The Painted Tea Cup Edit

For mother’s day my Uncle John had my family attend mother’s day tea at The Painted Tea Cup Tea Room

http://www.thepaintedteacup.com/
220 South State Road (was 127 S State Road)
Upper Darby, PA 19082
610.352.2334
Hours of Operation: Tuesday — Saturday 10:00 am to 5:00 pm

Other reviews:
teamap
Steepster

I drove there with my sister. The first problem I encountered was not finding parking; we drove around the neighborhood before finally parallel parking in front of a tiny store next to a tavern. It was closed! My mother called and told us to come a block down the road to a beautiful house that had its own parking. Apparently they had moved. We were a bit (15 minutes?) late for our 2 pm seating.

Next problem, the power was out! Despite this the high tea was still on, woo! Honestly they handled it so well I never would have guessed and would have assumed all the candles and darkness were for Victorian ambiance.

My maternal grandmother, grandfather, mother, uncle John, sister and myself were there. Unfortunately both my sister and grandfather are fussy eaters and missed out on many of the delicious items through the lunch.

Our tea selection was;

Queen Mary black tea-an English breakfast blend
This was a nice strong black tea, no astringency or bitterness
It stood up well to cream and sugar.
It was smooth and tasty, but nothing special when plain.
I enjoyed it with honey; it was then sweet and strong.
I also enjoyed it with lemon balm and a bit of sugar, much better than real lemon when I later added a dash of cream.

Green tea with strawberry and kiwi flavors
It tasted more like a tisane – a strong strawberry fruit blend flavor, couldn’t pick out the kiwi or green tea.

Decaffeinated English breakfast black tea
I declined to try the decaffeinated English breakfast, so sorry no reviews on that.

On the table we had available mints, sugar cubes, splenda, sweet and low, lemon wedges, lemon balm, honey, cream, jam, and crème fraiche.

Apparently there was going to be rooibos tisane but the power outage altered their plans.

Set at the table was strawberries and grapes on skewers (sorry forgot to get a photograph) arranged in lemon balm leaves for a delicious and pretty floral centerpiece.

Next up was peresca (spelling?) sparkling white wine, frozen strawberry and grenata (spelling?) in a Champaign glass. Dry, but fruity delicious.

Next served was raspberry whipped cream cheese on tea biscuits, sprinkled with powdered sugar with a side of frozen grapes. This was simple, tasty, but not anything remarkable.

The next course was an individual plate of many delicious items;
spinach and cheese quiche
chicken salad on spinach and a roll
pineapple mandarin orange jello
pumpkin bread
glazed lemon pound cake
cinnamon spice muffin
spinach artichoke mouse with a slice of tomato in ice cream cone
pumpernickel, watercress, radish sandwich
cucumber with rosemary on bread with mayo

I do hope all my notes are accurate, I was too busy gobbling down the filling and delicious foods. I was ready to pop when we left. In fact in many cases I had to nab my sister’s plate for pictures as I went about eating mine before I remembered to get a picture!

The dessert course contained;
fruit custard tart in filo type dough
cake, lemon curd, raspberry and Chambord drizzle
chocolate muffin cake with butter cream filling

The check was presented in a hand sewn billfold made of upholstery material with gold trim piping and a plate of chocolate truffles! (sorry forgot a picture of the billfold)

The owner had stashed up on many of the holiday Tea Forte assortments, and my mom purchased one (she has a love for the winter chai which is hard to get) along with some of the green tea with strawberry and kiwi for my sister.

Images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/05/painted-tea-cup-tea-room-review.html