Our 30th Spot:

The St. Regis

125 3rd Street San Francisco, CA 94103

www.marriott.com

Ahh, FINALLY!! We’ve been trying to get to this place for years! This was Spot 30 for some years [okay I had to look]; since 2017, so since 6 years ago! For whatever reasons we never got to go, I was so relieved to have made a reservation and have it locked in our calendar. Another reason that made this Tea so special- I got to have one-on-one time with thee girlfriend (that you all should THANK!!) that encouraged me to start this Blog in the first place! So so special.

I took no photos of the interior. There were a lot of people, and we were excited to get to our seats. Just more element of surprise to add to your excitement when you go visit! (high-five)

Super cute, right?

When you sit, there’s a box of their offered teas waiting for you. Gorgeous bottles, reminded me of mom’s perfume. We took time to smell each of them, and because we’re in sync* we were both interested in the 2 same blends. She ordered one and I ordered the other, then we’d plan to taste/have both. Yay!

*I put the asterisk there because I wanted to take a moment to talk about this particular girlfriend. (I have a full blog post planned for how the Blog came to be, so that’s not this story) We’ve known each other well over 10 years. I was there for her wedding… Met her dog when he was a puppy… And when I was pregnant with my daughter, guess who was waiting for my dr. when I was done with my appointment? Here she came! Before she knew what she was even having, she says to me “I’m having your daughter’s best friend.” (wipe your tears, I’ll give you a minute) And sure enough, our girls stuck together like peanut butter + jelly. 🙂

Okay, back to tea…

She loves cherry blossoms (Happy Sakura Season!), so it was inevitable that she’d choose their Cherry Blossom green tea. For me, what caught my nose’s attention was their St. Regis Blend. I was searching all over the place, and I realized that in all my excitement- I didn’t even take a picture of the tea yall. Haha!

So the St. Regis reminded me a lot of Harney & Sons Paris tea, but their blackberry or black currant was very upfront. The Cherry Blossom, really perfumy, again reminded me of Harney & Sons Cherry Blossom tea. However, this one was much more creamy. Really very good teas here. Our server came to us a couple of times, asking if we wanted to switch out our pots and try something new. But we were so happy with our choices, we just stuck to them!

A tower so pretty I had to share 3 shots of it from 3 different angles! (oh look, there’s the tea) She also offered us some champagne, and came around to refill if need be (or want be haha). Neither of us were drinkers. I hadn’t had any alcohol for about 7 or 8 years, health reasons. But if you ask me what kind I would have, I could name a couple from each type in a heartbeat! (hard liquor: Henny or Remy; wine: Pine Ridge Chenin Blanc or Pacific Rim Riesling; beer: Fosters Bitter, any porter, or a good ol’ Red Stripe or Session) Howweverrr- when someone at the St. Regis offers you champagne, you take the champagne! She had a few good sips of hers, and I had a few of mine. (sip for me = lets the champagne touch your lips, then lick them. Hahah!!) She gave us a Lallier R. 018, very grapey.

Luxardo Cherry Citrus Scone (cara cara orange zest, crystal sugar) – That scone was amazing. Dramatically crunchy outside. Don’t know what those honkin sugar crystals were, but they were so fun to crunch! And there was something ‘nutty’ in there for sure.

Fra’mani Rosemary Ham Tea Sandwich (rye bread, whole grain dijon mustard, kewpie) – I knew there was something different about this sandwich before I looked it up on the menu… There’s kewpie in it!! Interesting. I love kewpie. But it was a really interesting choice for this sandwich. Not sure how I felt about it here. The ham had a good bite to it. Not too thick, where you can’t bite it in two. And I love me some dijon mustard, so that stuff I couldn’t get enough of. The bread was really dry tho. Couldn’t tell if it had been out for a while before it got to us, or if it was just us taking too long to get to it!?

Caviar Profiterole (sturgeon caviar, egg) – [P.S. I’m really proud of this picture! I surprised myself at how good it turned out!? Look at all those delicious shiny highlights of each tiny egg!!] Okay so- neither of us had ever had caviar before!!?! This was a high point for us. Since my friend had their vegetarian options, her tea service didn’t come with any…but I gave her a butterknife tip’s worth of some. After both having some: eh, it was okay! Hehe. Uneventful + underwhelming. We think because it had been so talked up or we’ve seen how people pay top dollar for this stuff, we thought it was gonna be some kind of magical experience. I fully expected for each little ball of fish egg to explode this magnificent liqueur in my mouth. No magic. But it was still fun to try, and I am glad I can finally say now at 42 that I have had caviar!! Win! The egg was just okay for me too, too oniony.

