Lake Louise (unparallelled scenery), the Royal York, Mont Tremblant... It is always a pleasant time.
Sunday was no exception. The lounge where the tea is served has high ceilings, large windows, comfortable seating. Pristine linen table cloths and napkins, fine china. Soothing instrumental music is played. All the expected details are there. There is nothing to interfere with witty conversation that inevitably rises to the occasion.
There are three choices as far as service goes: the traditional, the Canadian tea, and, for children, the prince or princess tea. Since no children were involved on this outing, I can only speak to the traditional and Canadian teas. I opted for the Canadian, my friend A for the traditional. The main difference between the two were the opener: my strawberries marinated in ice wine and A's basic melon laden fruit cup.
The strawberries were perfect. None of the greenness, hardness or tastelessness you expect of strawberries in January. The ice wine was subtle, not lending the often harsh alcohol content often experienced when there is no cooking involved. All in all, this was a perfect start.
Then arrived the tea. There is a wide tea selection. Blacks, herbals, greens, fruit teas. During the week they actually wheel a cart around the dining room, but on weekends it is often to busy to accommodate this. I, as always, chose Lapsang Souchong, a somewhat unusual Chinese black tea with a distinctive, smokey flavour. I am not a big tea drinker. I generally find herbal teas to be either bland, slightly flavoured water at best, or unpleasant boiled grass at worst (I despise chamomile), or, where black tea is concerned, it is often overpowered with tannin. For me, the Lapsang Souchong offers a pronounced, yet pleasant flavour. I take my tea without accompaniments. No milk, no sugar.
Then, the traditional tea tray.
Scones on the bottom, then savouries, then sweets. I was too determined to get to the scones and actually forgot my picture taking obligations, so here you see only one scone. In reality, there were two: one blueberry, one plain. A's tea came with a cranberry and plain.
Served with clotted cream and delightful strawberry preserves, in my opinion, this is the culinary highlight of the meal. The cream is not sweet, and is heavier, more buttery than the whipped cream we're all familiar with, and works well with the strawberry jam, which has a lovely berry flavour, but is also not overwhelmingly sweet. The scones themselves are a perfect tender texture. All in all the trio is perfectly balanced for maximum enjoyment.
Generally, the next step would be the savouries. But I am a student of the school of save the best for last, and for me, dessert is never the best part of a meal. So after the scones, I moved on to the sweets.
Here we have a berry and custard tart (my favourite), a maple tartlet (far too sweet for my personal taste, though I can see it being a delight to many), and a tea cake (not bad at all - nice blend of textures through the layers, with coffee and maple flavourings). My sweets differed from the traditional tea in the maple flavouring. A's tray also had a berry tart, but other offerings.
I ended with the savouries. A's tray contained the more traditional "salad" sandwiches, mine, for $7 more, had more luxurious ingredients.
The cucumber and cream cheese (lower right hand) is a nod to the traditional. Going clockwise from there, there is a medium roast quality beef with a pickled onion and horseradish sauce, a curried chicken salad (curry chicken very nice - not overwhelming, but present and satisfying), and smoked salmon with caper. Cucumber was my least favourite, the other three all had things to recommend, though a day later, the curried chicken sticks most firmly in my mind - good texture, excellent flavour.
Afternoon tea is a bit of a splurge. $32 for the traditional, $39 for the Canadian. But it is also An Experience, and one that, if you have a venue in the area offering it, is well worth checking out of you have an afternoon to spare. For me, it is an annual indulgence. I am lucky to have a couple of friends who enjoy the tradition as much as I!
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