Matcha Time 2: Return of the matcha~!

Originally posted 8/22/11- note: I will be posting a better recipe for macaron that I have been using the last few years and with much better methods :)

Well after baking matcha cupcakes I went on a matcha spree (mostly to finish up the last of the matcha powder I had left). I had always liked Parisian macarons but heard horror stories about baking them from others. From batches that only produced a couple of decent maracons to terrifying looking macarons that puffed up, oozed all over the place or didn't rise.

Suffice to say I did plenty of surfing around watching YouTube Videos, Macaron how to websites and the like. I found lots of adverts on Maracon baking classes, and recipes that don't really explain all the tips and tricks you need. It seems that everyone has their own way of doing them. Some whip the egg whites to soft peaks, others to hard peaks, some like to swap the pans around midway through baking others leave it, some like to leave the piped raw macarons to dry a bit before baking others don't. It's all terribly confusing so all I have to offer is my own experience.

Firstly here is the recipe I used:

http://www.closetcooking.com/2008/05/green-tea-macarons.html is where I nabbed it from (well not really but they nabbed it from another source which I used initially and can't find anymore)

Ingredients:

• 2 egg whites (best to use day old ones if possible) at room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups icing sugar
• 1 cup of ground almonds/almond meal (this stuff is spendy)
• 1 teaspoon of matcha powder
• 1/4 cup granulated (regular/castor) sugar

Other stuff needed:

You'll want to have several sturdy baking sheets, parchment paper (unless you have some fancy silpat sheets handy), piping bag with a nice big round tip, big sifting aparatus and an extra wooden spoon. If you don't have a mixer with a nice big mixing bowl a hand mixer will suffice (I don't suggest doing this by hand unless you want Popeye arms afterwards)

Step 1: Prepare everything in advance. That means line your cookie sheets with parchment paper (or silpat mats), take out your egg whites from the fridge a while before so they have time to warm up, if your almonds are whole (you'll want the blanched kind not roasted) you'll need to chop them up and then grind them to a fine powder (if you don't have a food processor/magic bullet type thing, use your coffee grinder).

Step 2: Sift your icing sugar, ground almonds and matcha powder together into a nice big bowl. This is to prevent lumpies in your nice smooth macaron batter. If there are lumpy bits left you can toss them back into the grinder to make them finer. A trick to grinding almonds though is to mix in some of the icing sugar so it's less goopey (the oil in the almonds will make it want to clump up).

Step 3: Put your egg whites in your mixing bowl and have at it. Several recipes call for various peak types but I just beat them until I got nice stiff peaks (should look like below if you dip your whisk attachment into the fluffy whites and turn it over). I added the regular sugar at the soft peak stage (there abouts) and whipped it til it was hardish peaks (see pic below)

Step 4: Now take the other bowl with the lovely green powdery mess in it and fold it into the egg whites. I just tip it all in since it's not really like we're folding the batter here. This is the 'macronage' part. Unlike folding we do want the egg whites to deflate a little here but not too much. I mix slowly at first and then speed up until it's all incorporated. Make sure to scrape around the sides and bottom so you get a nice even mixture and colour.

Here it is half mixed...

and fully mixed. You can see how much less fluffy the batter is...if you want more poof to your macarons don't mix so it's so flat as I have it here....remember that it'll get some air squooshed out when you pipe it.

Step 5: I like to place a large bag clip as close as I can to the tip of the piping bag. This prevents the batter from squishing out the other end as you're filling the bag. Next I put the bag in a nice tall container with a narrow mouth (like a tall flower vase) and flip the bag over the lip - this will help you fill the bag up keeping the mouth of the bag nice and open. Fill the bag up about half way to 3/4 way up (this is to avoid the batter coming up the wrong end and giving you sticky hands while you work). Take off the clip and squish the batter towards the tip. Now you're ready to pipe with the masters! XD

Step 6: Pipe out discs onto your nice parchment covered sheets (or silpat whatever it is you have). It took me a bit to figure out what the heck I was doing (I used the wrong tips at first or ones that were too small until I gave up and went out to buy a new one lol). I've found the best way is to just hold the bag in one spot and squeeze the batter out. It'll form a blob naturally and if you keep the tip low, spread out around the tip in a nice even disc. Once you're don't piping, lift up with a twist. The trick is to try not to have a little 'Hershy's Kiss' tip form. If one does, quickly press it down with a water dampened finger. There will be some spread to these suckers so make sure to space them well apart.

