DIY High Tea

I guess I first heard of this high tea thing was one year when we were visiting Vancouver, Canada. It was listed as one of suggested activities. But of course it was vetoed down when I suggested that to hubby. High tea is sold as a fix price per person which includes tea (of course) and finger food to go with it either sandwiches, cakes, etc. I think tea drinking is a British thing that's why we never heard of it in US.

Why high tea ? According to Afternoon Tea it's called high tea possibly because it's eaten at table as opposed to afternoon tea which is usually done sitting low on sofas or comfortable chairs. But these days in my opinion high tea seems like a fancy way of having tea with high price tag.

This week we have some visitors from out of town and I thought what would be a better way to entertain them. Let's throw my own high tea. Hubby won't be able to run away from it. And I would have chance to take some photos for my Instagram. So I looked for ideas online and came up with the menu and decor. In case you want to do your own, let me give you the step by step.



Looked up for ideas online
Google up high tea and you would see so many images. This will help you with your high tea decor. After all the right decor helps with the experience. Those images also helps with deciding your menu because you do need finger food to go with your tea.

Decide on your menu
Just like with any party you are throwing. Food will be one of the items needed to be prepared ahead of time. You could buy a few items and make the rest. This way you could save money. While searching for high tea I found this link from BBC featuring various recipes for finger food. All looked good.

Since we would be having this as brunch so I wanted an even combination of sweet and savory food. Tea sandwiches are good option for savory finger food and easy to put together. There are a lot of options available so you could pick a few that suits you and your guests palette. I also decided to make a simple cake, orange cranberry scone, summer sausage rolls and mini sausage pastries wrap. And to make my spread more Instagram-ready I would splurge on some colorful macaroons from Thierry. Nope, this is not sponsored by Thierry. But yes, I do think the macaroons added tons of color to my photos. Tips : pick the bright color macaroons, eg. pink and red.

Use what you have and be creative 
In a restaurant setting, real high tea would require tea pot and set of cups and saucers. Preferably a whole set of matching cups and teapot. But I don't have those. Like most people I have mugs and no tea pot. I don't want to have to spend $dollar$$ to invest in something which most likely wouldn't see another daylight after the event. So I just went out and bought 2 cups from Oomomo. This store is like a Asian Dollar Store/Dollarama. You could try Daiso too if you have one nearby.

I would have bought a teapot had they had one. But I guess teapot isn't in anymore. But tea cups would be pretty enough to serve as additional decor to complement my Instagram photo shoot. My guests could drink from them or use our mugs. Tea pot is optional since we also offer instant tea and coffee mix. I am sorry but this is not a traditional high tea.

I also don't have those 3 tier cake display plate. So my guest helped me set up a few pots to prop my spread. Use some pretty scarf to as cover and voila we got a pretty background for my table.

My other thought was to check out local thrift store to hunt for some pretty cups and teapot and maybe a 3 tier cake display.

Prepare ahead of time
Depends on what you decide to have on your menu, some items could be prepared ahead of time. Of course most food would taste best just after it was made. But that would give you too much stress. Be smart with it and see if there's any step that could be prepared ahead of time.

In my case, the summer sausage rolls could be made ahead of time and froze. I thawed them in the fridge the night before just to be sure. Threw them in the preheated oven took only about 30 minutes.

Tea sandwiches unfortunately can't be made ahead because they turn soggy. Just arrange the necessary items so you could put together sandwiches in no time. I turned to Youtube videos for tips on how to make pretty sandwiches.