DC Eats: Tea Cellar

On Sunday Rabia and I went to tea at Tea Cellar at Blue Duck Tavern.  Now, this sounds a lot more fancy than in reality it really is.  I mean don't get me wrong, the tea was amazing, but doesn't come with any kind of pretentiousness guys, in case you're thinking that!  I absolutely love tea time.  I think Rabia asked me because while I'm definitely obsessed with coffee, my love for tea knows no bounds.  I usually have a green and herbal in rotation at all times, and so does Rabia, so it only made sense we would go together. Let me just say the Tea Cellar does not disappoint.  For $45 you get two pots of tea (of your choosing) and an unlimited sweet and savory small bites buffet.  Delicious!

We started off with the Blossoming  Jasmine Tea.  So light and subtle, but absolutely perfect.  For our second pot we went with this tea that was described as "smoky," oh and that it was. It tasted a little too "liquid smokey" for mine and Rabia's taste.  Yeah, it tasted like liquid smoke.  I love that the waitress, when asked how it was, she said "it's smoky, you either like it or you don't"...super helpful, clearly.  

Since I have more of a savory tooth than sweet, I thought I'd save the best for last, but honestly after eating everything I couldn't definitively say which I liked better.  The sweet side of the tea included scones with raspberry jam and clotted cream (how British-y does that sound?!) - my first time having clotted cream, and it's like this amazingly thick delicious butter AND the raspberry jam was delicious, if it was in a jar I could sit down and eat straight out of the jar kind of like Joey in that episode of Friends where Monica made jars of homemade jam and Joey downed them like a jam crack fiend, yup that's what I'd do to this jam.  Ok, moving along...they had assorted macarons, lemon curd tart, chocolate mousse and a dark chocolate tart and mini pear cakes.  Everything was so unique and delicately prepared...really great!

The savory side of the tea held its own!  Raw oysters with a clean taste (no cream! I hate the creamy ones); deviled eggs; open faced lobster BLTs; pumpkin tartlets; and, cabbage rolls filled with chicken salad.  The cabbage rolls were mine and Rabia's favorite.  It sounds so simple, but it was really delicious.  I think I want to try my hand at making it, fingers crossed! 

Rating:  A

I'm definitely going back!