On another note, don't leave piping out the rest of the batter too long or funky stuff starts to happen like to some of the last few I piped out below here (they tasted fine, just don't look as nice as the colour sort of makes swirls as the batter has been sitting too long)

Step 7: Once the sheet is piped up (you'll not be able to use all the batter on one sheet I'm afraid) set aside the piping bag and take your tray and drop it on a flat surface a few times. This is to release the unwanted air bubbles from the batter. You'll note that the discs also flatten out a bit here. After this is done, leave the tray out for about an hour (depending on size of discs you made, and how damp you made them with your watery finger adjustments) or until a nice firm skin forms over them. About 10 minutes before they get nice a firm on the outside, preheat the oven to 325 F.

When you drop the trays, some of the discs will release air bubbles like this...

Step 8: Oven nice and warm, place the tray into the over for about 10 or so minutes (depending on your disc size). About half way to 3/4 of the way through the time, open up the oven and shove your wooden spoon in to let the air circulate out and into the oven. This helps also with dispersing the moisture from the macarons as they bake without over baking them. If you have more than one tray in on more than one rack swap them now. If not you can spin the tray around (especially important if you don't have an oven with very even temperature around inside).

Here is my oven propped open slightly by the spoon (no it didn't burn)

here they are baking away~!

Step 9: Once done, they should be crisp and dry on the outside and slightly chewy on the inside (along with a lot of air). You'll notice that while baking the macarons have bubbled out the sides of the bottom of the discs. I believe this is called 'feet' (kind of like in wine tasting XD). The feet will only form properly if you let the 'skin' form properly. If you used your fingers dampened with H2O and not let them dry properly you'll end up with macarons that look like the tearing apart of Pangea - not what you're looking for. There are people who say you don't need to let the skin form but mine turned out well so I'm not taking any chances here XD

Oh no Pangea no more~!

Crunchy and crisp on the outside, chewy goodness on the inside (not just gooey like underdone macaron lol)

Step 10: Let cool. If they stick to the parchment, add a little water under the parchment while the sheet is still hot. The steam will help the macarons unstick from the parchment. If they're underdone they won't come up too easily from it.

Step 11: At this point store in air tight container if you're not serving within the next day or two and toss into the freezer. Otherwise into the fridge while you make the filling. In this case I just used some Nutella at the request of a friend who loves it. Chocolate and Matcha go well so all I did was spread the Nutella and then refrigerate to give it more firmness. To make proper Parisian Macarons find nice looking ones about the same size and then spread the filling and sandwich together gently. If you're not careful you'll squish one side or both.

Hopefully what you have looks something like this...(this was my first batch XD)

And then when sandwiched....like this (my second batch)

I thought they turned out pretty well for my 1st and 2nd attempts at macarons :3

Now any reject macarons I found can be crumbled and used on other deserts like ice cream or gobbled up by those watching the proceedings. Worst case scenario, bring them over to a friend's and they'll snarf them up in no time.

It's Matcha Time~!

Originally posted 7/15/11

Another week and another found recipe. My friend Kyle's b-day is today and I managed to catch another friend online who pointed out to me that he really likes matcha. Since she was going to bake him a matcha cake on Monday (his actual birthday not the party day lol) she urged me to go for the cupcakes.

I've never baked with matcha before but good ol' trusty Google always helps out in a pinch. Now I found the same matcha cupcake recipe online in several places but the one I used (since I like photos and whatnot) was on another blog. I tried it out, it was easy and turned out well. I halved the recipe because jeeze, matcha is hella expensive (I bought a 30g bag for over $10 CND). Instead I decided to redo those awesome vanilla cupcakes everyone liked and use a buttercream for each cupcake. Matcha Buttercream for the vanilla and raspberry buttercream for the matcha.

