Jill Briggs

Review of English Tealeaves

I visited this cafe with my friend who was visitin...

I visited this cafe with my friend who was visiting from England. We spent a small fortune trying as many teas, sandwiches, desserts as possible to see how English they are. Per my English friend, the cucumber sandwich (how much more English can you get than that?) wasn t authentic at all because it was served on a French roll instead of white bread cut diagonally. It also had no butter, which doesn t pass muster either. The battenburg cake was the English equivalent of taking a bite-sized Twinkie and serving it to a non-American while implying that you just baked it yourself. They charged $4 for a 2 cake that had clearly been in a package (with 3-7 others) that all would ve sold in England for the equivalent of $1.50. It was just as preservative-laden as a Twinkie too. The teas were good, but my English friend said no place in England that bothered to bring out leaves and a mug would offer to rebrew the same leaves. All in all, this is an ok approximation of an English cafe and they re counting on no one knowing any better.