When Tom and I became Mr. and Mrs. 34 years ago this month, we spent the first few nights of our marriage at the Windsor Court Hotel. The hotel has held a special place in our hearts ever since. Each year on our wedding date we celebrate our anniversary there, in some way. Either we have lunch, or dinner, or stay the night. We have never had tea. So when we had the folks from the Windsor Court on the Food Show (airs weekdays 2-4pm 990AM) to talk about their special Mardi Gras Tea, happening on our wedding anniversary, it seemed the perfect way to celebrate.
So festive! The hotel lobby was abuzz with activity, sporting purple, green, and gold everywhere. Most of the guests at the tea were costumed in some way, with glittered clothes or fascinators. An adjacent table was celebrating Valentine’s Day early, each lady with a heart tiara. Matt Haines had a table of his wonderful King Cake books for sale, and the Mardi Gras Indians dropped in to parade. We were most interested in the strains of “If Ever I Cease To Love” coming from the piano in the corner, though it was fascinating to hear the Mardi Gras Indian tell the story of the thousands of beads for each costume they sew each year, starting the day after Mardi Gras.
Tea is for people with far more polite manners than mine. I don’t sip. I don’t savor. I wish I could because these finer experiences are delightful, but they shouldn’t be rushed. I was surprised that the limitless tea selections printed on the menu were indeed vast. I believe it was allowed to select twelve. I only did six, and that was out of sheer curiosity.
The teas were arranged by type, with separate sections for White, Green, Oolong, Black, and Flavored Black. I chose a White Peach, which was my definite favorite. A white tea I didn’t care for was Strawberries and Champagne. Gunpowder Pearl Green was another favorite. I liked both the Pure Assam English Breakfast Tea and Lapsang Souchong black teas. My least favorite of the assortment was the featured tea for the day. It was Lemon Berry Meritage and appeared to be a blend of berries and other fruits, with no tea basis listed in the ingredients.
I was also unimpressed with my choice of welcome cocktail. The Carnival Queen looked like a mirror in a flute. Lavender and violet syrup with Polynesian bitters sounded so promising! Meh.
Tom’s “cocktail” was straight orange juice, and he had bottomless coffee instead of tea. He was quite happy with that.
The tray of tea sandwiches included truffled egg on white bread, smoked salmon on brown bread, curried chicken salad on cucumber rounds, sliced turkey on white bread, and cucumber slices on brown bread. All were very good and were gone in minutes.
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Tasting the teas was helpful in slowing our pace. The dessert tower was quite a production. It came with two black currant scones that could have benefitted from reworking. They were too soft and had a sticky film on them, but otherwise tasted fine. Two gingerbread cinnamon scones were glazed with white icing and Mardi Gras sprinkles. They were okay for what they were. More icing and Mardi Gras sprinkles covered the two strawberries on the plate. Two purple macarons with green filling and yellow drizzle were to me the best things in this assortment, and I am not usually a macaron fan. These macarons were topped with Bananas Foster chocolate bon bons. And of course, there were two tiny slices of king cake.
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All of this was perfectly adequate but nothing special in terms of the food placed before us. But the experience itself was just so wonderful! I definitely recommend doing it. But I think it’s probably best to do it for some holiday because a major part of what made it so fun was the atmosphere not only in the Salon but in the hotel itself.
It’s hard to asses a value in this, because so much a part of it is the experience. The waitress was wonderful and worked very hard to keep all those teas straight. And where else could you sit indefinitely and taste tea after tea?
Viewed in those terms, even though there wasn’t much food, I would say that $65 all-inclusive is certainly a deal, and worth every penny.