Now if you've made cupcakes before this recipe will be a breeze. I didn't photograph everything since you can always ask questions and it's not finicky like the Victoria sandwich was. Just remember to have the butter and eggs at room temperature, to add eggs one at a time and beat after each addition, and the biggie - do not over mix! If you do you will end up with cavernous volcano cupcakes! While it might be cool for a theme party or a science project, volcano cupcakes are not what we're aiming for (though if you could make them erupt strawberry jelly you must share!)

Anyhoo here comes the recipe~!

• 1/2 cup butter (make sure it's unsalted!)
• 1 cup castor sugar (the regular kind)
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk (keep the whites! I'll be posting what to do with those another time!)
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder (make sure it's still active)
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon of match

This makes 12 cupcakes, so if you want 24 double the recipe. The egg whites you can keep in a bowl and either use it to make egg white omlette or some other thing like meringue or some such. I just used my 2 egg whites in another recipe that I did photograph so keep your eyes peeled :)

Step 1: preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prep your muffin tin with cupcake liners (you can get fancy ones or plain ones, up to you)

Step 2: beat up the butter with your mixer til it's nice and soft and fluffy looking. Then add the sugar and cream it all together.

Step 3: add the eggs and the yolk one at a time and beat inbetween each addition. (basically that means beat until it's nicely mixed together)

Step 4: in another bowl whisk together the dry stuff. Flour, Salt, baking powder and matcha

Step 5: add about 1/2 the dry mix and 1/2 the milk to the butter, egg, cream mixture and combine. Then add the rest of the dry mix and the milk. Beat only until combined - do not overmix unless you really want the volcano effect! Remove from the mixer and scrape around the bowl with a rubber spatula to make sure everything got mixed together.

Step 6: Scoop out even amounts into each cupcake liner. If you have an ice cream scoop use that cause it's pretty easy that way. I don't so I eyeball it and then use the leftover batter to top up the cupcakes that look like they need it

Step 7: bake in the oven until they're done~! that takes about 22-25 minutes usually. Test with a skewer.

Voila done~! I chose to make Strawberry buttercream icing to go with the matcha because more matcha icing like the website I got the recipe from is overkill. Basically the buttercream I used was 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup of strawberry preserve (try for preserve rather than jam because jam has a heck of a lot of sugar and makes it taste funny) and then about 3 cups of icing sugar. mix it all up and put it into a piping bag and ice away!

Oh and before you ice your cupcakes, wait until they're cool otherwise you'll melt the icing (it's got lots of butter in it and heat + butter = gooey mess) and make rivers of icing all over the place.

anyhoo Here's a photo of my cupcakes all iced :) the matcha ones turn out a lovely green colour and as Kyle said they "taste like a matcha latte in cake format". They were all gone before the vanilla ones were that's for sure.

Afternoon Tea Review VIII - (Faubourg)

This was originally posted July 2011 - a new review will go up once I've gotten all the old ones completed as their service has changed.

Note I will be writing a new review as Faubourg has changed significantly over the years. It's interesting to see a business change in a handful of years, but suffice to say that my first experience here wasn't all that good. This review was writting 7/21/11 and was my 2nd visit and much better. You'll have to wait to see what my last few visits have been like when I write up a new review for this patisserie.


Wow I'm back and posting again so soon O.O miracles of miracles~!

Anyhoo kurasune and I decided since we're posting up all the things we do and like, it'd be a most awesomely awesome idea to post up reviews on places we go to eat (or try out stuffs really). So here we are, all ready and trying to decide what to review first when our lovely friend shincaru (I have no idea what her Google ID is - and why do I always want to type Google as goggle?) suggested to have high tea together since we couldn't meet up nearer my birthday (oh and yes please feel free to wish me a belated happy birthday :) I'm easily buttered up that way).

Anyways moving on...

