T Stands for Brunch and Tea

One of our favorite, local restaurants, the UxLocale has started serving tea and brunch on Saturday mornings. I've written about the UxLocale before owned and operated by Chef Elaine. Elaine used to work at the Worcester Art Museum where I teach.

Himself opted to have brunch as he does not like tea or any hot beverage for that matter. He had the Italian Hawaiian Canoe Calzone without the thinly sliced Jalapeño peppers

 I, of course, was going to be treated to a tea.

You had your choice of 3 different teas paired with the tiers on the tea stand. Since life is short, I started with the dessert tea, Vanilla Oolong

While enjoying my first cup of Vanilla Oolong, my second choice, Earl Grey came out in a French press and kept warm over a sterno.

The Vanilla Oolong was served in a little teapot. I also asked for cream and sugar. The sugar was raw brown sugar cubes and served with sugar tongs. I didn't get a picture of my spoon which was a demitasse spoon. Very cute. I had 2 cups of the Vanilla tea.

The tea service include 3 generous sandwiches: Cucumber, sour cream, cream cheese, dill on brioche (behind the gold stand), to the left: Smoked Salmon, wild-caught smoked salmon, pickled onions, cream cheese, dill, brioche bread, and to the right: Tomato Caprese, tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil, basil aioli, brioche bread.

I don't really like cheese and the few cheeses I do eat, mozzarella, ricotta, or American cheese need to be cooked. An exception is ricotta and mascarpone because those are the cheeses in cannoli. Cream cheese is okay as long as there is other stuff to help mask the taste/texture.  Himself had the Caprese sandwich.

The middle tier tea I chose was my favorite blend, Earl Grey. I think I had 2 cups. The middle tier offering was a blueberry scone and an orange cranberry scone served with real clotted cream and strawberry jam. Elaine spotted me when she came out of the kitchen, and she came to say hello. It's always a delight to see her. She told me about making the clotted cream from scratch. A long, difficult process, but Elaine's endeavor was so worth it.

By the time, the top tier tea came, Irish Breakfast (remember I paired the teas backwards), I was ready to float, and I was still drinking the Earl Grey  pictured above with a Coconut Chocolate Chip Macaroon. There were also Macarons and Madeleines. 

The server kindly put the Irish Breakfast tea and the remainder of the Earl Grey tea in to go cups along with the cookies.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.