{"id":36598,"date":"2017-09-20T18:00:27","date_gmt":"2017-09-20T23:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=36598"},"modified":"2017-09-22T06:49:11","modified_gmt":"2017-09-22T11:49:11","slug":"afternoon-tea-with-jane-austen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=36598","title":{"rendered":"Afternoon Tea with Jane Austen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Afternoon tea with Jane Austen is not what I had planned to give my mother for Mother’s Day.\u00a0 It was just afternoon tea at a local hotel called Ballentyne Hotel<\/a>.\u00a0 However, when we arrived, we learned that particular Saturday afternoon had a Jane Austen theme.\u00a0 Let me give you some background.\u00a0 You probably know that Mom and I love going to afternoon tea, and whenever we are together either in our country or a foreign country, we seek out a nice place that serves an eloquent tea.\u00a0 For Mother’s Day this year, we gifted Mom an afternoon tea for the next time she was in Charlotte, and this past weekend was it.\u00a0 We went while Little Miss, who is still too young to appreciate this ritual, was taking her nap.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"Afternoon<\/p>\n

We have rated our tea experiences over the years, and Brown’s Hotel<\/a> in London is at the top of the list.\u00a0 Much to our surprise, the Ballentyne Hotel’s is now number two.\u00a0 Keep in mind that we have had tea in Buenos Aires, Yangoon, New Delhi, Capetown, Paris, Havana, Moscow, Bangkok, Lexington, and more.\u00a0 The latest one trumped all of those experiences.\u00a0 It was that good.\u00a0 In fact, since the hotel is newer, it was like a updated version of Brown’s.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0The Table<\/h2>\n

\"Afternoon<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tea takes place in a nice living room area off of the main entrance to the hotel.\u00a0 When we entered, we were pleased to hear someone playing the harp.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"Afternoon<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tables were set in lovely china, flowers, tea strainers, a variety of sugars, and nice flat ware.\u00a0 The service was impeccable.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"Afternoon<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We were each given a glass of prosecco to enjoy while we made our selections.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Afternooon<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mom chose Parisian which was a black decaf with hints of berries and vanilla.\u00a0 I chose green.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0The Tea Menu<\/h2>\n

\u00a0\"Afternoon<\/p>\n

We were served savory finger sandwiches, scones, little cakes, truffles, and our favorites, macarons.\u00a0 Every morsel was delicious.\u00a0 We munched and sipped and had an uninterrupted adult conversation, which is a rarity with a toddler usually in the mix.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0Jane Austen<\/h2>\n

\u00a0\"Afternoon<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A few tables away from us sat a lady and her daughter.\u00a0 Each was dressed in Jane Austen style clothes.\u00a0 We grabbed them for a quick photo as they were about to leave, and others wanted a shot with them, also.\u00a0 I think the hotel should have comped their meal.\u00a0 Don’t you???<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It’s so nice to have something special that Mom and I share.\u00a0 It’s great having a special thing that we both enjoy, and we plan to keep this little tradition going for as long as possible.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cheers!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Linking to Between Naps on the Porch<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Afternoon tea with Jane Austen is not what I had planned to give my mother for Mother’s Day.\u00a0 It was just afternoon tea at a local hotel called Ballentyne Hotel.\u00a0 However, when we arrived, we learned that particular Saturday afternoon had a Jane Austen theme.\u00a0 Let me give you some background.\u00a0 You probably know that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36598"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36598"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36677,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36598\/revisions\/36677"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}