The girls let me decide where to go and since everyone other than myself had not yet tried the new patisserie in Kerrisdale (where I live - there's strangely a high ratio of tea houses to population here) named Faubourg (http://www.faubourg.com/). Now to be honest the first time I went I was terribly disappointed. However, that was a few months ago, only a few days after they opened so I was willing to give it a second go to see if they'd improved. I'll give my more recent impressions and may mention my earlier observations if it's relevant.

Now Faubourg is a strange little place. Firstly, it's mainly coffee, breads and sweets up in the front. You wouldn't think that this was the type of place to serve high tea from the shopfront look. From first glance in through the front window to moving into the store itself it has more of a feel of a coffee shop cum patisserie with some bread and sandwiches laying about too. However if you make it past all that there's a fair sized nook where tables and finer china are set up in a semi walled in area. There's a huge mirror as well as a large painting adorning the walls making it a strange juxtaposition to the bustling coffee drinking and pastry munching patrons at the front.

Shincaru had made reservations earlier (though she showed up a little late...but that's ok, we still love her) so we were ushered to a table with a little 'reserved' marquee plaque on it. We were given menus right away and a tray with samples of the teas they served to better help up make a choice. Now, in contrast, the first time I came, we made no reservation (but the area was dead empty) and it took the staff 15 minutes to seat three people...yes, that's right, 3 staff members seating 3 people in an empty area took 15 minutes. You can begin to see how relieved I was at this new experience (if it were the same kurasune might have killed me on the spot).

While limited, the tea selection is quite lovely and well rounded. A roiboos (a tea which I detest personally), several variations of black tea (fruity, strong, earl grey and french breakfast) as well as two very different greens (a more flowery, sweet green, and a stronger, more bitter straight up green). The tea comes in ceramic pots with a strainer so no stray bits of leaf pour into your cup, and an odd sort of metal tea cozy that slips on top and acts as lid and cozy all in one. The one thing I do want to mention here is that they just drop off the pots and don't mention to let the tea steep for a few minutes - so if you don't check first you end up with weak, sickly looking tea. I ordered the vert provincial (the flowery sweet green because I had a hankering for green) while kurasune and shincaru ended up ordering the French Breakfast. Unfortunately they had run out of the Sultane which is the strongest of their black teas so shincaru made do with French Breakfast.

Ah but high tea is more than just tea itself. Kurasune and I ordered the pink afternoon tea and shincaru ordered the purple (now don't ask me why they didn't just call it high tea and demi high tea...I guess they just like colours?). They piled the two pinks onto one long doubled tray tower and the purple onto a 3 tier small round one. Now if you're ever at a loss to what their flavors of the day are you can sneak a peek of the pink set in the window before heading in. The pink set consisted of 3 finger sandwiches (which we found out can be ordered one by one for a whopping $1.50 each), a sweet scone with devonshire cream and jam, and a myriad of tiny sweets - 6 in total. The finger sandwiches were actually very nice - not too dry, not too greasy, just right. One chicken salad, one roast beef, and one salmon. Compared to my first try, this was great. I did mention to kurasune about the first time I came with 2 friends. It was like a different chef had created one of each sandwich and tossed them willy nilly on our plates. Kurasune theorized that the head chef basically made one of each (because only one of each actually tasted good) and told the newbies in the kitchen to just 'copy what I did'. It was like being Goldilocks except mixed in with a bit of Russian roulette since no one could tell who's plate had the one that was 'just right'.

Moving onto the sweeter side of things, the scone was quite nice, lemon poppy seed - played well with the Devonshire cream and jame. They give you a fresh little pot of unopened jam which seems a waste as you probably won't even finish 1/2 of the amount in there. I wonder if they toss the rest? Probably...I can always hope they use it for fertilizer or compost it or something...

