National Hot Tea Month - January

We hope you are relaxing and finding time to sit down with a warming cup of tea during National Hot Tea Month.

Afternoon Tea at The Willows at Ashcombe Manor, Mechanicsburg

Last November, in our quest to visit at least one tearoom every month, Angelica and Nancy visited the Willows at Ashcombe Manor which is located in the rural area of Mechanicsburg, PA. This gorgeous Victorian Queen Anne style mansion was built in 1891. It has had several makeovers, served as a summer home, operated as a bed and breakfast for a number of years, and sat vacant for almost 8 years. Saved from destruction, and transformed into a destination wedding venue, the owners offer afternoon tea on most Sundays.

It is an elegant setting for tea and certainly a lovely experience when you want to treat yourself to something special. 

You could do an entire study of the chandeliers throughout the mansion. Your ticket for afternoon tea includes a self-guided tour of the three floors of the mansion, including the lady's boudoir, the glam room, the gent's suites and the honeymoon suite. The first floor holds the seating area for the afternoon tea with seating at elevated tables, or low tables. 

Tea choices include English Breakfast, Earl Gray, Country Mint, Cherry Berry Herbal, Chamomile, or Green Tea. Coke products and coffee are also available. A glass of prosecco or a nonalcoholic beverage is also included with the tea. Loose leaf tea is placed in the strainer, and you pour your hot water over the strainer which is then placed in a drip cup until you are ready to pour another cup of tea.

The waitstaff proudly carry the tiered tray to the table. The lad in the front had an individual tray of vegetarian sandwiches.

The variety of sandwiches included a Crab Salad (radish, celery seed, grilled brioche), Apple Butter & Brie (cinnamon raisin bread, red delicious apple), Cucumber & Dill (marble rye), Roasted Chicken Salad (pepitas, dried cherries, buttered croissant) and Smoked Salmon & Avocado (wheatberry).

The middle tier held Traditional English Scones and served with orange curd, clotted cream, and strawberry jam. Traditional Deviled Eggs seasoned with smoked paprika and dill were also placed on the middle tier. A touch of fringed lavender garnished the tiered tray.

The dessert medley featured the Chef's Selection of Miniature Desserts & Petit Fours. A petit chocolate cake, a yummy strawberry cake, and a sponge cake were offered. A touch of fresh fruit, alongside a Madelaine and a macaron completed the dessert assortment.

Several years ago, we attended their themed Wonderland Tea, and you can check out the menu and photos from that adventure in this blog post. Alice in Wonderland and the Queen of Hearts were in attendance.

Tea Tasting - Hawaiian White Tea

There was a new tea under the Christmas tree this year, a premium Hawaiian White Tea from Tea-for-All in Trenton, NJ. With the majority of teas coming from the East, it's a special treat to have a truly USA grown tea. This is a gorgeous tea from the Big Island in Hawaii. According to the Tea-for-All website, the tea is grown under a canopy of Koa trees at an elevation of 4000 feet in a Volcano Village near the Kilauea volcano.

Studying the dry leaf, you immediately notice the size of the leaf, long and slender. Looking closer, it becomes quite obvious that they have harvested the bud and two leaves to craft this specialty tea. Once brewed, the infusion creates a clear golden brew. The flavor is not overly floral, but simply delicate and sweet. Described on the website as deeply satisfying and comforting, it is truly a pleasant experience. Since the Japanese gaiwan used to brew this beautiful tea is a rich blue color and obscures the true color of the infusion, we poured some of the brew into a plain white cup to truly admire the color of this specialty artisanal tea. What a treasure, and many thanks to Angelica for this lovely gift. It is a real treat!

A Year of Teas - June to December, 2025

Part 2 of our New Year's Resolution for 2025 where we resolved to visit tearooms and enjoy afternoon tea at least once a month. We achieved that goal in the first half of the year, January thru May, with a few extra tearoom visits. Here's how we finished out the year. In June, the girls traveled to Shippensburg to take tea at Honey Still for Tea. This is a pop-up style tearoom that sets up in Jane's Art of Pie bakery once a month to offer their tea service. (Follow the links for the tearoom to read more about each visit.)

In July, we headed south to Oxford, MD for the quarterly seminar of the Mid-Atlantic Tea Business Association. Members gathered at the Doehrn Tea Company for the July gathering.

In August, our travels took us to Mimi's Tea Cottage in West Chester, PA. This relatively new tearoom offered an enjoyable experience with whimsical teapots and tasty treats.

At the end of August, we took a mini vacation to travel to Boston for the Northeast Tea Festival. Enroute, we stopped at The Snarky Teahouse in Doylestown, PA. This fun and clever tearoom features an Alice in Wonderland theme which brought smiles and joy to all of us. The decor was handcrafted by the owner.

Also in August, we visited the Silver Dove Tea Room in historic downtown Boston, MA where we enjoyed a gluten free afternoon tea. In addition to our hot tea, we ordered a Pimm's Cup as a special treat.

