Jewelry, Tea, and Scones

Tea pairs well with everything. Just ask the group of amazing women I shared my Saturday afternoon with. About a month ago, my best friend became a Silpada Sales Rep and subsequently asked that I host a Silpada Party. Of course I agreed and in a flash, we planned my “Tea and Bling” party. Translation… a combination jewelry and tea party.

My dining room table held a beautiful display of jewelry, while my kitchen table held an awesome display of tea cups, tea foods and tea treats. A perfect setting for afternoon tea. In preparation for the party and to ensure I was able to keep the tea flowing, I purchased two fun little teapots from The English Tea Store – the Amsterdam 2 Cup Infuser Teapot in Burgundy and Sahara. The Sahara pot is pictured on the left and the Burgundy pot is on the right.

Upon receipt, I immediately fell in love with my Amsterdam Teapots. I found them to be not only adorable, but suitable for everyday household use.  As anticipated, both teapots had matching infuser inserts perfect for brewing loose leaf tea.  Thus, my guests enjoyed fruit oolong, silver needle, a blooming jasmine green, and masala chai. Don’t worry tea aficionados, I used a different teapot for each tea served.  I forgot to pre-heat the Teapots before serving tea, however, the Amsterdam teapot was easily microwavable to restore the tea’s warmth.

In addition to the teapots, I purchased the matching Amsterdam Teacups and Saucers in Sahara and Burgundy.  The Amsterdam Teapots hold approximately 23 ounces of tea which equaled about 3 cups of tea in the matching teacups. By the end of the party, we were not only stuffed with chicken salad and croissants, scones and clotted cream, tea and tea cookies, fruit and more… we had an awesome time chatting and buying jewelry. (All sweets were purchased from my favorite French bakery – The BonBoneri.) Even better, clean up was easy – I was able to toss my new teapots, cups and saucers into the dishwasher and worry no more!

Here are the pros and cons of my purchase:

• My order was placed with The English Tea Store on Tuesday of last week. I paid extra for shipping and received my order in record time – the next day to be exact.
• The cost of the Amsterdam Teapots and Teacups were quite reasonable – $11.99 and $3.50 respectively (the teacups were eligible for a bulk discount).
• The infuser for the burgundy Amsterdam Teapot arrived broken. While I wasn’t able to obtain a replacement in time for my party, The English Tea Store was easy to worth with when facilitating a replacement.
• The color on two of the burgundy teacups appeared to be worn.
• The spout of my Amsterdam Teapot in Sahara dribbled a little when pouring.

Overall, I was happy with my purchase and received many compliments on the spread. I look forward to purchasing more tea accessories from The English Tea store. If you have had an opportunity to purchase any of their tea accessories, please stop by and share your experience. Until then… Happy Tea Drinking!