The little desserts were quite lovely. The mini tourine for the souffle even had teeny lion's heads on either side. The plating is all miniature for the sweets and very appealing. However we were quite surprised by a few things. What we had assumed was some sort of sweet custard, topped with fresh seasonal fruit, a little granola and jam was actually plain unsweetened yogurt. It wasn't bad per se, but unexpected. The apple cinnamon cupcake (I can only assume that was what it was) was quite the disappointment. It smelled so lovely but all the taste and moisture was in the small dollop of chunky applesauce on the top. The cupcake itself felt tasteless and super dry (at least mine did). The chocolate mousse was very rich and a little too heavy for my tastes but well garnished with a plain raspberry - however one must acknowledge that my ability to endure large amounts of rich chocolatey things is abysmally pathetic. The last three desserts however were very lovely. The opera portion was the perfect size; rich and creamy, full flavoured without being overpowering - any larger portion would have put me off but like I said, perfect portioning for this cake. The souffle was also excellently executed and presented. It was so fluffy and light, sweet yet also zingy with the tang of lemon, it was my favorite out of all the deserts. Last but not least was the lemon tart. It's cute dome shape reminds me of a custard egg tart (though those aren't really very cute to be honest) and the rock sugar around the edge makes for a lovely decoration. Unfortunately I am a clumsy eater and my poor lemon tart flopped every which way and eventually exploded on my plate in a sad case of Humpty Dumpty as you can see below T-T

 

However sad the mishap it does show you the lovely innards of this tart. A light fluffy lemon cream, surrounded by lemon curd inside a fine thin pastry. Ah so tasty...my tummy doesn't care if it looked wrecked after all...

For the record, on Kurasune's plate, we demonstrate the correct way to eat a lemon cream:

Overall the cost of the pink afternoon tea was $25.50 before tax and gratuity. Now remember in BC we have 12% HST on that plus 15% tip. All in all it cost me a whole $32.06! Just for those curious the demi tea is 2 sandwiches, 2 deserts and 1 scone for $16.50 before tax and gratuity. I think that it'll come roughly to $19 or so. As a comparison the cost for me to have high tea at Adonia runs about $35 after all's said and done (unless you preplan a special tea in which case it can be higher or lower), and Secret Garden is really over the top nearing $40

While not the best high tea I've had it's certainly not the worst and for the cost not too shabby. I'd certainly rank it higher than Secret Garden (their food I'm not terribly fond of, especially the finger sandwiches and some of their deserts are as delicate or skilled as Faubourg). Anyhoo now to the hard numbers!

rillystar ratings:

Overall: 3.7 /5

Price: 4/5

Taste: 3.5/5

Presentation: 3.5 /5

Brief comments: Faubourg is the cheapest high tea out of the ones in the area. The taste was fairly nice overall with the exception of a few pieces. They need to iron out the not so tasty treats from the excellent ones. The mini sweets and sandwiches look lovely, however the ratio of savory to sweet is unbalanced and needs to pump up the savory and down the sweet.

kurasune ratings:

Overall: 3.75/5

Price: 3.5/5

Taste: 4/5

Presentation: 3.75/5

Brief comments: I would return here, but ask for a larger ratio of savoury to sweets. The decor of the room is lovely (I'm a fan of big mirrors), and I found all the food of a quality and taste I would expect from a rather pretentious French patissierie. Price did not quite justify the small-ish amount of food overall, or the fact that their tea seemed to weaken rather quickly for a loose leaf tea. However, service was attentive, and it's always lovely to hear french accents coming from reasonably attractive men.

Classic with a twist: Oreo Cheesecake Cookies

This is not a post about an outting for food, but rather of some home made baking. Originally posted on 4/25/12

Well kurasune and I had a lovely day last Saturday doing some dressing up, shopping and then of course, baking! We did try something quite new - working with chocolate, but we knew it'd be a longer process than what we're normally used to so inbetween cooling times we whipped up this little goodie: Oreo Cheesecake Cookies.

I've baked them before and they are super easy, fast, and very much a crowd pleaser. Also as an added benefit, if you have anyone alergic to eggs around they can eat it too!

