Teacup Tuesday – Royal Vale

Today I’m showing the other two cups and saucers that I bought at the same estate sale where I purchased my Bavarian teacup trio.  They are both Royal Vale bone china teacups made by Ridgway Potteries in England.

This set features deep red and white roses in a circular pattern with gold trim.

The second set has a more unusual floral pattern in softer colors.

I haven’t seen many teacups featuring fuchsia flowers, which are quite beautiful.

 

Please join Terri and Martha for Teacup Tuesday and Wanda Lee for Tea Time In Blogland.

Disney Teapot and Wonderland Tea

On this trip to Orlando I only purchased one item (other than photos) to bring home.  After taking tea at the Garden View Lounge, we stopped at the lobby gift store to see if there were any new tea items.  I thought that this was an interesting teapot with its metal sleeve with “Wonderland” cutouts and the metal lid with its little cup and saucer.  The glass liner is removable, although I found it rather difficult to remove since it is a very tight fit. 

On the front you can see Alice pouring tea  for the March Hare and a teapot and teacup. 

There is a plunger type lid that you push down to trap the tea leaves after brewing.

The Mad Tea Party blend loose tea is a medium flavor strength.  The label lists Indian black tea, ginger, peach and apricot flavors.  (But no mustard – don’t let’s be silly!)  I found the tea to be quite good – much better than their Official Unbirthday tea in bags.

The gift shop had some pretty china teapots and teacups in the “Alice” theme.  I was hoping to find a new tea theme Disney trading pin, or even a Grand Floridian pin, but there haven’t been any new ones lately.  I’ll have to post about my Disney tea theme trading pins sometime.

 

Grand Floridian Afternoon Tea

One of the highlights of our Orlando trip for me was afternoon tea at the Garden View Lounge in Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa.  It is such a beautiful Victorian style complex and their flagship resort.

Shown above is a small section of the grand lobby with the Garden View Lounge at the back.  There are wonderful old fashioned ironwork elevators on both sides of the room, a grand piano in the center and also an elegant staircase.  The scent of flowers from the many enormous floral displays permeates the room.  The tea lounge itself is quite small.  There are comfortable chairs and benches and a wonderful view on two sides of the gardens and lagoon.

The Old Country Roses bone china is very pretty.  I liked the silver tea strainers for the loose tea and dainty sugar tongs.  This time there were no tea cozies to cover our teapots, as there were in the past.

My Grand Tea was much as I remembered it, with a glass of Domaine St. Michelle, tea sandwiches, scone and jam tart, and a choice of tea pastries or English trifle.  I can never resist the trifle with fluffy cake, rich custard, tart raspberry sauce and whipped cream.  My favorite sandwich is still served – basil poached pear with gorgonzola cheese on pumpernickle bread.  There was also delicious cucumber, curried chicken salad, shrimp, egg salad, onion tart and a slice of pate.  I’m afraid I sampled before taking the photos, hence the empty spot on my plate.  

The raisin scone was very good with a nice flavor and texture.  I forgot to photograph my luscious English trifle.

  I would love to be able to visit this tea room more than once a year, but it is fun to note what has changed since the last visit.  The wait staff have different uniforms for one thing. 

Do enjoy afternoon tea at the Grand Floridian Garden View lounge if you have the opportunity.  My hubby recommends the Eros tea – a medium bodied Ceylon with sweet Mandarin orange and vanilla.  Check out the full tea list and afternoon tea offerings here.

V- Fusion + Tea

This weeks BOGO items at Publix included a new V8 drink that I’d not seen before.  When I saw the “+ tea” on the label, I had to buy some – of course, it being half price didn’t hurt either.

These days everyone knows that tea is a great source of polyphenols and flavonoids that help soak up all those free radicals.  It seems like tea (or tea extract) is being added to more products every day. This juice is a good way to sneak some veggies into my grandsons diet.   Normally, I only buy 100% fruit juice for the boys and the V8 V- Fusion only contains 50% juice.  It does contain quite a variety of fruits and veggies, such as sweet potatoes, purple carrots, yellow tomatoes, apples, pomegranates and more.