On our return journey home from Boston, we visited the Chez Alice Patisserie in Lambertville, NJ. This teatime experience was over-the-top and has to be one of our all-time favorites. The details in not only the sandwiches, but also the desserts were simply amazing. Admiration of each petite morsal was required before eating any of them.

It is a French styled tearoom and bakery and was the perfect ending for our weekend getaway coupled with the August birthday month celebration.

September is an exceedingly busy month for The Rosemary House and Sweet Remembrances. With the Fairy Festival at the beginning of the month and the Tea Festival at the end of the month, there is limited opportunity to visit a tearoom. Therefore, in September, we enjoyed our very own Tea Party in a Box which is what is served at the PA Tea Festival.

In October, a visit to the newly opened Green House Tea Room in Bethlehem, PA provided a nice opportunity to visit with a friend. We were seated in the Magnolia Room.

In October, members of the Mid-Atlantic Tea Business Association gathered at the Trenton Farmer's Market in Trenton, NJ to enjoy a totally vegan tea hosted by MATBA members Debbie and Mike Raab of Tea-For-All. It's always an enjoyable time when tea business owners gather to relax, learn, share and visit over tea.

November took Angelica and Nancy to the Ashcombe Manor for their Sunday afternoon tea. This elegant mansion, located in Mechanicsburg, offers an opportunity to enjoy a special teatime and includes a self-guided tour of the mansion.

We were happy to be able to find a time to take tea in November!

 

A few days before Christmas the family took Afternoon Tea at the Chef de Crepe in Camp Hill, PA. This delightful Creperie offers afternoon tea typically in the spring around Mother's Day and again in winter leading up to Christmas. The wintertime theme was a Nutcracker Tea.

As I review our experiences, I'm surprised at how many locations began as a bakery and have introduced afternoon tea to their clients. They do seem to blend nicely together. Looking back over the second part of our resolution, we managed to attend three tearooms in August but missed in September. We did pick up two tea events in October, otherwise, we kept to one tearoom per month. It was a mission to attend afternoon tea at least once per month. It meant checking schedules, not only the tearoom schedule, but the guests that joined us for tea. Many reservations were easy to make online, others via phone. Many needed to be made well in advance to secure the specific date and time we needed, particularly when we were on vacation. All in all, it was a fun resolution to carry us through the year. Here's to 2026 and more tearoom adventures!

A Year of Teas - January to May, 2025

New Years Resolutions can be daunting. Some are made and broken the same day, while others last a week, perhaps a month. Few are fully executed. In 2025, opting for a new year's resolution that would be fairly easy and enjoyable to accomplish, we decided to make the effort to attend an afternoon tea at least once per month. In January, Nancy Susanna, and Angelica traveled south to Hellem, PA and visited The Front Porch Tea Room.

The Front Porch offers a seasonal monthly menu including salad, scones, soup and this fun array of sandwiches. We shared a more detailed account of our visit in this blog post.

February was a visit to Nazareth, PA for an afternoon tea with an old high school/college friend at Let Them Eat Cake, a bakery and tearoom combination.

Lots of pink decor completed the theme for this tea. Additional photos can be found on this blog photo. They feature monthly themed teas throughout the year.

Also in February, Susanna and Nancy headed south to Gettysburg, PA for a monthly tea offered at Jane's Tearoom at The Gettysburg Academy, a bed and breakfast that also offers afternoon teas.

Tables are setup throughout the first floor of this beautiful mansion. We shared our experience about this fundraising Kitt-tea event in this blog post.

In March, a short trip to Carlisle, PA took us to Exquisite Chocolates for their Third Thursday Afternoon Tea. Find additional photos and the menu here. Although they no longer offer Third Thursday Afternoon Tea, they do occasionally offer a special themed tea.

In April, we met with friends at the Infusions Restaurant and Bakery in Mount Joy, PA. This restaurant is part of the Lancaster County Career and Technology Center. The students operate the tearoom from menu planning, food prep, tea service and more. It is a hands-on operation for the students, open during the school year offering afternoon tea on Tuesdays. We attended a special Alice in Wonderland themed event coordinated by the Royal Tea Club. Discover additional photos here.

April was a celebration at the Garryowen Irish Pub in Gettysburg, PA for the 20th Anniversary Celebration of the Mid-Atlantic Tea Business Association. Founding members; Nancy Reppert, Susanna Reppert, and Janet Young were honored at this celebratory afternoon tea. Visit this blog post for more photos and menu details.

In May, Susanna coordinated the 59th annual Herb Tea Party for members of the Penn Cumberland Garden Club. Held locally in Mechanicsburg, Nancy attended as a guest. The theme featured whole food plant-based tea party items. Additional photos are in this blog post.

Next up, we journeyed to the Kate Pearl Tea Room in Sykesville, MD in May to enjoy afternoon tea with a longtime family friend. Find additional photos and menu details here.

This is part one of a two-part series - A Year of Teas - 2025. We were able to visit at least one tearoom each month from January to May and even managed to sneak in additional teatimes in February, April, and May. How did we do in the second half of the year? Stay tuned!