Brioche (mary’s chicken, red grapes, tarragon) – It had some type of herb (no, not the tarragon) that made you go “hm what is that?” Like a nutmeg of some sort, but not nutmeg hahah. And the bread to filling ratio was not it. Too much bread, not enough chicken salad.

Laura Chenel Goat Cheese Toast (hot house cucumber, radish) – The cream was tart. Didn’t realize it was goat cheese before I looked at the menu again. Cucumbers were crunchy. Bread was very dry + crispy. Again, maybe because we didn’t get to it during its prime…

Blueberry Cake (royal icing, almonds) – So cute. But this one tasted artificial to me. The icing was hard, like Pop-Tarts frosting. And my girlfriend said she couldn’t get the coconut flakes out her mouth! I only took a bite of that one…

Rose Macaron (lychee, white chocolate) – Aside from it being so tall you didn’t know how to attack it (especially for someone with a small mouth like me), there was everything to love about this macaron. Not a fan of the red dye no. 4 tho. And I don’t even like raspberries!! However, the tart of that raspberry with the milkiness of that cream THEN the rose + lychee together!? Yass girrl. (clapping hand emoji) I think I was moaning + making out with that macaron. My poor friend.

So that was the last thing I ate there. I didn’t have room for the last 2 sweets. But they packed it up and gave us each a bag for our to-go treats. I did devour them late that night tho, so let me share my notes with you for those…

Caramel Hazelnut Tart (sable, chocolate ganache) – This was chocolate overkill for me. But I’m happy to say that I ate gold!! Oh and the pastry was nice too.

This stunning work of art was a bonus sweet. This little thing is what prompted strangers to stop at our table a gawk at our food for a minute. Another first for me: I have never had anything covered in a mirror glaze. That agar agar or gelatin is fun! (you should know by now, me with textures) It had pineapple bits and/or marmalade in the filling, all on top of a really good chocolate cracker. Don’t tell anyone- but I scraped the to-go box for that leftover jello glaze!

For as long as we waited to come here, I had a really good time. Was it mostly because of my friend? Yeah. (wink to my girl) Could I have had those teas at home, after buying them from Target? Yeah. But I won’t complain cuz some places miss it in the tea department. Was I happy to have champagne lip gloss, try caviar for the first time, eat gold, and scrape mirror glaze off a box like a crackhead? Well, yeah! It was a must-experience for sure. You should definitely try it once! Take your girlfriends and tell us how yall liked it k!?

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(sigh) I already had a Tea booked for this month. But thenn, I found out that the Four Seasons was offering an Afternoon Tea- but just in March!! (sweat bead emoji) I had to hurry up and collect my girls and get us in there! Thankfully, all but one of my OG’s were able to come. (Don’t feel bad for that one, cuz her + I were booked for this month’s already hehe) Okay so here’s the thing tho. (deep breath) (I have a lot of parentheses going on here huh) My Tea I scheduled for March was on the 18th. I had an already booked-to-capacity month, but could be flexible for some days. I don’t know whyyy, but I threw out the 17th as an option. And. It just so happened. That my girls. Were ALL available on the 17th!! Ayyy! This is the very first time, in the almost 10 years of doing this, that I’d be doing a back-to-back Tea! I guess there’s a first for everything right. And this isn’t a bad thing at all. Let’s do it! I was so happy to get a reservation. Not sure why it was only being offered in March…but yo girl, parTEA with me, was gonna be in the houuuuse!! (do people say ‘in the house’ still?) I have to deliver my thoughts to you guys right?! I mean, just in case they hang out longer…you all would want to know if you should make the trip too right? As always, I got you.

Four Seasons

2050 University Avenue East Palo Alto, CA 94303

www.fourseasons.com

Let me first say, that aside from a few zoom tea parties during Pandemic, this is the first we’ll have all been together since. So already, just seeing where we were going to sit, we were already so ecstatic + excited for WHATEVER was to come. Lots of whining and picture taking, hehe. Oh! And we met a friend!! (Hey girl!) She was having tea there at a table next to us. After saying she was there alone, I blurted out “no you’re not!” and we included her in our parTEA the entire duration. She’s cool people, her + her husband joined later. Welcome her yall!

We couldn’t get enough of those rose-folded napkins. (told you)

The place wasn’t huge. I took one or two pictures of the interior, cuz I wanted to get back to my sisters. But check it out, cute right?

I’ll tell you more about this little tea bar situation in a minute.

