The holiday season and some BIG news!

The holidays are here and the tea room has been bustling with activity. I finally got the Christmas tree up and was actually quite pleased with the result. Alyssa and I have been running around like crazy, trying to keep up with all the baking. The blueberry lemon cake doesn't seem to be lasting more than a couple of hours before it is all gone and we have been adding more scones to the pastry case as they are being enjoyed by you all, with a big slatherings of devonshire cream and jam. I love the holidays and the tea room is such a great place to share holiday memories with your friends and loved ones. Please be sure to check our holiday hours on the website. We will be closed Christmas day and boxing day (day after Christmas) but then back with a vengeance on the 27th. We are also open on Monday, Dec 28th and on New Years day (no lunch served that day - just tea and pastries).
Also - BIG NEWS! The London Tea Room is going to be featured in the January/February 2010 issue of Midwest Living. I'm sure that that issue will be up for sale soon, so look out for it!!
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and we look forward to sharing the holiday season with you in the tea room!

Apologies to those that love to follow the tea rooms blog! Time does seem to have a habit of running away from you and before you know it, it has been over a month since the last posting!
Life has been very busy at The London Tea Room. We had a wonderful evening last month at our tea cupping. We all enjoyed sampling 6 different teas and learning the difference about them. We are definitely going to host another cupping soon. I'm thinking probably the end of January, as that gives us all time to recuperate after the holidays!
Our tea tins have arrived and they look amazing. They hold 3 - 4 oz of loose tea and are perfect for a gift for a loved one or for yourself. We are expecting a shipment of loose tea in early next week, so there should be plenty available to fill up those tins! We also received an assortment of English Christmas candy. Several of them are assortment boxes of cadbury's chocolates, or there is a Christmas tree box filled with maltesers. These are lovely to give to the kids for a stocking stuffer and even to all those big kids you know!!
We are gearing ourselves up for a very busy season. We are already getting lots of calls with reservations for afternoon teas and it has been noticeably busier, especially on Saturdays and Sundays. For those that are curious of our holiday hours, they are as follow:
THANKSGIVING DAY - Closed
CHRISTMAS EVE - Open 8am - 2pm - Limited lunch menu (11am - 1pm)
CHRISTMAS DAY - CLOSED
BOXING DAY (Dec 26th) - CLOSED
We are normally closed on Mondays but we will be open on Monday December 28th from 7.30am - 5pm and we will also be open on New years day from 8.30am - 5pm.

Now that the weather has turned cooler and the days are shorter, what better thing is there to do than to come in to the cozy tea room and share a cup of tea and delicious pastries with your loved ones?
We'll look forward to seeing you soon and from all of us in the tea room - a very happy Thanksgiving!

The latest happenings in the tea room.

Autumn is here! As I look out the window, I could almost believe that I am back in England. A steady downpour of rain and a slight chill in the air. What a great time for a cup of tea and a book! Speaking of tea, we have been running away with some fantastic new tea latte ideas. Shannon has been experimenting and we have some really lovely tea lattes to offer you. How about the naughty vicar latte? Naughty vicar tea with vanilla and lovely frothy warm milk. Or the chai tea with pumpkin spice, again mixed in warm milk. Delish! And there are so many more. Speaking of chai, we are also offering chai-der. A mix of hot chai tea and apple cider and a dash of cinnamon. There's no stopping us and hopefully no stopping you from rushing in to experience these amazing concoctions of pure yumminess!!
We also had the pleasure of the 8th grade class of Cornerstone Academy, St. Louis visit us today. They enjoyed tea and hot chocolate, accompanied by English scones with butter and jam. A good time was had by all and I have a feeling that none of them are going to eat their lunch today when they get back to school!! They also developed a huge crush on our barista, Shannon. So much so, that I had to take of photo of them with him in it (see photo). Lots of fun!
As for the latest with the tea room, we are gearing up for the holidays and hopefully it won't be long before we have our new tea tins all ready to go. They are going to make the best gifts, especially great for those hard to buy for family or friends. I'll keep you updated as much as possible with the latest goings on. Oh yes! I almost forgot. I finally figured out how to create a facebook page for the tea room. It took me forever, but I actually quite impressed myself at how it turned out. If you are on facebook, search for the London Tea Room page (not group) and become a fan. Then you will get all the latest info on the goings on in the tea room!

Extended lunch hours

Great news for all you hungry lunch goers! Starting Saturday, October 3rd our lunch hour has been extended. Tuesday through Friday lunch will be from 11am - 2.30pm and on Saturdays and Sundays from 11am - 3pm!!! Also the roast beef sandwich is back and it is absolutely delicious!!!

Tea Cupping!