What you'll need:

A mixer of some sort
A bowl to mix in
Another bowl (small) to coat your cookies in crumbs
A spoon
Measuring cups and spoons
A cookie sheet (or more if you want to do multiple batches at once)
Parchment paper or silpat mat (cause I hate preping pans and washing them after)

Ingredients:

1/s cup of butter (unsalted and at room temp)
3 ounces of cream cheese (plain and at room temp)
1 cup of regular granulated sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 cup of all purpose flour
1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips
some Oreo cookie crumbs to coat the cookies (I used about 1/4 cup though the recipe calls for a full one)

Steps:

1) First off, move your oven racks so the tray will sit around the middle of the oven. Then preheat to 375 F.

2) Next cream the butter and cream cheese in the larger bowl until nice and fluffy (plus well blended).

3) Now add the vanilla and the sugar and mix it all til it's well incorporated

4) Add the flour, but don't overmix.

5) Add mini chocolate chips and mix them in gently, since you don't want to overmix the dough.

6) In the smaller bowl, pour in the Oreo cookie crumbs (you can crush cookies or just buy the crumbs in the box which is much easier)

7) Roll the batter into 1.5" - 2" balls and in then coat them in the crumbs. Once done place them on the cookie sheet giving enough room for the cookies to spread. No need to press them down, the heat will cause them to flatten out.

8) Bake in the oven for about 12-15 mins (they should have a bit of a golden colour around the edges and the tops should be puffed).

9) Let cool and enjoy.

Now unfortunately I'm still on a cleanse so I haven't tasted these yummy looking cookies yet but I'm told by others that they're good. One co-worker even told me that the texture is like a cheesecake on top and then crispy like a cookie on the bottom. One thing to note: do not skimp on the cream cheese (it's just over 1/3 of one of those bars of it you can buy in the grocery store) or it'll lose the cheesecakey flavour and just be an interesting (but still tasty) cookie.


Recipe snagged from: http://www.browneyedbaker.com

Afternoon Tea Reviews VII: Starry Night

This didn't make it onto the old blog, but was written up in 2013 or 2014 and well after we visited this establishment in April or May. 

I want to start with an apology at the lateness of this review. I've been rather absent from this blog for some time, and hope to remedy that with a few posts in the near future (now that life has given me a short break from the craziness that was the last year).

Once again kurasune and I have wandered out into the city to try yet another afternoon tea service, this time also with guest blogger, Chibimuse. We typically keep our eyes peeled for any coupons/Groupons that may come up as it's an excellent way to try out something new without spending horrid amounts of money on something that may potentially be disappointing (like the tea service at Fairmont Hotel Vancouver for instance).

We decided to try this one out on a weekend daytime, so kurasune was kind enough to drive us. While technically transit-able, the location isn't the easiest to find. It's actually located on the far side of the Costco in Richmond, tucked away up a small road along with a masseuse and a couple of other random businesses. We went early enough in the afternoon that there weren't too many customers (I think they probably see the bulk of their business in the evenings) - and while normally we get some sort of comment on what we're wearing, strangely enough the staff and other customers kept pretty much to themselves except when being spoken to.

To be honest I was, personally, very dubious as to how this afternoon tea would go - the drive up to the location was not anything I had expected (being located with some sort of reflecology office adjoined to it and a mostly empty parking lot). Once we were seated inside we took a look at the regular menu (as chibimuse had not purchased a GroupOn like Kurasune and I did). Menu items were very reasonable - the afternoon tea set being just under $16.

The unfortunate thing was the lack of choice in drinks. Regular black tea or coffee (though bottomless) were the only options, however the bang for buck for the quality of food made up for this lack in some ways. The set came on the usual three tiered stand, and the presentation of the individual parts was much more than could be expected for the $15.88 price tag.

On the bottom tier were mini quiches and scones (complete with devonshire cream and jelly). The middle tier held the finger sandwiches. 

and of course the sweets tier.

Overall the savories were surprisingly good (in fact the entire set was especially for the price). The finger sandwiches were light and tasty, with a good combination of flavour and texture.

Because of the groupon, we also got a little chocolate fondue set with tea.

