An Affair to Remember

Well, I didn’t mean that kind of an affair. What I meant was a tea party, sort-of-English-style. The idea came to Abbey and me on our first day in Cheraw. Abbey’s beautiful sister, Lauren had her wedding the weekend before we started our internships in Cheraw. She had boxes of fabulous green tea left over from her wedding. The tealeaves were placed in a delicate pyramid with a wired leaf on the end. The green tea smelled so sweet and fragrant that we just awed over them. Abbey is a big fan of teas, and I fell in love with teas when my friends at GSSM introduced me to Earl Gray and lemon tea. My favorite tea by far is the green tea with locus scent by Tazo. It smells as good as it tastes.

In the cabinet, we found that there were lots of tea, and both Abbey and I brought different teas. Hum… what should we do with all these teas when there are only two girls in the apartment who drink them? It dawned upon Abbey and me at the same time that we should have a tea party! I felt so excited because it is like going back to childhood again. We would invite all of the girls, and we would all dress up in our finest tea attire. Guys weren’t invited because we figured that they would say no anyways [sorry Will!].

The plan was set. But it has to be secret because we wanted to send out handwritten invitation by snail-mail even though we live only two blocks from the rest of the scholars. Let me just say that handwriting the invitation was a bit of a challenge for me. I think I learned cursive writing in 4^th grade. After that, I never had to handwrite anything. Everything had to be typed, and my handwriting never improved after that. While writing, I struggled with the letter “b” and “r.” I had to practice writing the invitations twice before starting on the invitations. It was such a fun event because we were so secretive and traditional.

The origin of the afternoon tea started in England as a snack. Then it progressed into a three-course event with finger sandwiches, scones, and teacakes or sweets. Abbey and I decided to use a cucumber sandwich recipe that we tried at her sister’s party. I never knew that the combination of a Ritz cracker, whipped cream cheese and a slice of cucumber could be addictive. I decided that I would not attempt to make any scones because my baking skills equal zero. Instead, I chose to make a berry tart with vanilla pudding and strawberry gelatin in small filling cups. To top everything off, we had mini-éclairs with cream filling.

The tea selection was no less impressive. Since we wanted to cover all tastes, we made sure that we had green tea, black tea, white teas, and fruit teas. For two and a half hours, we sat in the little living room in the small apartment, enjoyed our teas and treats, and chatted away. It was a great way to relax. I think I want to host another tea party maybe at Duke. Be on the look out for it!