Tea and Crumpets

Comment: It's a gorgeous book for adults who want to impress at tea parties with friends.I love the ritual of tea and snacks in the mid-afternoon with friends and family. The introduction is a little about the history of tea, both as a tradition and the origin of tea and how it spread world wide. There is more tea trivia interspersed through the book.
Then you get into the recipes. It's a mouth watering collection of sweet and savory things to serve with tea. From the very traditional cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches which are livened and colored with a bit of arugula to a savory and rich wild mushroom that's flavored with truffle oil, the sandwiches and savories offer a nice selection. Made less petite, many of the recipes would be good packed for a lunch as well.
The next chapter is more of what you expect with tea. Crumpets, scones and fruit quick bread recipes as well as instructions for traditional toppings like clotted cream and strawberry preserves. The Irish recipe for fruitcake looks especially wonderful. I think my daughter will enjoy making the chocolate scones because she thinks chocolate improves everything.
The next recipe chapter is the largest. Tea time sweets. Shortbread, cakes, mousses and other sorts of sweet treats that are certain to impress guests.
The last recipe chapter is the French Art of Tea for when you want something very special and very beautiful. The Creme Caramel Saint-Petersburg is a custard with caramel that anyone who loves flan or creme brulee will appreciate, and I absolutely recommend the chocolate-hazelnut pots de creme.
Most of the ingredients are simple to get at a well stocked super-market. The few things that are harder to find, a good specialty shop should carry.

Comment: I bought this book for a gift and my friend is very happy to have it.

Comment: If you only have room for one cookbook on your shelf about tea and the foods that go with it, then this is the one! Quite like taking a tour through the great tea houses of America, Britain & France, I couldn't put this down. It is very nearly a travel book - making one dream of going to London simply to ignore everything else and frequent all the locations mentioned within.

Comment: "Tea & Crumpets: Recipes & Rituals from European Tearooms & Cafes" is an elegantly beautiful, bound tea cookbook that contains tasteful reductions of the history of tea in addition to a selection of classic tea recipes and suggestions for savories, scones, and sweets, plus a sampling of various Western European tea customs as well as a traveler's guide to European tearooms. All of this is studded with beautiful photographs of delectable tea treats, tea serving accessories and china, and famous teashops throughout the United Kingdom and Europe. It is accessible to American readers particularly because the recipes are adapted to standard American measuring utensils. There is also a handy list of resources at the end that lists sources for many of the teatime special ingredients as well as descriptions of the treats and ingredients. Finally, a Table of Equivalents lists easy conversion amounts for readers who want to convert other tea recipes from one system to another. "Tea & Crumpets" will appeal not just to Anglophiles and Francophiles, but to anyone who has ever learned to appreciate a wonderful cup of tea.

Comment: "Tea and Crumpets" is a delightful review of tea shops, tea history, and recipies for all manor of items to be served at High Tea. I purchased four copies - one for me, one for my sister, one for my daughter, and one for my BFF. Brew a cup of tea and sit down and read "Tea and Crumpets" all the way through.