Tea Time Themes

Dear readers it delights me today to do our first tea time review! This is a cause for celebration in many ways as I fully plan on talking about many a Virginia and D.C. Tea in our future.

I want to humbly come before you and set the scene of this occasion, me and my avid tea addict friend marched forth hunting for a spot near Williamsburg (our destination) from the Northern Virginia of it all. I did some research and happened upon this Richmond, VA location called Southern Serenity, or as I like to call it Southern SereniTEA.

S.S. was put on the schedule and booked ahead with a reservation on that fine random Wednesday in March, and forgotten about. The only note I had up to this point was that the website had this funny security message that I had to advance forward onto the website.

We were booked and ready to go and the day finally came for a tea time. There were factors in my head for this moment that were starting to build up for me; 1: The not Secure website 2: The price is exceptionally cheap for a Tea Time or at least the ones I am used to paying for. 3: The Location.

This is by no means a disrespect to our American abandoned strip malls, but they don’t exactly scream SereniTEA how I imagine it at first. But that is the thing about first impressions, you can often be wrong.

We get there early because we are the kind of people who will be waiting 15 minutes too early vs being late. We went to the goodwill across from them and wondered the isles finding empty cans of corn and a book on how to prepare for your 2015 wedding and LOOK at that! Our time was upon us.

We opted for the 10 a.m. of it all because caffeine makes me lose sleep, and I wanted to give myself the best opportunity for rest in Williamsburg. My little Tea Time hack to you is to find a time that you love. Some people bask at 1 p.m. and relish in the mid afternoon break. I am a morning person.

We sat on the bench outside and heard the unlocking of the door. Folks, I felt like Alice in that moment wondering where on earth was I compared to where I came from.

I could actually rant for paragraph after paragraph on the delight and excitement at the prospect of our local small businesses taking over spaces that are traditionally kind of not what they used to be and making lemonade. I want to put here in my first impression how this small business inspired me on a DNA level and how fast I felt connected to them.

You could practically feel how much work and time and self funding went into this project from the moment you walked in. And my first impressions went aside as I felt damn near emotional at the way this small business transformed a familiar shop setting into something else.

We were hosted and sat, I genuinely in the moment didn’t think to ask for the hosts name, but the service was so top notch I wish I could thank them by name.

I can describe the venue as maybe not like 5 star hotel, more like a growing dream come to life. Like you can imagine the thrift store trips to find the right items for guests. You can see the cabinet of rotated teaware and cascading fairy lights from the ceiling giving off a sparkling rain with the upside down umbrellas lining the grid ceiling panels.

It feels as if you are a part of someone’s aspirations and you can almost see the pinterest boards and dedication to the atmosphere in the space.

This is what you can see my friend looking at and pointing out in the photo above. The tea menu of chocolate scones and mint teas and sausage rolls, it was utterly unique. I mentally envisioned

a chocolate scone like this. You have to understand my friend and I just got done with a different tea experience where we could practically see the giant grocery haul and had some of that experience in the back of our minds, but when this came out…

I knew I needed a moment to reinvison my expectations. I remember as I was taking my photos my friend proclaimed, “It’s still warm!” I stopped what I was doing to reach down and behold the still warm scone. With my hand split in in half and was filled with the smell of fresh out the oven chocolate bready delight.

The scone came with a heaping amount of raspberry and cream spread. With the mint tea the flavors simply made sense. Everything worked in a harmony of taste and sensation to create a bettering of all flavors. Like going from a single violin to a quartet, every instrument or in this case flavor boosted the other to create a harmony.

I felt from the first moment I had that scone that I could have eaten 100 without pause. With my mint tea I felt like it took a saint’s amount of restraint to not overindulge on the first item presented to me. Not go back and beg for second while I was on firsts.

The tea provided was well steeped, great temperature and when we asked from cream along with our sugar, we were brought out perhaps the cutest cream holder of our time.

The tea kettle had a handmade contraption to hook on the back of the pot, hold the lid down, and catch drops once poured. We both commented on it and the host said “We make them here if you want one.” OH we both wanted one alright.

After scone heaven, we were promptly hyped up by the host by their declaration of “Wait until you get the soup, I could eat it forever!” I had a frantic look to my friend as we both mouthed something along the lines of FOREVER! As we both mentally went over eating maybe the greatest scone created promised a potato soup that would blow our minds.

My friend and I simply looked at this promised land of a soup for a moment. Like when you understand your life will have a before this soup and an after this soup. It didn’t take us long to realize we were in for one of the greats as far as experiences and this soup demanded recognition for a craft so well done it transforms from food to art.

We dove into the freshest tasting potato soup I have ever had. It’s like old farmer Rick was outside literally handing the straight from the ground ingredients for the chef to stir into what I imagine as a cauldron of delight. Every part of it was easy to eat, and a delight to do so.

Seen behind this tower of goodies is my friend literally clasping at her chest with a beaming smile that comes from a child-like excitement to be alive in this moment to have this experience. We both were clawing at our seats to try each and every treat displayed. This ain’t our first rodeo so we both knew to start with a bite then go back and eat what you can stuff in.

