Celebrate Autumn with A Victorian Tea Party

                 Image:(c)Marye Audet2008

I love when the seasons change.  We don’t get much of that here until MAYBE late October..for a week or so…but I have fond and vivid memories of my childhood on the east coast.

In fact one year, Marc (who is from Mass.) and I wistfully watched a lone, dead leaf spin to the ground and Marc quipped, “Look.   Fall!”

But…Like Anne of  Green Gables we can imagine anything we like. Imagining autumn with a tea is a wonderful way to celebrate it, and get yourself in the mood, don’t you think?

A site that I love is Victorian Trading Company, and so, as long as we are imagining things I would like to imagine ME in one of the beautiful gowns they sell.  I choose this one. While we are imagining let’s imagine that I am a size six, and don’t look a day over 22.  Thanks.

The Victorians were very big on celebrations, decor and nature.  Autumn is a perfect time to have a Victorian tea because it is easy to encompass those things.  Use autumn colors in the table settings;wines, golds, greens, browns, and russet reds.  If you live somewhere where you have the blessing of colorful leaves you can collect big vibrant leaves and write your guests names on them with permanent marker for place cards. Mass a variety of leaves in the middle of the table and place a pedestal compote in the midst of them with grapes, apples, and nuts arranged in it.  Use a variety of grapes and allow them to drape gracefully over the edge of the compote.

This is one of my favorites, a flash glass scalloped teardrop compote from Indiana Glass.  99 cents at my favorite thrift shop..oh yeah!

Rather than using napkin rings, use a small grapevine wreath or tie raffia around the napkins.

Tea Choices 

To me the tea you serve should be bold enough to hold up to the rich flavors of your autumn menu.  Always serve a basic black tea, for this menu I would recommend Darjeeling 22 from Adagio.  Add Teavana’s Vermont Maple herbal tea for the adventurous among your guests.  It is delicately spicy with an apple -maple finish.

For autumn teas I like to serve a small soup course.  Following is the menu I have made in the past for a Victorian Autumn Tea:

Butternut Squash Soup with Cider Cream

Curried Chicken Sandwiches 

I made these on pecan bread when I made them, but you can use any type.

Dried Cranberry Scones with Orange Marmelade

Just use the dried cherry scone recipe, and omit the chocolate and almond. 

Personally I would then finish off the tea simply with chocolate truffles.

This seems somewhat sparse for an opulent Victorian tea party but the components are all very rich and much more is just too much.

Small, spicy scented tea lights can be wrapped in tulle and secured with a bow at the top and used to bless your guests at the end.

Most of all, just remember that it is about having a good time and sharing great food.

Images:MaryeAudet