COVINGTON, La. (WGNO) - It's Christmas time! That means a lot of fancy hotels are serving up "high tea" now, but will stop after the holidays. Lucky for us, The English Tea Room in Covington serves high tea year round.
Plates full of goodies are served during high tea -- scones, tea sandwiches, mini-quiches, and chocolates. You can blame every bite on Queen Victoria.
"Queen Victoria really started it," said English Tea Room owner Tim Lantrip. "She wanted something between lunch and dinner."
High tea is typically served around 4 p.m. in England, but at the English Tea Room you can order it all day.
The shop has more than 200 different types of tea to choose from, and most are "loose leaf" teas. Turns out, the tea you get in a tea bag is made from the leftovers!
"When they process tea, there's a shifting," said Lantrip. "The tea bags are made out of tea 'dust.' It's what shifts through the nets, the mesh wire. So, usually the tea bags are not that great of quality compared to loose tea."
And at the English Tea Room, you don't sip from paper cups. Tea is served in fine china, and you'll never feel rushed.
"We're slow and easy," said Lantrip. "Most of our customers come and they'll spend two hours or so on average while they're here. And that's what we want to be. We want to be the opposite of fast food."
If you'd like to learn more about The English Tea Room, visit their website here.