By the time I managed to get around to eating this lovely looking tart, it was unfortunately not in the same glorious state as when it first arrived. Because I had been taking my time photographing and carefully taking notes the biscuit on the top had begun to disintegrate from the moisture of the cream and strawberries.

 Lastly we found a patch of pretty garden out back where we took our outfit photos for the day. Unfortunately I didn't manage to snag the ones of Kurasune and Chibimuse T-T.

Rillystar says:

Taste: 3.5/5
Presentation: 3.5/5
Service: 2/5
Price: 4.5/5
Decor/Ambiance: 3/5
Location/Transitability: 2.5/5
Loli-Loli Rabu Factor: 2.5/5

Overall Score: 3.07/5

Comments: While lack of drink choice was apparent, the cost for the actual afternoon tea was in comparison to many other places, extremely reasonable. Even regular service without the Groupon is about $16 for drink and full service (which was surprisingly good). With the Groupon there was so much food that we couldn't finish off the chocolate fondue. Decor was pretty much average for a more modern restaurant and not catering specifically to those looking for that 'something special' with Afternoon Tea, but a sight better than say, Salon Tea. Overall the worse part was the service - lightly staffed and sometimes difficult to flag someone down but at least they weren't rude. Not much lolita love here but no hate either.

Afternoon Tea Reviews VI: SalonTea

Original Post 4/22/13 written by kurasune:

Groupon is a wonderful service for testing out new places to dine, especially when one isn’t sure if the full price of a meal is worth all the effort and expense. Unfortunately, I felt that this was true in the case of SalonTea, which we visited about a month ago.

Now, I don’t want to give dear readers a purely negative assessment as there were some things about SalonTea that warrant a re-visit.  However, we were there specifically in our capacity of ‘Lolita Afternoon Tea Investigators’ if you will, and even if this tea is supposedly sipped by Hollywood bigwigs like Oprah and music stars like Rihanna, and hails from ooh la New York, if it hasn’t got that Loli-Loli Rabu factor, it ain’t got nothing in our books.

SalonTea is located in uber chic South Granville, where I guess all the soccer moms of Shaughnessy shop.  The café is next to Meinhardt’s Fine Foods at 3010 Granville Street.  Click HERE for the website and hours.  Its full name is Tracy Stern Salontea, and the predominant company colours are orange and brown, though one wouldn’t be able to tell that from the café’s first impression, being rather overwhelmed by the large expanse of plain white bathroom tile all along the walls.

I like the idea of Tracy Stern’s “Salon Tea”, where she’s named all her signature teas some personality type or other—The Artist, The Romantic, The Fashionable Dandy—in an attempt to recreate the ‘salon’ of 17^th and 18^th Century France (it was actually a 16^th Century Italian invention, but in both countries was a place where people came together for amusement, conversation and the exchange of ideas).  It’s the execution of this particular location though, that leaves much to be desired.  Something seems to have gotten lost in translation.  Researching Tracy Stern, her idea for her company seems to be ‘children playing tea party’, which may seem to be at odds with the idea of an intellectual salon, but could work, given a creative mind and a superb interior designer.  This location seems to have had the benefit of neither.

Even before actually seeing the place, I was filled with a sense of foreboding when a fellow Vancouver Lolita commented that the place “isn’t pretty”.  No surprise then that what attracted us most was the kiddy tea set placed alongside a couple board games on the back counter and not the ambiance.

The tea pots were very pretty, though their baroque flavour seemed incongruously out of place in the rather sterile bathroom tiled interior.  I had The Dancer, “a compelling blend of honeybush and rooibos tea with flavoured fruit accents of strawberry, raspberry, floral notes of safflowers and marigolds.  Spinning its flavours with the grande dance of rich chocolate”, and Rilly had The Romantic, "Chur She green tea with jasmine flowers...completely unfermented and not oxidized.  Delicate and fragrant brew...Spark some romance while sharing this tea!"

