Review: The London Ritz Book of Afternoon Tea by Helen SImpson

A nice little book celebrating tea and its history.  The Palm Court Tearoom at the Ritz is one of the most famous places to do so.  It features a history of tea and calls it "The Democratic Herb" as it is enjoyed by all classes and most cultures.  It features differences between Winter Teas, High Tea, Afternoon Tea, Pre-Theatre Tea, Nursery Teas and Summer Teas.  It offers many recipes in both metric and Cup measures.  Recipes include traditional savories and sweets and show how they have been updated over time.They include, Crumpets, English Muffins, Shortbread, Scones, Seed Cakes, Madeleines, Eccles Cakes (which I had no idea were illegal in 1650 - imagine going to jail for eating a cake???)Egg  or Cucumber Sandwiches, Scotch Woodcock, English Rabbit and Welsh Rarebit as well.

The book is filled with literary quotes involving tea and lovely illustrations. 

If you love tea, (which I CERTAINLY do!) it is definitely worth checking out!

Terri

Review: A Proper Tea by Johanna Isles

I love tea! And this book was a lot of fun. There was a lot of interesting history of tea, its' discovery in the West, how it came to be a tradition in England and other fun tidbits.

It was great at explaining different types of tea and how best to serve them. 

There was a story of the legend of the Willow Plate pattern china which is so popular. 

And BEAUTIFUL watercolor illustrations!  It is based on themes such as A proper tea, a nursery tea, a picnic tea, Tea in bed etc...  and each section is illustrated accordingly and has appropriate recipes for the theme.  Many traditional, some unusual -- A Black and White Tea and a Bizarre Tea for example.

Then of course, some great recipes -- it is a cookbook after all.

My favorites to try: Elegant Sugar Thins, Banana sandwiches, Cherry cake, Bengal Sandwiches and Cold Spiced Tea

Terri

• Hardcover: 95 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1 edition (October 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312651422
• ISBN-13: 978-0312651428