The sweetest girl came to greet us. She explained the menu, what we had to pick out for teas, we all said ‘thank you’, then she walked away. We THOUGHT we all had to agree on what teas to have together, so the 4 of us deliberated. When she came back and asked us what we would be having, almost in unison we recited our request. When she turned to the other girl, were like- “OHH! We each get to pick??” We didn’t get it at first!? Hehe. The menu was kind of confusing, but we finally got it. So if you get there: what they have under each “H” word are their blends. You can pick one or combine 2 of those. They also have classic teas listed. While we were deciding, she was bringing us containers filled with the blends for us to smell from that tea bar I showed you. I’m familiar with that process, other tea houses do that. My OCD doesn’t like it (breathing in tea other people breathed on), but I participated this time as I was fully immersed in the event. You get two flavors of tea to have with your service. I’ll tell you my choices, and share what it says on their menu.

For my first cup, I picked their Harmony blend (green rooibos, organic fennel seed, organic hibiscus, chrysanthemum blossoms, rose petal, organic shatavari, organic lavender). For my longtime readers, you know rooibos is my favorite base. And then the flavor profile is what got me: “creamy, floral and round”. Raise your hand if you knew I was a creamy girl?!

My second selection was a suggestion from our dear server. She said I should try their Earl Grey Creme. I’m not an earl grey usually, but (again with the cream) I do love me a creamy one.

So after she took our tea orders, she stepped away and a minute later I saw her at the tea bar. (huge eyes emoji) She was creating our teas FROM that tea bar! (two huge eyes emojis) She was preparing what we were going to CONSUME from all those containers that we just exhaled in. (Hahah, I can’t with my word choices sometimes!) I tried my best not to care, and instead asked if I could take pictures of what she was doing! I told you, I was committed yall. (you’re welcome, haha)

So, we did not expect a full ceremony!? It was so cool! It didn’t involve any beliefs or anything spiritistic like that, more of a beautiful and relaxed process. I’m sure I’ll be posting videos of it on our Instagram… (Follow us! @parTEAwithmeBlog) But, after she brought each of our tea blends, she then started to prepare each of our cups. Let’s talk about those cups for a minute… They were more like mugs. Asian mugs. So we missed the cutesie vintage floral teacups + saucers. Okay, so… She packs each of our drawstring tea bags with each of our blends. (Again, having to silence the OCD) She had to do 8 for our table, mmkay guys, EIGHT!! Ugh, sweet girl. And she was so patient cuz each of us wanted to take pics + videos of EACH (ay-yay-yay) filled bag! Haha. And she would even turn what she was doing toward the camera, just love her. THENN, she would pour our cups mugs about halfway with hot water coming out of the tiniest, daintiest spout of their teapots. The poor girl’s back!! Again, eight times. We were so enthralled with every move she made, NO ONE was drinking their teas yet! Hahaha. We patiently waited for each of our girls’ 2 cups to be filled, before trying. By the time I took my first sip, my tea was just warm yall. Haha.

My Harmony blend was very floral, spa-like. Light. I could have steeped it longer, but I had so much going on! (more sweat bead emojis!) I was getting reacquainted with all that’s involved for a ‘Working Tea’ is what I call it. Getting all my shots on a clean plate. Which means I’m putting each piece on my plate, one by one, taking their photos, putting it back on the tier…then doing it again with the next sweet or savory. I was overwhelmed with photos and note-taking and enjoying my girls…but I was LOVING every moment. I wish I could tell you more about this tea. But the combination was complex + it just worked, made you want to keep sipping to understand it.

Okay now, my Earl Grey Creme. (sigh) I steeped it longer than I should have, BUT I wasn’t mad at it. Again, by the time I’d had it, it was just warm. Not the 1 degree higher than it’s supposed to be that I like my tea at. But this. Oh this blend. Whatever they did with this one… I could picture a mad tea scientist in the back room, more sweat bea- okay, no more sweat beads! But just creating this magnificent blend!! I’m not a big earl grey fan (I said that already huh), however I know a good creamy earl grey. I order my favorite one all the way from Reno, and always make sure to have this in stock at my house at all times. Was fun to be open to trying another! But when I tell you this one exceeded that blend that I’m a die hard loyal to boyy! I wanted to take my used tea bag home to-go. Period.

Here came the tiers!

I don’t like to look at the menu too much, cuz I love the element of surprise. I love looking forward to things! (Fun Fact: I will stop a movie or tv show in the middle of a really good cliffhanger, so I can set myself up for excitement when I come back to it next! #NerdAlert, I know.) So it was super gratifying to see all these interesting different-sized creations.

Long-timers know I always go for my scone first. Today was no different.

It was a plain scone, nice crunchy outsides with fluffy insides. Could have used some salt. The yuzu jam was new. I’m used to the strawberry or raspberry that’s usually put out. But this one had a good bite to it, the pieces of rind. Reminded me of marmalade. And their devonshire cream was real smooth. Everything together made complete bites of goodness.

