A tale of two teas - Victoria, BC and London, England

I was in Victoria, BC for the first time, nearly 15 years ago, and I said to myself, “the next time I’m in Victoria, I’m going to have tea at the Empress.” And so, fast forward to New Year’s Eve 2018, my parents came to visit and we spent the weekend in Victoria and I asked everyone to join me for tea.

You can’t miss the Fairmont Empress right on the edge of Victoria Harbor. Tea is served in the Lobby Lounge, and it was completely packed the day we visited. We definitely needed a reservation.

The first thing we had to do, was choose our tea. Everyone got to select their own from a cute book of teas with enticing descriptions that the server passed around. Side effect of that - we all had our own pot of tea and that’s a lot of caffeine mid-day, if you are sensitive to caffeine.

We were also introduced to the tea timer, important for proper brewing time of each pot.

And once we had our tea, it was time for the food.

The three-tiered platter arrived with scones scones on the bottom with clotted cream and jam, tea sandwiches in the middle, and sweets on top.

The scones were tender, and I discovered that clotted cream is pretty delicious. Our server recommended we start at the bottom and work our way up, but the scones were pretty filling.

The tea sandwiches were beautiful and all different, smoked salmon, goat cheese tart, quiche, cucumber, and an artichoke roll.

I was getting pretty full by the time I got to dessert, but nonetheless, I powered through. The seasonal selections were very sweet, and like the sandwiches beautiful and delicate. I think my favorite was the gingerbread. There was also a macaron, fruit cake, and white chocolate cup.

We were all REALLY full by the end of the meal and ready for a visit to the Royal BC Museum, which is right next door to the Empress Hotel.

And incidentally, just a couple weeks later, I found myself in London and of course, had to try out afternoon tea there too. After some research, I settled on The Savoy Hotel, also a Fairmont Brand The entrance to the Thames Foyer was very grand, full of chandeliers and orchids.

The tables were much more spread out, in the Thames Foyer, so it was not nearly as crowded. Tea starts at 1:00 and filled up quickly.

We selected our tea and a platter of crustless tea sandwiches arrived - egg salad, coronation chicken, smoked salmon, shrimp, roast beef and cucumber. We had the opportunity to request additional sandwiches of the ones we really liked. I unexpectedly enjoyed the roast beef most. The chicken was also very tasty.

And then the lovely tiered platter of desserts arrived.

The scones came with orange curd, jam, and clotted cream. I particularly enjoyed the spiced madeleine and the apple with mascarpone. But really all the desserts were great - blueberry tart, chocolate orange macaron, chocolate roulade and fruit cake.

And to sum it all up…both teas were great! I would go back to either one of them again. The Savoy although it felt fancier, also felt a bit more relaxed, since it wasn’t so crowded. The sandwiches at the Empress were much fancier, but I like the desserts at the Savoy better, they were less sweet and had more interesting flavors.