I tried the Raspberry Green Tea flavor for lunch and it was very tasty (nice color too), although a little sweeter than I would normally choose.  So I’d say try it – especially as a healthy alternative to sodas for those non tea drinkers. 

German Cobalt Teacup Trio

Just before leaving on our annual fall vacation, I went to an estate sale in McDonough and was thrilled to find my first teacup trio, along with a couple of Royal Vale cups and saucers.

This set is from Bavaria, Germany.  It has such a deep blue color that it turned my photo background pale blue and the mirror like finish made it difficult to photograph.

The cup has a pretty gilded pedestal base and a simple loop handle.

 The lovely roses pattern and trim is 22 carat gold.

The embossed scroll look design around the edge is interesting. 

For some reason the owner labeled it New Hope PA 1975 – perhaps as a reminder of when and where the set was purchased.  My price was $18, which I’m hoping was a good buy.  I’d love to know more about the company history and when this set was manufactured.

Please join Terri and Martha for Teacup Tuesday and Wanda Lee for Teatime in Blogland.

Orlando Anniversary Trip

We had a lovely week in Orlando, FL at the Summer Bay Resort.  I’d recommend this resort as having very nice accommodations, with lots of activities, a lake and several pools.

Four days were spent at Universal, visiting both Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure.  The new Wizarding World of Harry Potter was quite an attraction.  The castle was huge and contained the “Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey” ride.  I’ve never experienced anything quite like it.

Just making your way through the line inside the castle was an adventure.  There were lots of statues, artifacts, dragon skeletons and portraits that spoke to each other and the guests.  There was one outdoor section that had some very interesting plants (carnivorous).

Sadly, this tea room was just a facade.  The best meal we enjoyed at the park was at Mythos in Islands of Adventure.  The food was delicious and the atmosphere was unique.

Don’s risotto with beef tips was scrumptious.  I had Thai style spicy chicken wraps with peanut dipping sauce – yum.  The kids enjoyed rice krispie treat sushi for dessert – chopsticks included.

On Friday, I enjoyed afternoon tea at the Grand Floridian.  I made my only souvenir purchase of the week at the gift shop next to the Garden View Lounge.  It’s a rather different teapot that I’ll post about later.

I’m looking forward to seeing what all my blogging friends have been up to while I was away.

 

Anniversary Getaway

It’s time once again for our September anniversary getaway.  We take our grandsons and head to Florida for the fall break.  I’m really hoping to have afternoon tea again at Garden View Lounge at the Grand Floridian Resort.  It is always such a lovely tea experience.

Meanwhile, I hope you’ll read my latest posts on the English Tea Store blog.  I’ll miss visiting all of you on your lovely sites while I’m away.  When I return I’ll have some new items to show on Teacup Tuesday that I found at an estate sale yesterday.  I’m so excited that one of them is a Bavarian Cobalt tea trio (the first in my collection).

In case you are wondering about the photos.  The first photo is of a pretty tray containing a variety of sugars to sample with tea, during a presentation by Jade, the owner of Jades Tea (now closed).

Above shows a tray of snacks to munch on while the different teas were being brewed. 

Late For Tea

It’s hard to believe that the week is slipping away so quickly and that I’m late for Tea Cup Tuesday.  Today I’m showing you a tea set that my sister-in-law gave me.  It has it’s own metal holder, which makes it easy to carry it to the table or back to storage.

I don’t know how long she owned this set, or when it was made.

It is very dark and dull here this morning, hence the photos are not great.

There is quite a lot of color in this set.

It is from the Czech Republic.  It says Thun - Karlovarsk Porcelan – Original Kobalt.

Please join Terri and Martha for Tea Cup Tuesday and Wanda Lee for Teatime in Blogland.

Tea Room Cross-stitch

My hubby just completed another lovely cross-stitch piece just for me.

I love all the pretty teacups and the teapot, most with metallic trim.  The names of many teas are listed, including some of my favorites – Assam, Darjeeling, Earl Grey and Oolong. 

Now he’s working on some cross-stitch Christmas cards.