TEA AND TALES: Behind the Scenes (The People and The Teas)

Following my last post, with the food for Tea and Tales all prepped, I wandered around the Montgomery's Inn to check out how the rest of the prep is coming along.  Montgomery's Inn was built around 1830 for Thomas and Margaret Montgomery.  The museum has been restored to its heyday of 1847 when it served as a meeting place for the community and gave shelter and food for weary travellers.   It's a great place to visit to see what life was like back in the early 19th century.  And on Saturday, April 6th, it served as the meeting place for the Tea Guild of Canada's 4th annual tea and food pairing fundraiser.

Both the Tea Guild of Canada and Montgomery's Inn are not-for-profit organizations and any profit will be shared between them.  Montgomery's Inn is on Toronto Mayor Ford's "hit list" of cultural and historical buildings to be shut down.  So, if you're looking for a cause to support and a cool place to visit, the funds would be greatly appreciated in their battle to stay open.

Not sure who first said this but there's a saying that goes, you need to know where you came from to know where you are going.  I encourage to go visit Montgomery's Inn or any of our city's fine historical museums to learn more about Toronto's past.

The tables have been set in the tea room, waiting for the guests to be welcomed and the introductions to begin.

Busy bee volunteers stuffing the gift bags for the guests

 Preparing the trays of sweets

 Last minute review of presentation notes

In the historic kitchen

Final set up of the rooms

The ballroom

 Teas to be served, weighed out and ready for use

Dao Hong Pao to be paired with the sandwiches and savories

Dragon well (Lung Jing) to be paired with the chicken consommé

Close up of one of the Chinese yixing teapots on the table

Preparing the portions of teas

Last minute instructions to the greeters at the reception area

The guests have arrived and Bill Kamula, co-chair of the Tea Guild of Canada gives the welcome speech

The water is boiling and you know what that means...

Soon there will be TEA!

An Elegant Charity Afternoon Tea with Soroptimist International

The Soroptimist International of Toronto presented a lovely charity afternoon tea featuring a colleague of mine, fellow Certified Tea Sommelier and Culinary Consultant, Ingrid Folkers.  How fitting that on Mother's Day weekend, this group of business and professional women will use the proceeds of the event to help local women and young girls, in this case, the 416 Community Support for Women. 

Ingrid, a classmate for quite a few of the Tea Sommelier classes at George Brown College, has been a member of Soroptimist for four years.

Ingrid Folkers (left), Rosita Mandeville, organizer (right)

Ingrid received comprehensive hospitality training (including chef training) in Austria prior to her coming to Canada.  She makes all the foods for her afternoon teas, even the macarons!  Although her oven wouldn't cooperate, so she had to use Ruelo Patisserie's macarons for this event.

It was a lovely afternoon tea, yummy treats and good tea in company of friendly ladies for a great cause!

 

Two teas were served:

Dilmah's Ceylon Earl Grey and Ingrid's own sommelier blended Bourbon Street Vanilla Rooibos  for the non-caffeinated choice.  

The Earl Grey was well blended, strong and rich brew with just the right amount of bergamot.  You can click here for a video to find out the story of Earl Grey tea.  

The rooibos tea was enjoyable with a mild, warming, earthy taste, rich Bourbon vanilla notes, some spices, and had a sweet finish. 

Both teas paired well with the foods.  Yes, I saved bites of food to try with each tea... it must have been quite a funny sight for the other ladies at my table watching me with my camera snapping photos, taking bites of food, sips of tea, taking notes...

Citrus ginger scone, refreshing Lychee Spritzer and Earl grey tea 

the scone was light and tasty

 The afternoon tea tier had many goodies

 from bottom to middle: Mustard Pork loin with chutney on rye, Smoked salmon wheels

from left to right: curried chicken medallions, egg salad, cucumber/dill sandwiches

Mustard Pork Loin with chutney on rye

The sandwiches were really tasty, I particularly enjoyed the pork loin with chutney on rye, not a typical afternoon tea sandwich.  The cucumber sandwiches were very enjoyable too, perfectly thinly sliced, soft bread, nice dill flavour.  The curried chicken medallions were creative with the slices of egg and carrot infused bread.  The breads were slightly sweet, the curry chicken filling was mild, interesting. The egg salad and smoked salmon were more typical afternoon tea style sandwiches.

The sweets: lavender matcha tea cookies, Pot de Creme, French macarons, black velvet cupcakes. 

The rich red velvet cupcake, if you were a cupcake fan, you'd like it very much.  The lavender added a nice touch to the matcha cookies, which I quite enjoyed.  The macaron were yummy, a little bit chewy, lovely raspberry with the chocolate ganache, oh my goodness! 

I really liked the pot de creme, rich dark chocolate cup with light raspberry creme and fresh ripe raspberry, slight bitterness of the chocolate with sweetness of the berry creme, mmm.

Pot de Creme

And of course, what would a charity afternoon tea be without fancy hats and facinators!

A couple of us forgot ours though, aww darn ...