Brokaw Avocado (Iberico ham, Persian cucumber, meyer lemon, sourdough, pickled onion) – I wanna cry looking at this picture…because I miss this so much! (haha) This was a one-biter that left me saying “ohmygosh” with every chew until it was done. (and I never say “ohmygosh”) Those flavors together were SEAMLESS. And the textures! Raise your hand if you knew I love food texture?! Hehe. The chewiness of the ham, crisp of the sourdough, crunch of the cucumber, smoosh of the avo = in Chandler’s words “perfection”.

Dried Tomato Crostini (Skyhill goat cheese, toasted pine nuts, aged balsamic) – I can’t have pine nuts (allergic to pesto) (I know, what kind of Italian am I?) so I took those off, but I’m sure it would have added a-whole-nother level to this. Kinda hard to pick up. I felt like I wouldn’t’ve been cute eating this on a first date! And the crostini was so sharp, I probably cut my mouth in a few places. BUT… It lasted like they just churned that goat cheese this morning! (or whatever you do that makes goat cheese haha) It was the freshest, unblemished goat cheese I have ever had. Those tomatoes were like having tomato gum!! It was so fun! The grill or roast or drying turned their flavor up quite a few levels. And the oil (altho I felt like I had some dripping down my chin, cuz there was so much of it), I could have had a bowl of. Such an amazing savory, this one.

Smoked Salmon (labneh, focaccia crostini, vanilla oil, caper berries, truffle honey) – I have a small mouth, so this was 2 bites for me. Um, exquisite! That truffle honey was everything; I didn’t even know there was such a thing?! And that piece of dill packed such a nice note at the end.

Mini Lobster Roll (micro celery, fennel tops, turmeric oil) – I was hearing all about this lobster roll at the table before I got to it. Even our girl next to us loved that one. Lobster was steamed to perfection, nice chewy bites. A little too much onion flavor for me. Bread had a nice bounce to it. Another piece that wasn’t cute to eat tho, hehe.

Raspberry Financier – This was the cutest thing ever. The tiniest loaf, SO STINKIN CUTE. My friend + I imagined the cute wittle molds they used, and the tiny amounts of batter they had to pour in each! Hehe. So cute, so cute, I can’t handle. It was wheatlike. Tasted like a madeleine. Did this have Cream of Wheat in it or something? It wasn’t bad, intriguing.

Mini Match Tiramisu – So light! This thing was so light. A lot of cream. Would have liked to have more cake. Light matcha flavor, nice. Those ladyfingers were soaked the right amount.

Earl Grey Macaron – I never think to order or buy macarons. But if I’m offered one, I’ll take one. But I tell you- each time I have one, every time, I think to myself: why don’t I eat these more? Same story, different macaron. Yummy! Nice hard shell, chewiest insides, excellent filling.

You guys- I finished my plate. I sat there, reminiscing with my girlfriends, talking with our new friend, getting to know our server (she was the absolute sweetest), sipping + alternating between my two beautifully blended teas, taking bite after (sometimes messy) bite of these masterpieces of food, taking my notes…and I finished!? Every single morsal. I don’t usually finish, as there is so much to try and photograph and write down and experience- that I end up leaving bites of stuff all over the place (I really should post some of my old behind-the-scenes plates haha) because they weren’t that good or I got too full etc. But this tea was so exceptionally curated that I didn’t want to leave anything behind!! And I’m a little sad right now! For two reasons: (1) cuz I’m done writing this blog post and reliving it, and (2) cuz I’m not sure if they will be offering this menu after March. Wahh! Yall still have a good 2-weeks to make it in there!! If you do, please let us know how you liked it in the comments!

Thank you Four Seasons for welcoming parTEA with me back to our Afternoon Tea groove!! The girls + I couldn’t get enough of our experience. We have lots of photos and videos and memories from this day. (We actually extended our Moms Day/Night Out and kept the party going til the very end of the night! Thanks husbands!) One more review still for March, and can’t wait to try all these new places soon! Honestly, I can’t get there fast enough. (last sweat bead emoji)

A SPECIAL THANK YOU to all you new Readers/Followers/Tea Lovers!! I see you. And an EXTRA SPECIAL THANK YOU to those that have donated. I can’t even begin to express what that means to me. I never thought this Blog would become an official “job” (or source of income for me + my family; cuz honestly this never feels like “work”), but I am happy to be here. I love to write. I know, I know, I write how I talk. Maybe not perfect grammar or how you would say or explain something, but this has always been a joy of mine. I am a published author and have written a manuscript, BUT this really is what gives me the most pleasure. So thank you! Thank you ALL OF YOU for reading and allowing me to share my brutally honest and authentic impressions of these tea places! It’s ALL LOVE.

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