A Quite Lovely Maxwell Williams Cashmere Aviary Afternoon Tea Set

When it comes to my tea ware, I do like to pride myself on a penchant for all things vintage – after all, when a girl needs a bit of authentic retro pampering,  a vintage tea cup is just the ticket from which to sip your glorious leaf tea - but my dears, can I trust you to keep a secret? Well, here is the thing now, I confess that my eye has been turned by the brand new Maxwell Williams Cashmere Aviary collection.

I think it is the quite lovely combination of songbirds and flowers that is tempting with the mixture of white, blue and pink – fear not thought I have not gone completely mad – it is bone china. Tea with Mary Kate is curious – are you new or old china?

 

Maxwell Williams Cashmere Aviary Collection - Not vintage but bone china

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Mary Kate’s Idea’s to Inspire a Royal Wedding Afternoon Tea – Time for a Perfect Celebration

What will you be doing on the Royal wedding Day?

A street party perhaps is a very traditional British way to celebrate such an event. I imagine bunting fluttering in the breeze with tea cups filled with white flowers, tied with blue ribbons. & Tea, that traditional, ceremony that connects and calms us. My hope is that this will be a memorable joyful celebration that unites the nation at a time when a little cheeriness is needed, and quite honestly I adore weddings……..there is such happiness, such hope and expectation of the possibility of what can be……..who know’s what Prince William’s & Kate Middleton’s story will be but apparently it all started with a cup of tea!

The Perfect Theme for a Royal Wedding Tea – Something Old, Something new, Something borrowed, Something Blue

Something Old

Well readers, there will no surprise that my something old for the perfect Royal wedding afternoon tea will be one of my favourite vintage tea cups. As a rather special friend reminded me, it is just so lovely to drink from a china tea cup – I am not sure why but somehow the tea tastes even better!

Vintage China Tea Cup - Something Old for the perfect Royal Wedding Afternoon Tea

Something New – Tea and a fabulous Emma Bridgewater Tea Towel

Quite simply, the only way forward for a perfect Royal afternoon Tea is with a new batch of leaf tea! To help with your preparations, I have chosen a couple of tea’s to choose from:

Twinings Royal Wedding Tea

Twinings master blenders have developed a wonderful, delicate White Earl Grey Tea with light flavours of rose petal. Twinings suggest it is best served without milk, and I agree! It is a bright, sparkling amber coloured tea that is just perfect for a Royal Wedding Tea Party, and almost irresistible in its beautiful blushing bride tea caddy – I’ll be rushing out to purchase!

Twinings Royal Wedding Tea

Henrietta Lovell’s Cloud Tea

Henrietta has personally sourced this from a little farm between Assam and Darjeeling- in her own words “it has the light floral aroma of a Darjeeling with a lovely malty Assam notes. Oh my goodness it goes well with cucumber sandwiches”. I love the inspiring name, very apt for a royal wedding afternoon tea, as I am sure we’ll all be hoping they both feel like they are on cloud nine!

Emma Bridgewater Tea Towels

Never let it be said that Tea with Mary Kate’s does not consider the practicalities for a perfect royal wedding afternoon tea. After all the celebrations, when there is that lovely satisfaction of having had a wonderful day, there is something quite special in the community of sharing the clearing up, so do make sure you have acquired at least one of these new gorgeous Tea towels from Emma Bridgewater for drying your vintage china.

Beautiful & practical - Emma Bridgewater Royal Wedding Tea Towel

Something Borrowed

I am going to borrow previous themes as idea’s to inspire the menu for a Royal Wedding afternoon tea:

Glorious Welsh Afternoon Tea

After all, the happy couple will become the future Prince & Princess of Wales. This tea has gorgeous warm Welsh cakes just cooked off the griddle and Bara Brith spread thickly with butter, quite splendid!

Welsh Inspired Royal Wedding Afternoon Tea

Rose Inspired Afternoon Tea

Roses are synonymous with Weddings so this theme seemed very apt for a Royal wedding afternoon tea. Do lay the table with a vintage table cloth to complete the theme. In my imagination, there is chatter and the sound of teaspoons chinking on bone china. Harlequin sets are quite lovely, and you are feeling terribly generous, you could even give everyone their tea cups as a gift from the day.

Vintage tea cup - Idea & inspiration for a rose afternoon tea

A Quite Splendid Vintage Afternoon Tea

Royal Weddings are steeped in tradition so an Afternoon Tea menu with a vintage theme is another idea, decorated with ribbons and gorgeous fabrics. Alluring descriptions of the delights to come, including the tea to be sampled, add interest and create a talking point, although none is needed!

