Pinkies Up for High Tea

After my disappointing half marathon yesterday, Jenny whisked me away to a wonderful afternoon to lessen the blow of such a poor race. We went to Gourmet Junction in Plainfield for afternoon tea. Jenny is an expat from Yorkshire, England, so she was prepared to give me the full report on if this place was authentic.

First thing's first, the Brits do not have afternoon tea in this manner at all, but we dressed to the nines anyways. It was a great excuse to wear a hat I found at the thrift shop, which also hid my nasty post-race hair. The Groupon Jenny bought included tea for two and pastries. It promised clotted cream and lemon curd, but that was nowhere to be found, unfortunately. In addition, we sprung for sandwiches because I was starving. I went with a turkey and provolone sandwich on a pretzel roll and Jenny got the tuna salad on French bread. My sandwich was good, but needed some spicy mustard or something. Also, it probably tasted awesome to me because I was starving after the race.

I tried three different types of tea, because I was thirsty by then. The strawberry vanilla tea was my favorite.  It was so tasty that I'll have to buy a box for later. The pastries included chocolates, brownies, pieces of a nutty/flakey pastries, blueberry scones, sugar cookies and cupcakes. There were two of each option on the dessert tray so we could each try one.

It was a cute outing, but Jenny and I both agreed we could do it better at home. While the pastries were adorable, they were definitely store bought. We recognized the cookies and cupcakes from Target, the blueberry scone was from a mix and the brownies were unremarkable.

The tea room itself was a bit odd, too, as it was part cafe and part deli counter. We had fun, but we'll have high tea at home next time!