Have you ever stood in front of our tea counter (or any other tea counter for that matter!) and had no idea which tea to order or in fact, what tea you would like the most? Affronted by such exotic teas as darjeeling, jasmine dragon tears or silver needle, you stand there in bewilderment not knowing what to order! Then we throw such teas as the naughty vicar, the 5th of November and Monks blend at you just to confound you some more!!! Well then you need to mark your calendars for our next tea cupping! Wednesday October 28th at 7pm. The theme will be "tea type or taste, How do you choose?" Guests will go home with a small "tea bag" (goodie bag). Call or come in for tickets. Tickets are $10 and space is limited to 25. The cupping should last for just over an hour and we will be tasting five of our amazing teas. See you on the 28th!

New happenings in the Tea Room.

I'm sure you are all asking yourself the same question.. "Where did the summer go?!" I cannot get over how fast this summer has flown by and I have been so pleasantly surprised at our gorgeous weather. Now the kids are back at school and I'm getting back to my old routines. I can actually sit down for a few minutes in the morning before work with a cup of tea and actually have time to drink it! For those of you that remember my sister Anna, she had her baby boy on August 11th. He weighed a very healthy 9 1b 90z!!! He is absolutely gorgeous and we have all fallen in love with him.
We are working on a number of things in the tea room. First of all, we have set up a "mini store" inside of the tea room. At this moment in time, we have tea pots, PG tips and Yorkshire Gold tea bags, Rishi ice tea and various British groceries (mainly chocolate at this time). Also we have a wonderful line of mugs, tea pots, and tea cozies from the London Transport museum in Convent garden, London. Come in and see them! We are planning to build our store up to include more groceries and yummy chocolates and our loose leaf tea in wonderful tea tins. These tins will make great gifts or a wonderful gift for yourself that you can keep all the tea that you buy from us nice and fresh! We should also be receiving Christmas goodies, such as Christmas crackers, specialized chocolate gifts etc. by October. I'll put something on the website or on the blog when those items arrive. Next year you can place your orders with us for Christmas, so long as we have your order by mid July. We also have new gift cards that are very attractive (no more ugly cards!!) and come with a card and envelope.
ALSO - (deep breath) we are going to be hosting more tea cuppings again starting in October. Keep your eyes on the website for more information on this!! It's been a long time but the tea cuppings are really so much fun we decided that it had been far too long!
We are currently well stocked with our loose leaf tea, so come on in, or order on line if it's a long drive for you. I have been doing a lot of reading up on tea lately and I have been amazed at just how good tea is for your health and well being. There honestly seems to be a tea for every occasion in life!!
See you all soon!
Jackie

Tea in London

One week ago today........ I was taking a stroll down the London streets, enjoying the street performers and market at Convent garden, having tea at a wonderful tea room by St. Pauls cathedral (sigh!). Both my mum and I left St. Louis on June 18th to make a trip back home and visit family and friends. My Grandma (We call her Nan), celebrated her 90th birthday on June 21st. We had a lovely lunch by the ocean and enjoyed time with family. We left the south coast early on Tuesday morning (after narrowly missing the bus because we had so much luggage we could barely make it down the street!!) and made our way up to London. After dropping our bags off at the Victoria station baggage hold, we made our way over to convent garden. Convent garden is one of my favorite places in London to visit. There are amazing, entertaining street perfomers, anything from juggling, magicians and opera. Amazing! We made a quick visit to the transport museum (they have a great shop), and the market with anything from tea shirts to tacky souvenirs. Not forgetting all the wonderful little shops such as Lush, Monsoon, the tea palace and so, so much more. After our visit to convent garden, we began our walk to St. Pauls cathedral. We strolled down The Strand, following that to Fleet Street, walking past Somerset house, the courts of justice (right across from this was Twinings Tea) and finally to St. Pauls. Before we left St. Louis, I googled tea rooms in London, trying to find a tea room similar to ours. I found a place called "Tea" that was right next to St. Pauls, so we made our mind up to visit. Incidently, while googling a tea room in London, the tea room that kept popping up was our very own London Tea room. Had to smile at that. We found Tea tucked in to a little corner right across from St. Pauls. The two girls (Rose and Natalia) behind the counter were very friendly and very happy to meet some fellow tea shop workers from across the pond. They had a good selection of different teas. I ordered a vanilla tea and mum ordered a darjeeling. I noticed that they steep their tea exactly the same way as us. Both of us ordered a scone with cream and jam. They toasted the scone, which is something that I have never experienced before. I think I prefer my scone untoasted but it was still very good.
After feeling very full and happy, we made our way over to St. Pauls and quietly walked in to the beautiful, awesome cathedral. As we walked in we realized there was a service in progress. We sat quietly and listened to the crescending voices of the chior. It was as if we were listening to angels. It was amazing and a wonderful way to wrap up an amazing visit to London and our time spent in England. We made it home on Wednesday 24th with many fond memories of our visit but very happy to be home with our familes and of course with our friends at The London Tearoom.