Vintage afternoon Tea menu

Inspiration for an Amazing Easter Afternoon Tea

As the Royal Wedding is so close to Easter this year, I thought I would include this Easter themed afternoon tea as well.

As a child, I remember my grandmother having a beautiful plate to serve the soft lettuce, and freshly cut bread onto which would be spread lashings of butter – it really did taste like nothing I have ever had since! Easter afternoon Tea is an indulgence, not only a feast for the appetite – stacks of gorgeous sandwiches, savouries, cakes and tea of course – it also a feast for the eyes – and there is a gift in its beautiful presentation, but the act of just doing it is all important.

Easter Afternoon Tea

Something Blue

Palest blue crockery based on Victorian patterns & designs, Asiatic Pheasant is a quintessentially English design and one of Burleigh China’s best selling patterns which has been in production for over 150 years. In Chinese culture the pheasant symbolises nobility, fortune & beauty which are attributes Burleigh associate with the happy couple.I adore the cow milk jug, it is just quintessesionally British & I would advocate an essential item to celebrate the wedding of Prince William & Catherine Middleton, together with the limited edition pieces

Palest Blue Burleigh china for Prince William & Kate Middletons Royal wedding afternoon tea celebration

A few final thoughts from Tea with Mary Kate……

The choice that sits on their young shoulders is of future responsibility as well as the privilege of being in a position to mould & create. Given their status, even with the “constraints” of being the future King and Queen of England, they have such opportunity for positive influence. The potential to change the way the world views issues and acts on them is within their grasp. Tea with Mary Kate’s hope is that Prince William & Kate Middleton have the bravery, the wisdom and inspiration to follow their hopes and dreams.

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A Quite Splendid Vintage Afternoon Tea Party

Take Time for Tea - A quite Splendid Vintage Afternoon Tea Party

The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley

Ah, the marvellous British weather! I adore the quotation from Scotland’s famous poet Robert Burn’s in his 1785 poem “To a Mouse”. It absolutely captures the essence of managing unpredictability, when plans famously go askew. And after weeks of sunshine, my best laid plans of  sitting in a marquee surrounded by a warm breeze and gently fluttering bunting is gang aft agley!

The marquee on the lawn has to be abandoned, but only after the assembly crew have almost expired laughing at their own ineptitude. It is too chilly and the wind is turning the marquee cover into a kite that quite capable of launching you into the sky. Practical lesson number one – you can never know what the British weather will throw at you, so do have a contingency plan. My contingency – Turn the house into a tea room!

Beautiful Vintage Tea Cups are perfect for Afternoon Tea

Vintage Tea Cups are the just the Perfect inspiration for a Vintage afternoon Tea party

Vintage Tea cups are just so beautiful and so versatile! The original designs of these gorgeous bone china cups are quite the perfect foil to inspire a vintage afternoon tea party!

Fabulous beautiful vintage cups

A Vintage style Afternoon Tea Menu’s signal the delights to come

The design of the Afternoon Tea menu enhances the vintage theme, beautifully decorated with ribbons and gorgeous fabrics. Alluring descriptions of the delights to come, including the tea to be sampled, add interest and create a talking point, although none is needed!

The tea served is from Northern Tea Merchants and is brewed to perfection:

Classic Blend – A bright, full bodied blend of Rwanda, Assam, Ceylon, East of the rift Kenya, picked at the height of the season

Rose Congou – An aromatic flavoursome black china tea blended with rose oil and delightfully mixed with rose bud petals

I adore Famous Tea Quotes!

The addition of a famous tea quote is an ingenious idea. Quirky or thought-provoking, it adds to the vintage atmosphere. I love this one from Henry James, The portrait of a Lady

“There are few hours more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea”

Enchanting Idea's to create an enticing Afternoon Tea Menu

Fill Tea cups  with Beautiful Flowers

Beautiful country cottage flower style arrangements of soft lime green Alchemilla mollis with aromatic lavender, flowering purple thyme and pink hydrangea look  absolutely exquisite on the white linen covered tables. On a practical note, do use oasis to secure the arrangement. These floral tea cups are also a handsome gift, and for our charity afternoon tea event, the lovely flower filled cups were cheerful raffle prizes.

Summer in a Tea Cup - Fill Vintage Tea Cups with pretty flowers

Tea cups filled with Rose Jelly and Summer Fruits are an adorable sweet treat

Charming,  elegant and delicious, tea cups filled with summer fruit and rose scented jelly was an adorable sweet treat. The idea is a sophisticated extension from children tea party but it is quite simply genius – everyone loved the concept. Do generously fill cups with a mixture of summer fruit. Imagine strawberry’s, raspberries, red currants and blueberries magically suspended in a pale pink jelly delicately flavoured with rose. A rose petal completes the elegant sweet treat.

