Afternoon Tea in Epcot's United Kingdom (Disney World)

 

In January 2019, my sister and I celebrated our milestone and half-milestone birthdays at Disney World with a very dear friend of ours.

Our second day in Orlando we spent in Epcot, which is AMAZING btw.

Before we really even got started in the park, we headed to the United Kingdom located to the right almost as soon as you enter the World Showcase.

There is a replica of the Hampton Court Palace, parts of it anyway. That was super fun.

Beautiful little side-streets and charming, well-manicured greenery lined all of the UK, really making me feel like we were in England. We were there early before anything really opened up, but we had reservations for an experience.

So once we took some photos and our reservation time was close, we headed over to join a queue of people at the Rose & Crown Pub where we had signed up for a "tea experience."

The above photo isn't mine but was borrowed from the Disney website. I missed taking one of the Rose & Crown somehow. Oops!

We were part of a grouping of about 35 people, all crammed into one section of the Rose & Crown. A charming lady from York was our hostess. We were provided with several clear glasses in which to brew our tea (and she instructed us exactly how long to brew each type of tea). We drank five types of Twinings tea since they're partnered with Disney for this tea experience, 4 hot, and then one iced.

The hot teas were English Breakfast, Spiced Apple Chai, Summer Berry Green Tea, and Budding Meadow Camomile. 

The iced tea was Lady Grey, one of my favorites, but I had never had it iced before and just loved it.

Of the hot teas, the favorite with our entire party was the Summer Berry Green Tea, a tea that is impossible to find within the United States apart from shopping in Epcot. We each purchased a box of the tea, and we're now almost out so we'll have to order some new boxes from Twinings' website and have them shipped from across the pond.

We were provided with delectable sandwiches that I wish could fully remember the types of fillings, but it's been too long at this point.

We did have a cheese sandwich, it might be the one with the rye bread. Obviously, there's a cucumber sandwich, and then an egg salad, but I can't remember the fourth sandwich. They were all delicious.

Last, but not least, we were served these gorgeous scones with clotted cream and jam while we drank our iced Lady Grey tea. Everything was divine. We each had one plain scone and one scone with currants, both were perfection.

Finally, we each received a Mary Poppins tea spoon as a gift.

The entire experience cost $35 each if memory serves me and was worth the expense because how many times are you going to be able to sit down in Epcot and enjoy afternoon tea? We wouldn't do it every time, but this was special due to the birthdays.

Labeling it an "experience" is accurate because our hostess from York gave us a bit of history about tea, instructions on how long to brew the individual types of tea, and various tips along the way. It was a very interesting and educational hour spent and we all three loved it.

One reminder is that this experience is really not for small children (we had a few hyper munchkins in attendance). Wait until the kiddos are at least twelve before signing them up.

Of course, right now this experience is not available due to COVID, but I thought it would be fun to share and possibly provide an idea for folks planning a trip to Disney World when all the crazy is over. ♥