Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Chaikhana



I'm trying to get into tea, more. I'm a novice - and I don't really appriciate the more expensive teas. Yet, at least. In fact, I'm partial to flavored black teas, preferrably fruity or sweet ones. And I always add sweetener. (Don't tell England, or I'm sure I'll be tossed out if I try to vacation there again.)

Anyway. When Kristina of Clivia's Cuisine suggested we'd meet up for an After-work-afternoon Tea at Chaikhana Teahouse in Old Town, Stockholm, I didn't have to think twice about it. We went. And I drank tea. The most glorious tea, ever. More on that later - because I bought some to take home.

We ordered the English Afternoon Tea, which is essentially a three-course meal with your choice from a selection of weekly tea specials. I went with the fab tea I'll tell you all about tomorrow, and Kristina chose an unflavored black tea that was very tasty. We each got a pot of our selection.

For our first course, we got English sandwiches, tiny little triangles of soft white bread with delicious fillings. One was with ham and dijon mustard, one was with salmon, and one had cucumber and watercress. Yum!

Then it was time for the scones. Oh, excellent scones! They were huge, fluffy and buttery, and served with clotted cream, orange marmalade and raspberry jam. We each got two - one plain, and one with raisins. I was so excited I didn't have time to take a picture. Sorry.

When dessert was nearing, Kristina got excited when she saw that some people at a neighboring table had slices of what she proclaimed to be the best dessert she ever tasted. Needless to say, we both ordered that. (But they had a fairly large dessert case which we could choose from.) This was a tea-flavored mousse cake with a mango core, and there was also some hazelnut truffle in there. Perhaps it wasn't the best dessert I've ever had, but it came pretty darn high up on the list. Great stuff! And sorry for the lousy picture. It was getting pretty dark at this time.



Before we left, we looked over their large selection at beautiful tea jars, and Kristina ended up bringing one home. If it wasn't for the little fact that I'm moving soon and should not bring anything else into my home right now, I'd have gotten one too. As it was, I settled for just the tea. Oh, the glorious tea...

Chaikhana Teahouse
Svartmangatan 23
111 29 Stockholm
www.chaikhana.se


(Ps! Chaikhana does tea tastings, too. Any other Stockholm foodies who would like to get together for one? That'd be a lot of fun!)

5 comments:

Ilva said...

Me me me! I would love to do it but I suppose you can't wait until August!

Anonymous said...

Där. Ska. Jag. Fika.

Pene said...

I would love to get on the next ferry to Stockholm if I could experience a real English afternoon tea, without setting foot in England. Maybe during the summer, eh?

Anne said...

Ilva - oh, sounds perfect! We'll definitely do it then - maybe before, too, but definitely when you're here. :)

Virvla - no, let's taste tea! :)

Pene - that sounds like a great idea, you're so close anyway!

Sage - aaw, thank you! That picture you have make me extremely hungry, and I just had dinner. *sigh*

Clivia said...

Well, obviously I´m in for tea testing! Thanks for a lovely tea party.