No Vintage afternoon tea is complete without a tantalising selection of Cakes, with marvellous scones, Jam and cream

The Vintage afternoon Tea is an indulgence, a treat, a feast for the senses and palate. With a bewildering choice of  tempting cakes including cup of tea cake, millionaires shortbread, melting moments, lemon drizzle, plain and chocolate butterfly cakes, as well as gorgeous scones, the pleasing dilemma was what to choose. As the ideal situation is to sample a little of everything, so do make the portion’s on the small side, so it is very feasible to sample everything!

Atmospheric 1940s melodies drifts throughout the house

The Glynn Miller big band instantly transports the afternoon tea party to another vintage era, a nostalgic time, the tunes the echo of war, where time together was precious.

And Tea Cups for the Tea!

The electic mix of china, with virtually each cup unique, is an enticing and engaging aspect of afternoon tea party. The chinking of spoons on china is such a distinctive noise, the adorable mix of china cups and saucers signal the afternoon tea is splendidly vintage.

Eclectic mix of china cups just perfect for Vintage Afternoon Tea

A Quite Splendid Vintage Afternoon Tea.

There is an intrinsic ceremony to taking time for tea. It creates such a nurturing, intimate environment, and we all need to belong, to connect, to be interested in each other. A Vintage Afternoon Tea party allows the perfect time for exploration of those needs. Afternoon Tea feels like a real treat, and evokes another era when interactions were precious. Tea with Mary Kate’s wish for this post it that it reminds us that this is still so.

As well as the conviviality of sharing afternoon tea, the other aim of this tea was to raise money for the very worthwhile cause of Help for Heroes, and my huge and grateful thanks go to Betty, Tish & Pearl for their talented and quite wonderful support for the event.

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Mary Kate delights in Taking Time for Tea – Formosa Oolong in a Gorgeous Vintage Tea Cup – Heaven!

Tea with Mary Kate is exploring the world of tea

As the day draws to a close, and I contemplate my evening, there is an important decision to be made. Of course, it will include a gorgeous cup of tea, but what tea to choose? And not only the tea, important thought that is, what cup to serve it in? Tea is such a great big exciting world but quite frankly, there are so just many teas out there, it’s almost impossible to choose from!

As well as the tea, the ceremony and aesthetic are all important too.

There is a protocol about brewing tea in a proper tea pot – leaf tea being my preference, and without a shadow of a doubt, serving it in a gorgeous tea cup! Tea definitely deserves a beautiful cup.

Formosa Oolong in a beautiful vintage tea cup

 

I’ve recently discovered that I adore Formosa Oolong – it’s a tea with provenance, almost a personality of it’s own.

In 1867, English tea trader Jon Dodd started a tea company in Wanhua, Taipei  and started to sell Taiwanese oolong tea to the world under the name “Formosa Oolong”. The name oolong tea comes from the Chinese name meaning “black dragon tea”. Formosa Oolong is oolong tea grown and produced in Taiwan. Taiwan is also known as Formosa from the Portuguese Ilha Formosa, meaning “beautiful island”. So, your drinking beautiful Tea!

Oolong is a traditional Chinese tea, Camellia sinensis, that is somewhere in middle between green and black in oxidation. It has neither the taste and aroma of black tea nor the grassy, vegital taste that typify green tea. It is commonly brewed to be strong. I add milk.

I adore the ceremony of making tea, laying the tray, the expectation of that first sip….

I loved the Oolong tea history but sipping the tea from the perfect vintage cup made the whole experience. The choice of the cup is a very personal consideration. I really enjoy that moment of contemplating the combination of tea and the cup, the expectation of the experience is almost as lovely, almost, as that first warm, amazing sip, smelling the aroma, steam rising as you relax into thinking about your second cup.

Just the perfect Tea tray

Part of the loveliness of tea the contrast with tea and something sweet.

With my formosa, I like sweet walnuts and dates, or gorgeous sushi. Do ensure that everything is there on your tray, so when you sit down, there is no need to move until you have drained the last drop of tea from the pot!

Tea with Mary Kate seeks to encourage you on a journey of Tea, to take time for Tea, and the ceremony and aesthetic of tea, as a way to reconnect and recharge your energies.

I concede it’s an indulgence, time is precious, but dare I say it, tea time is an important time for you – for quiet and contemplation, an escape from this hectic, fast paced world, while you move through the familiar ritual of the tea ceremony that you can make perfectly just for you, taking time to savour it completely.

Take time for tea

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