Tea times have this magic power of making you feel more full than you knew you could be, and it looks like next to no food. Some tricky thing happens where your eyes are always bigger than the stomach and even the greatest food can make you find out what your limit is here.

This is when the chef came out and explained to us her story with making this food. I know I will get this wrong so you will have to go yourself to ask her Shena-Rae Schramm this story because It was so deeply compelling.

She spoke of her childhood growing up one of nine siblings, and how her father worked to take care of them growing up. Her father would sometimes as a treat come back with jelly and sausage seen as this amazing treat for them and how she had made a dish inspired by this experience.

The mixing of these flavors with her story of her moment with her father was a completely new experience. My friend proclaimed it ART over food in that moment and I actually felt like I was connecting to this chef in a way I couldn’t before through food. I think there are moments we can view food and tea as a routine and almost mondain element of living.

But truly this sausage roll reminded me not only of the power of connection to others through voice, writing, and paintings. But how we connect to each other through food. It gave me a moment of empathy, understanding and brought feelings difficult to capture easily in words.

I understand you as the casual reader might view this as extreme or hyperbolic, but I hope for you that you can experience a time when something connects to you that you find difficult to easily put into words. I felt more connected to my friend in that moment sharing that experience that maybe only we could understand. The before we knew about this sausage roll and the after, and just like that, it was gone.

I am realizing when captioning these photos how simple the names of these dishes are. They bring not enough weight, I think, for the item you are about the indulge in. This cucumber sandwich, one of many I have consumed, was a first class example of what all cucumber sandwiches should be, which is refreshing and light.

We are going to speed up a bit so I respect your time a little as I get through this tower of earthy delights.

This sandwich had a hugely complex flavor profile that made me want to go around and ask if this was a prank and I am on a show where a world know chef is secretly in a strip mall filming people’s reactions to see if they notice. I noticed. It was sweet and salty and felt like that moment in ratatouille where he discovers flavor mixing. I was at this point discovering so many flavors in one sitting I debated if we needed a new periodic table of flavor so I can explain this to anyone else.

You ever look at a food and know you have to trust the processes. I knew in this sandwich I had to take the leap of faith and bite in, and that I did. It tasked like an Italian freshly made pasta which was in equal parts alarming and delightful. If you are a texture person this sandwich ain’t for the weak. Flavor absolutely immaculate, but you have to sort of go into it with bravery on texture.

I LOVE a quiche. I just find them so different to other things on a tea tower and I am a sucker for an egg. This one if memory serves was amazing, but perhaps overshadowed for me at this point several sandwiches and teas and scones and soups in. I was starting to feel it, Mr. Krabs. The tea was so easy to drink I don’t even remember the quantity of them I slurped down like I had no tomorrow. The caffeine, sugar, cream all swirling as I tried and at this point failed to focus on the task and flavors at hand.

10/10

I will be honest with you, I don’t know why it’s called a pound cake. But at this point It felt like 100 pounds holding it. My brain was plotting an escape plan as I was mind over mattering to the max testing the limits of how much food can one girl hold.

Determination flowed through me like tea into a cup and I said woman up. Get your stuff together and eat the most delightful pound cake you have had. It was moist, flavorious, and fresh. I was thanking whatever string of physics brought me here into this moment so I could pretend I was in an eating contest and nip at this cake.

I mean what do you want me to say, This was glorious. I have never tasted a banana flavor so forward and my friend kept going back to this one exclaiming at how intense the flavor was for a usually mushy and bland dessert at the gathering.

I loved every layer and even in my inflating state was easily finishing this mini dessert.

What a delight this was, with its sharp tea infused flavors and snappy cookie base. I was ready to beg for recipes, go back and drink tea all day with these. I was ready to as Nicolas Cage was to the Declaration of Independence, I was to the back and these cookies. As Taylor Swift once said,”If you know it in one bite of the London Fog Shortbread, its legendary. You and I go from one bite, to getting married.”

Macarons are easy to mess up. I know, revolutionary statement. But this one, as you can guess, from the mounting evidence of a superior chef and baker, is a delight. It was SO minty I felt like I was waking up again and remembering who I was and why I was here. It’s the wake up slap I needed after going into a fizzled out state of food overload. It was the only thing I couldn’t finish at the end of this battle of the wills.

My friend knew she couldn’t beat this battle and sheepishly asked for a to go container. You have to understand in some tea places this can be seen as some kind of insult to the food and she couldn’t imagine leaving it behind, but in all ways this teahouse puts the class in southern charm.

They even LINED the specialized butterfly thank you to go container.

I mean.

There truly must be words you can conjure up for experiences that you already miss as they are happening because you know it will be over at some point. A sort of bittersuite pre mourning that comes with a deep admiration of what is in front of you in that moment.

Southern Serenity teaches me many lessons I took to heart. Ones of expectation, the power of small business, hidden gems in our communities, and friendship.

I bought the contraption made here and use it all the time on my tea pot, we tipped the highest I ever have and didn’t feel like it was enough. I have booked them for my birthday and am celebrating with friends in Mamma Mia style.

It ranks between the best or up there with the best (debatably second is literally a 5-Star hotel I went to and spent $120 a person). Charming is the word that comes to mind and I was enchanted to meet you Southern Serenity.

10/10