Holiday Tea #2 - Butchart Gardens

My second holiday tea was with my friend Charlene at the world-famous Butchart Gardens, and you can read more specific info about afternoon tea here. We went on a cold, wet afternoon so it was lovely to step inside the Dining Room of the Butchart family's former residence and enjoy some tea and treats. Our table was in the far corner of the former conservatory, so we had a great view from the windows, and even had a bust of a Roman emperor on the ledge behind Charlene (shades of my upcoming trip to Italy??).

The table setup was clean and classic - white and silver, you can't go wrong with that.

 

I love being presented with the menu, and this one was so big I had to take two photos to capture all of the info on it:

 

For my tea, I chose the Teaberry Blend, and I ended up liking it so much that I bought a 50g bag of it in the gift shop! It's just the right mix of Ceylon tea (my favourite type of black tea) and fruits (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and currants) without the fruits being overpowering.

 

Once we had our tea, we didn't have to wait long before our server brought out our starter, the cranberry trifle. I was pretty much speechless after my first bite, it was SO GOOD!! I think we both oooh'd and ahhh'd over it and savoured every bite.

After enjoying the trifle we were then presented with the main tea tray - very impressive!

Again, we started with the savouries on the bottom. Charlene and I both hate egg salad, so we were able to substitute smoked salmon sandwiches for the egg salad (yay!). What we have on this savoury tier are:

• Cowichan Valley chicken salad, fig walnut chutney
• Albacore tuna salad, celery, and tarragon aioli
• Smoked salmon, caper cream cheese, red onion marmalade
• Sausage roll, green tomato relish, German mustard
• Smoked salmon and scallion quiche
• Glazed heritage ham, Okanagan apple chutney

That is a big assortment of savouries! I didn't think that I would have room for anything else after eating all of that, but somehow I managed. If I had to pick a favourite, I would choose the sausage roll, and the smoked salmon pinwheel a close second. The sandwiches all had a comforting, homey quality to them, which was nice to experience in a rather "fancy" environment.

Next up was the top tier and the signature house scone, with cinnamon berry preserve and Devon-style cream. The cinnamon gave a nice little kick to the preserve and the Devon-style cream was soooo good (I truly feel bad for people who can't consume dairy).

And to top it all off, the middle tier of treats!

 What we have here: 

• Chocolate Baileys Irish Cream truffle (in the cute little boxes)
• eggnog Napoleon
• peppermint chocolate meringue
• ginger spice loaf
• shortbread cookie

By this point, I was feeling pretty full...I started with the shortbread and thoroughly enjoyed its buttery goodness (it's hard to go wrong with shortbread). Next was the ginger spice loaf, which was also excellent (I love gingerbread/ginger loaf/ginger cookies). The eggnog Napoleon was also good, but really sweet...I've severely cut back on my sugar/sweet consumption in the last few years, so now I reach my "bursting point" with sweets fairly quickly. I think I finished it, but I may have left a bite or two on my plate. The peppermint chocolate meringue pushed me over the edge of sweetness, and I only took one bite of that. I've never been a fan of meringues or macarons because all I can taste is "sweet" not any actual flavours, but someone with a true sweet tooth would have been very impressed with all of this.

I have to include this photo just to show off the cute little truffle box! I took mine home with me and ended up giving it to my dad when I went to my parents' house later that night.

All in all, a very enjoyable afternoon tea with a scenic walk around the gardens afterward!