High Tea in Portland

Just recently got to attend the inaugural event at the Hotel deLuxe in Portland when they kicked off their new and rather impressive Afternoon Tea, very much an English High Tea along with bubblies and tableside cocktail carts (cocktails tailored to go with the teas).

Here's an excerpt:

You will experience, at your choosing, three levels of being pampered and coddled in the gilt-edged splendor of the regal dining room.

First, you’ll have the tea itself, curated by a certified Tea Sommelier, Hotel deLuxe’s Kaitlyn Dover, working closely with the Smith Teamaker Master Blender Tony Teller. The selections feature Bungalow, Lord Bergamot, Mao Feng Shui, TieKwan Yin, Bai Hao Oolong, Bai Mu Dan White and White Yunnan Silver Tip, as well as two bespoke teas created exclusively for Provenance Hotels, Green Deluxe and Provenance Black, along with the tasty chef-created sandwiches (crust-trimmed, of course---and yes, there are the traditional salmon and cucumber every tea must have), scones with clotted cream, and irresistible pastries from Petite Provence.

Second, you may opt for the distinguished Tableside A La Carte Bar Service, with five cocktails curated by the cocktail wizards of Bull In China at your table. Or third, you may partake of the Bubbles Bar, with your choice of three sparkling concoctions enhanced with intriguing and delightful flavors.

Tableside a La Carte Cocktails
The tea-inspired tableside cocktails, curated by the talented craftsmen of Bull in China, are nothing short of astonishing, and provide as neat a pairing of cocktails with occasion as could be imagined. The drinks not only include tea in several instances; they also lean toward usage of local ingredients as much as possible, so many local farms and distilleries are represented, such as the tasty creations of Townshend Spirits with its rose-petal liqueur, evergreen Alpine liqueur or Portland-style amaro and the venerable Clear Creek Pear Brandy.

♦Cascade Collins is a double-homage, somewhere between a lively Tom Collins and a fruity Pimm’s Cup. It’s the best of both.

♦Violette Fizz is a seductive floral and savory fantasy---black pepper and violets!--- in a riff on an Italian Cream Soda.

♦Salt of the Earth is a haunting combination of lush floral notes with bass tones of sherry; it has a curiously contradictory---or rather, counterpoint---of soft floral character perfectly balanced with bracing herbal tea and seductive nutty oloroso that teases and tantalizes, bringing you back again and again to sip and savor.

♦Athena Toddy is a bracing hot combination of pear brandy and herbal alpine liqueur balanced with honey, lemon and mint-cocoa nib tea that warms you up from the inside out.

♦Smoke + Mirrors is a brilliant play on two all-time classics, the Old Fashioned and the Sazerac. Bourbon, maraschino, amaro and lavender bitters served up under a dome with swirling Meadow Tea smoke inside. It’s an endlessly captivating cocktail with a dramatic presentation (and dead solid perfect with the accompanying Provenance Black tea!)

Bubbles Bar
There are three sparkling concoctions in the Bubbles Bar. Forget that humdrum Mimosa because these are charged with tons of flavor…like a cranberry-maple shrub (based on balsamic drinking vinegar), a bewitching combination of Matcha Tea and St. Germain Elderflower liqueur, a combination you’ll linger over, and fresh apple juice and honey.

If you've never done a real High Tea service, you should do so at least once. It's quite an experience.

That sounds amazing Hoke. The idea of high tea always seems great until I think about the fact that the better half doesn't drink tea and neither of us eats cakes so it kinda misses the mark for us, however if we were ever at one of the grand places in say, London, I would be sorely tempted.
As an aside a very prestigious hotel in Melbourne recently served salmonella with high tea!

That really does sound like a great experience. It's important to be pampered once in a while!

Hoke, you probably already know this -- but you used High Tea and Afternoon Tea as synonyms, more or less.

High Tea is the lower-class supper, meat and potatoes with a cup of tea at six o'clock.

Afternoon Tea is the classy mid-afternoon meal that you got in Portland.

Different things.

http://www.afternoontea.co.uk/informati ... -high-tea/

Hoke, you probably already know this -- but you used High Tea and Afternoon Tea as synonyms, more or less.

High Tea is the lower-class supper, meat and potatoes with a cup of tea at six o'clock.

Afternoon Tea is the classy mid-afternoon meal that you got in Portland.

Different things.

http://www.afternoontea.co.uk/informati ... -high-tea/

Yeah, I was careless in my word usage.

I was quite astonished when I first partook of High Tea Thought it was going to this elegant and dainty repast. Hah.

It's sort of like a Full English Breakfast. The actuality is so much more staggering than the name. High Tea is a huge feed. This was definitely Afternoon Tea.

[Jenise]

Sounds like a wondrous experience.

And I would definitely have to go for that Smoke & Mirrors.

Sounds like a wondrous experience.

And I would definitely have to go for that Smoke & Mirrors.

The presentation is even more delightful than the picture suggests, Jenise. They deliver the Smoke + Mirrors under a small, clear dome, with smoke swirling around inside. When the dome is whipped away, a bit of the smoke remains in the glass.

Another delightfully conceived and presented drink was the Salt. They designers found some small flower bowls...like aquarium bowls, but smaller, and footless beakers with medium-long necks. They half-filled the bowls with ice, cradled the beakers in the ice, then delivered that along with an old fashioned glass with one giant hard ice cube, so you could pour the beakered cocktail over the ice yourself. So it became a visual, decorative, and highly tactile experience...even before you got your first taste of the cocktail, which was great---the sort of experience where it seems simple but gets increasingly complex with every sip you take.