high tea at the empress

after our adventures on sunday, our days could only get better. today, surpassed my wildest dreams.

tea at the empress hotel in victoria is a once in a lifetime experience. it was incredible. mom and i dressed, because that’s what they told me when i called to make reservations. when we got there, we found that people really didn’t have to dress. we were glad we made the effort anyway.

we had a window seat viewing the victoria bay. they served us fresh strawberries and cream to start, with their own blend of tea. it is good tea. i took it with two sugars. not too bad, right?

then they brought the tray of sandwiches and desserts. there were cucumber, sweet ginger and carrot, egg salad and salmon and lox. then there were scones with jersey cream and strawberry jam. oh my god. jersey cream is to die for. really. TO DIE FOR.

since i’ve been sick, i’ve been off of diet coke. i’ve not really had caffine in over a week. i had 5 cups of tea. the first 2 with no cream, the 2nd two with. i like it better with cream. i’ve been wired all afternoon. i think all the caffine has turned my tummy issues into vertigo (actually i’m having it now, it’s very strange).

mom and i chatted and drank tea for about an hour and a half. it was lovely. then the waiter gave us some of the hotels tea to take home. 10 bags each. $50 cdn each later, we headed to the gift shop to purchase more tea to take as gifts.

what a lovely afternoon. i’m not sure that we got $50 worth of food, but we did get tons more of that in a wonderful experience. i will never forget this tea, or this day.