Tea With Friends: a Literary Tea Party | Tea Parties

Author Elizabeth Knight

Not all too long ago, Miss Meredith Sweetpea had the honor of meeting in person Miss Elizabeth Knight, author of books like Tea with Friends. Miss Elizabeth was a charming woman, and shared her passion for tea and tea parties with our group.

What’s nice about Tea With Friends, is that it takes the reader month by month through a year of ideas o how to have tea with friends.  Following is an excerpt from that book that would be perfect for a Fall tea party.  Warm tea, crackling fire, and good company. What could be better.

Setting the Scene for Your Literary Tea Party

A living room, book-lined study, or library with comfortable seating is the idea setting for your literary tea.

For a Centerpiece

In the eighteenth century, bookish society ladies who attempted to replace card parties with more intellectual entertainment were called bluestockings. The name came from the unfashionable blue worsted stockings that ordinary people wore. Create a centerpiece by spray-painting an old boot or high-topped sneaker a deep blue and fill it with asters, September’s flower. Display your centerpiece on a stack of books.

For Music

Classical music, mellow jazz, or New Age instrumentals will hit the right note. Vocals are too distracting, but Harpestry, A Contemporary Collection, and Wynton Marsalis’s In Gabriel’s Garden are lovely.

Recommended Menu

Beverages

• Kenya and Jasmine teas

Savories

• Mushroom and onion tartlets

Sandwiches

• Curried chicken salad with almonds on multigrain bread
• Hummus
• Cream cheese, chopped dried apricots and figs on Boston brown bread

Sweets

• Madeleines
• Chocolate apple cake
• Currant tea cakes

Throw your own monthly tea party for your friends!

Order Tea with Friends here!

–Excerpted from Tea with friends, by Elizabeth Knight, Illustrated by Carolyn Bucha