Neither the seats nor the tables looked particularly comfortable or inviting, giving the whole café an air of rather bleak utilitarianism, and what was with the bare concrete floor?  It was as if the tea shop had moved in recently, but had lost in the move all its luxurious furnishings, oriental carpets, gilt mirrors and Louis XVI chairs.

You can see here clearly how the elaborateness of our Lolita outfits stands in stark contrast with the plain furnishings in the background.

On to the food which is provided by an in-house chef (who incidentally doesn’t have a kitchen, in house).

High tea service is $30/person and the menu is apparently a surprise every time.

Savouries:

Schnitzel finger sandwich

Smoked salmon and fig compote on corn cake

Smoked turkey and cucumber croissant

Sweets:

Shortbread and icing sandwiches

Marshmallow and chocolate cupcakes

Lemon custard squares

Pistachio macaron and signature tea macaron

Scones with Devonshire cream and jam

The food came in your usual 3 tiered tray arrangement, decorated with a brightly coloured tissue paper flowers.  Tissue paper flowers seemed to be de rigueur here and 3 large flowers made up the entirety of the table display, giving the customer an odd feeling of the café not being cleaned up after a kid’s birthday party.  This seemed to be the rather sadly literal manifestation of Tracy Stern’s ‘children’s tea party’ idea.

The combinations of flavours brought to my mind the unique concoctions invented by hungry teenagers after school everywhere.  Growing bodies constantly need nourishment, and if there’s nothing but some ham, strawberry jam and cheese in the fridge, and some saltines, canned tuna and peanut butter in the cupboard, all will go into the mouth at the same time.  Often, this cuisine is strangely delicious even if the ingredients list looks a bit nauseating, but nobody wants to see ‘oddly creative’ takes on everyday foods, especially at high tea prices. The sweets were frankly too sweet and too boring.  Icing filled shortbread sandwiches are fine for 5 year olds, but seriously couldn’t the chef have provided some proper petit fours?

All things being said, SalonTea does have good tea with well-thought-out blends. The whole line is attractively packaged stressing ‘tea as a lifestyle’, and includes teas for dieting and health, candles and even perfumes.  Plus the mirrors are pretty cute too!

Rillystar says:

Taste: 2.5/5 
Presentation: 2/5 
Service: 3/5
Price: 2/5
Decor/Ambiance: 1/5
Location/Transitability: 3.5/5
Loli-Loli Rabu Factor: 1/5

Overall Score: 2.15/5

Comments: As kurasune mentioned, this establishment was sadly lacking in the decor and ambiance category. We really were quite out of place, and I almost wonder if the startled initial look on the staff member's face when we got there was more of an indication of what type of clientele they typically deal with. Definitely worth trying the teas, but I'd pass on a $30 set for the the food and just grab a single tea or a package of tea blend. Some interesting tastes with the food,but the presentation was lacklustre and menu nothing out of the ordinary...in fact quite pedestrian (shortbread cookie sandwich filled with glacé icing, really?) for the price tag. the up side was we were able to take home some a sample of their teas as part of the package. I feel like this was all set up to be more of a coffee shop a la Waves or Starbucks where you come in, grab your drink and leave...oh and those seats and chairs more of an afterthought so you have a place to sit if you're not on the run.

Kurasune says:

Taste: 2/5
Presentation: 1.5/5
Service: 3/5
Price: 2/5
Decor/Ambiance: 1/5
Location/Transitability: 4/5
Loli-Loli Rabu Factor: 1/5

Overall Score: 2.07/5

Comments:  I think the décor was the most disappointing thing about this place. It does not match Tracy Stern’s marketing spiel about SalonTea being a comfortable, inspiring place to come together to discuss art and creativity. Everything seems hurried and not properly thought through, and the interior has not been renovated sufficiently to erase the feeling of the café before it, which had a more bistro feel, if I remember correctly.  Overall a disappointment.  Go there to buy some loose teas to take home, but don’t bother making it an outing, and definitely don’t bother dressing up.  Vancouver’s ubiquitous Lululemon yoga pants and tank top ensemble is more than adequate.

Joint overall score for SalonTea:  2.11/5