Staying Cozy Inside: 5 Tips For Enjoying Afternoon Tea at Home!

Afternoon tea is one of the funnest, most enjoyable ways to spend an afternoon.  You drink tea, eat delicious food, and have a peaceful moment to yourself while feasting your eyes on beautiful wares and inventive eats - what's not to love?!  But!  A common question is: how do I bring the joy of afternoon tea from a traditional tearoom or restaurant or hotel into my home?  Isn't it too much work and froo-froo and complicated?

Absolutely not!

Afternoon tea at home doesn't have to be overly complex or even expensive to enjoy in the comforts of your own home.  And I show you how in this blog post!  The basics of afternoon tea are simple: tea, savouries, and/or sweets.  You don't even have to do all three, an afternoon tea can be just tea with savouries, or just tea with sweets.  Here are 5 ways to enjoy afternoon tea while keeping it easy-peasy (and while you're at it, check out Dessert by Deb's Afternoon Tea Collection!):

1. Use pantry & grocery staples: I know many folks feel like they need to run out to a gourmet grocery store to get things like smoked salmon or roast beef or macarons in order to have a great afternoon tea and that's simply not the case.  Utilize pantry and grocery staples and you'd be surprised how elevated it can be! 
   
   Use tuna from a can to make tuna salad, eggs to make some egg salad, and if you want to use fresh vegetables, purchase ones that stretch your dollar like cucumber which you can then use in a simple garden salad for another meal, that way you're not purchasing things that are only single use.  Then raid your spice rack for that hit of flavour!  Kick up that egg salad with some curry powder or some black pepper in your tuna.  Use sliced bread or crackers and voila!  Yummy savouries! 
   
   And what about sweets?  If you want to have fun and make something from scratch my recommendation is busting out the rice cereal to make rice krispy treats.  No-bake and the mixins from your pantry (dried fruit, small chocolates, etc) are endless!  Otherwise, I love putting together an ah-mazing assortment of cookies on a plate and having a cookie and tea party: shortbread, chewy cookies, butter cookies, Girl Guide cookies, all the cookies!  
   
   
2. Don't have the fancy china?  Bust out any of these options to bring some colour and vibrancy to your little spread: patterned/coloured napkins (like my little tulip ones you see in the photo), doilies, change up your tablecloth, heck, even a placemat that you've decorated with construction paper brightens things up!  Have faux flowers laying around at home?  Smack those onto the table.  We often forget the treasures that are right under our noses, so go through your storage boxes and decorative craft items, and make it fun.        
   
   
3. Turn your afternoon tea into a fun tasting!  Break off pieces from chocolate bars that you may have in your goodie cupboard (admit it, you have a goodie cupboard.  Because I sure do) and mix and match the different types of chocolate to pair with your tea.  You could totally discover a fabulous combination you never realized you loved.  Case in point: I didn't realize I loved dark chocolate paired with zingy flavours like ginger and lemon until I did this!
   
   
4. Mix it up with your tea prep!  If you're looking for spice up a drab routine, experiment with tea prep.  Mix two different loose leaf teas together that you think may go well (may I suggest mixing Dessert by Deb's Coconut Maple Custard with Caramel Apple Cinnamon Bun?  Hmm, I think I may go off and try that myself now...), switch up your sweeteners (I hear through the grapevine that a drizzle of maple syrup in tea is fabulous!), and experiment with having it iced versus hot, or with different milks.
   
   
5. Turn up the tunes!  Now THIS is where you can really make it your own!  You can't listen to your own music in a tearoom or at a restaurant.  But you can put on your favourite playlist and liven up the atmosphere!  Love jazz?  Download or stream some soothing instrumentals.  Love Top 40?  Unabashedly crank up the Jonas Brothers and Taylor Swift (or if you're a Britney fan like me, take those CDs out of hiding, ha!).  Music ALWAYS boosts our mood and uplifts us.  If you want the peace and quiet though, keep it mellow.  Because afternoon tea at home is all about making it fun for YOU.

And there you have it!  5 tips to help you make having afternoon tea at home simple, inexpensive, AND fun.  Make it part of your tea routine and remember: the joy of tea is ALWAYS available to us.