The Journey Continues with the Victorian Tea Society… How to organize a tea.

I don’t think I could have gotten a better education in learning how to plan for teas than with my firsthand experience planning and working the Victorian Tea Society Teas.  So far, I have worked on almost 30 Victorian Tea Society Teas and have chaired or been a co-chair in almost ten of these.  About 4 years ago, we adopted the model of dividing up the tea into components and having different people assume different leadership roles.  This made planning so much easier.  Here are some of the roles in this newer model of tea planning:

• Overall Chair—makes sure everything is going well and calls meetings with all the leads.
• Menu Lead—develops the tea menu and recruits people to donate the menu items.
• Menu & Favor Lead—creates a menu card and a tea favor for all the guests.
• Centerpieces/Decorations—creates a uniform decorating theme for the centerpieces and all other decorations.
• Raffle Baskets—puts together raffle baskets.  We usually have between 5-10.
• Ticket Sales/Guest Seating—works with the museum on the guest list and then assigns guests to tables.  Also works the day of the event at the guest check-in.
• Program—sometimes we have a program that goes along with our teas, especially when we have our teas under the shade pavilion.  These programs have included Victorian fashion shows, quilting exhibitions/talks, pioneer women, princess parades, period characters, skits.
• Kitchen Lead—organizes the prep of food on the day of the event.  We started making most of our tea sandwiches on the day of the event.  We found that this helped with food “unity”.  We also cut dessert portions in the kitchen.
• Plating Lead—an attractive tea plate is a must.  So is speed in plating all tea food.  This person is in charge of making sure all tea plates are filled and attractive.  This is a fast-paced job as guests want to be served in a timely manner.
• Server Lead—Works with the serving staff on assignments, procedures, and other jobs.
• Clean-up—Everyone pitches in.  At the end of an exhausting day, this is the most challenging task as we must pack all our plates and teacups.  Not a pleasant activity but certainly necessary.

  

I love developing the menus for these large teas.  I began at first to volunteer for this job because I liked to see “pretty plates” of tea food.  I was also discovering what menu choices just didn’t hold up in large teas and which ones members had a hard time in making (besides baking).  So, I developed a little formula for planning the teas.  We serve five savories at our teas.  On savories, I recommend two closed sandwiches (cut into different shapes), one open faced like a cucumber sandwich, one baked item (little quiche or something) and some pretty little vegetable bite.

The sandwiches are filling and expected by the guests.  Having all your savories “complicated” makes more work and sometimes the presentation gets sloppy.  Try for only one “fancy” savory.  Stuffed celery is nice but, in my opinion, doesn’t always look good.  Putting an egg salad sandwich and/or chicken salad sandwich on the menu is always tasty, easy, and expected.  I love chicken salad sandwiches as there are so many yummy variations on chicken salad.  One of my favorites is putting Earl Grey tea into the mixture.  Everyone loves this even those who don’t like Earl Grey tea!  I have included this recipe for your enjoyment.  The other thing I have discovered is that I like to use canned chicken chunks and I buy the Kirkland kind at Costco.  This is so much easier than cooking and shredding chicken or even buying the Rotisserie chicken and pulling off the meat. 

Earl Grey Chicken Salad

• 1 can Kirkland chicken breast in water (12.5 oz.)
• 1 Earl Grey teabag of tea
• Mayonnaise to liking
• Craisins to liking

Mix all (cut open teabag and put leaves directly into mixture).  Makes approximately 15 servings.  Spread onto raisin/cinnamon bread.  Cut off crusts and half each sandwich.

 I also believe there should be a cucumber sandwich on every menu.  I have included two variations on these sandwiches, with recipes from Pinterest and Tea Time Magazine. Lastly, invest in an electric knife for cutting the crusts off the bread!  This makes for a very neat presentation.

Cucumber Chive Sandwich

Makes 8-10 round sandwiches

• White or potato bread such as Pepperidge Farm—1 loaf
• Sweet Butter—1 cube or 8 oz.
• Chives—1 batch
• Cucumbers—1
• Parsley—1 bunch

Soften butter.  Chop chives.  Mix butter and chives together.  This can be made ahead.

Using 2-1/2 inch circle cutter, cut one round from each bread slice.  Each loaf should yield about 20 rounds. Spread chive butter on each round. (Or spread chive butter on each slice of bread and then cut out the round.)

Wash cucumber thoroughly but do not peel.  Slice cucumbers, about ¼ inch thick.  Put on top of chive butter. (This is where a mandoline really is very helpful. A good one costs only about $15.)

Garnish with a bit of chive butter and top with a parsley sprig.

Kentucky Benedict Cucumber Sandwiches

Makes 4 dozen sandwiches.

• 2 (8-oz.) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup peeled, seeded, and finely chopped cucumber
• 1/2 cup minced green onions
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh dill
• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• Thinly sliced cucumbers—about 100 slices*
• 48 white bread slices

Stir together first 7 ingredients. Spread mixture on 1 side of 24 bread slices; add 4 thin slices of cucumbers to each piece of bread; top with remaining 24 bread slices. Trim crusts from sandwiches; cut each sandwich into half with a serrated knife.

*The original recipe from TeaTime Magazine does not have this layer of cucumbers.  I added these thin slices as I thought it made the sandwich a little tastier.

Next week I will talk about desserts, my favorite! For now, enjoy some more photos of the Victorian Tea Society.