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 | | From: | Jim Lane | | Subject: | Tea with mom at Aubrey Rose | | Date: | Sat, 27 Nov 2004 19:18:25 -0800 |
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This afternoon, I was driving my mother around on her shopping day runs
and she decided to try The Aubrey Rose Tea Room in La Mesa (8362 La Mesa
Blvd - near La Torta).
I hadn't sat tea for about 50 years and my mom had taken in teas on her
travels to Victoria, BC; Banff and many other places.
This is not cheap fare. The two vari8ations run $18.75 and $23.75 with
the last including three more items (one a savory, another bread and
another tea sandwich). When you make reservations (strongly recommended
as they have some 700 reservations set for December), you have your
table for two hours. That is their built-in tunaround time.
Right now, the Aubrey Rose has a strong, old-fashioned Christmas theme
in place - carols on the sound system.
They have about 20 different teas available. I opted for their house
tea, my mother for the Sincha green. They also have blends, tisanes and
two white teas. I really liked the house tea. Usually, when you get
blends, the fruit flavors do not really show unless you add a smidgen of
sugar to make them bloom. Was not needed with this tea.
A small powderrd sugar-dusted wafer started off the afternoon repast.
Not too long after the wafer and tea (each on its own warmer) a
three-tiered presentation of tea sandwiches, fruits and small desserts
was brought out (and we were informed that a dessert scone would be
forthcoming after that).
The larger plate on the bottom held two each of five sandwiches and
nibbles. One was heart-shaped and was a very moist roll-type dough with
different herbs on it. It was the least favorite in both of our
opinions. There were three sandwiches - turkey with a cranberry chutney,
egg salad (with a hint of garlic) and cucumber. Mom liked the egg salad
best; I the cucumber. The turkey ranked last. The fifth item was a
pastry shell with artichokes and parmesan (very, very tasty).
The second tier was fresh fruits. Really sweet and mild pineapple,
orange slice, grapes (seedless), kiwi and cantaloupe. The kiwi was a bit
tart, the pineapple extraordinary, excellent grapes and good cantaloupe.
The top tier was dessert type offerings. A ganache mini-tart, bread
pudding with an excellent version of whipped cream (has a real name,
cannot recall), and something else that has faded from memory. (I didn't
make notes today).
The dessert scone was pumpkin and nutmeg based. It was served with that
same cream, strawberry preserves and lemon curd.
Anyway, if you want to do tea, this would be a worthy place to visit.
The owners are there watching over everything and running the store
part. The lady is from Jamaica, although I thought her accent was more
Eastern-European. Definitely not the more known sing-song Jamaican accent.
619.461.4832 is the number to call.
jim
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| | From: | Jim Lane | | Subject: | Re: Tea with mom at Aubrey Rose | | Date: | Sun, 28 Nov 2004 11:02:01 -0800 |
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| Jim Lane wrote:
>
> This afternoon, I was driving my mother around on her shopping day runs
> and she decided to try The Aubrey Rose Tea Room in La Mesa (8362 La Mesa
> Blvd - near La Torta).
>
> I hadn't sat tea for about 50 years and my mom had taken in teas on her
> travels to Victoria, BC; Banff and many other places.
>
> This is not cheap fare. The two vari8ations run $18.75 and $23.75 with
> the last including three more items (one a savory, another bread and
> another tea sandwich). When you make reservations (strongly recommended
> as they have some 700 reservations set for December), you have your
> table for two hours. That is their built-in tunaround time.
>
> Right now, the Aubrey Rose has a strong, old-fashioned Christmas theme
> in place - carols on the sound system.
>
> They have about 20 different teas available. I opted for their house
> tea, my mother for the Sincha green. They also have blends, tisanes and
> two white teas. I really liked the house tea. Usually, when you get
> blends, the fruit flavors do not really show unless you add a smidgen of
> sugar to make them bloom. Was not needed with this tea.
>
> A small powderrd sugar-dusted wafer started off the afternoon repast.
> Not too long after the wafer and tea (each on its own warmer) a
> three-tiered presentation of tea sandwiches, fruits and small desserts
> was brought out (and we were informed that a dessert scone would be
> forthcoming after that).
>
> The larger plate on the bottom held two each of five sandwiches and
> nibbles. One was heart-shaped and was a very moist roll-type dough with
> different herbs on it. It was the least favorite in both of our
> opinions. There were three sandwiches - turkey with a cranberry chutney,
> egg salad (with a hint of garlic) and cucumber. Mom liked the egg salad
> best; I the cucumber. The turkey ranked last. The fifth item was a
> pastry shell with artichokes and parmesan (very, very tasty).
>
> The second tier was fresh fruits. Really sweet and mild pineapple,
> orange slice, grapes (seedless), kiwi and cantaloupe. The kiwi was a bit
> tart, the pineapple extraordinary, excellent grapes and good cantaloupe.
>
> The top tier was dessert type offerings. A ganache mini-tart, bread
> pudding with an excellent version of whipped cream (has a real name,
> cannot recall), and something else that has faded from memory. (I didn't
> make notes today).
>
> The dessert scone was pumpkin and nutmeg based. It was served with that
> same cream, strawberry preserves and lemon curd.
>
> Anyway, if you want to do tea, this would be a worthy place to visit.
> The owners are there watching over everything and running the store
> part. The lady is from Jamaica, although I thought her accent was more
> Eastern-European. Definitely not the more known sing-song Jamaican accent.
>
> 619.461.4832 is the number to call.
>
>
> jim
Devonshire creme and the other dessert ws a miniature cinnamon palmier
with a dab of Devonshire.
jim
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