Good morning. Yesterday, Amanda and her mom and I drove over to Pasadena to have high tea at Rose Tree Cottage. I thought we would have gone to the Huntington Gardens for tea, but Amanda said it was a buffet style tea and that we should try a traditional tea instead.
Rose Tree Cottage is located in a semi-residential/business part of town. It has been in business for close to 40 years. That's a serious love of England. The house is divided into two sections with the front rooms dedicated to a tea parlor while the rest of the house is taken up by an English shop full of tea cups, knick knacks, clothing, and foodstuffs.
I wish we could have taken pictures inside, but they weren't allowed. You are asked to turn off your cell phones when you enter the house so you actually relax and talk to one another instead of snapping photos every two seconds and texting on your phone.
The service was excellent. You are given a glass of elderflower lemonade and a small bowl of strawberries prior to tea. They had two types of tea, black and an herbal peppermint. Sandwiches and roast beef Yorkshire pudding are serviced first. They had traditional cucumber sandwiches along with cheese and tomato and tuna with mango. The tuna with mango was good once you got pass the odd notion of having tuna and mango together.
After the sandwiches comes the best part. Homemade scones.........with mixed berry jam and clotted cream. I will admit that I don't care for clotted cream, but the jam was fantastic. And the scone?!?! I need the recipe. They were delicious.
The last course was a small tray of mini apple pies, shortbread, and petit fours. We were so full by that time that we nibbled on the desserts.
Overall the experience was lovely. The ladies that run the shop and tea parlor were friendly and answered all sorts of questions. I would definitely recommend the place if you are in the area and need a relaxing afternoon with some tea and good company.
After tea, we had some time to burn before even thinking about dinner so we drove over to the Galleria in Pasadena. This mall is full of high end shops like Gucci and Louis Vuitton that are interspersed with regular ones like Gap and Abercrombie. I think Amanda and I found our favorite shops in there. They had Papyrus stationery shop! I love buying their cards for special occasions and was thrilled to find a storefront for their brand.
We also came across a candy/soda shop called Lolli and Pops. It's a candy lover's paradise with candies and chocolate from all the world, handmade chocolates, and a soda parlor where they make floats.
I only bought two things: some bottles of 'butter beer' from the line of candies, etc from Harry Potter and one of the handmade chocolates, the cinnamon flavor. I was joking with Amanda that I'd be in that shop every day trying a different chocolate if I lived in Pasadena.
After wandering the mall, we stopped and picked up dinner at Porto's. Amanda and I split their steak porta sandwich.
Today I head back home to AL. I'll get home around 10pm since I have a long layover in Texas.
P.S. To answer your question about the green tea ice cream. It usually tastes like matcha green tea, but it really depends on the brand. I wanted to try some while in CA, but we ran out of time. I'll have to check my local Asian market and see if I can find some to try.
Until next time >___<
