Where: Belmar, NJ Style: Pretty cafe Tea Selection: 1 prepared tea at afternoon tea; 50+ loose leaf teas in shop Teatimes: Tuesday to Saturday, 11 to 3; Sunday 11 to 2 Reservations: 24-hour notice Contact: 732-722-8030 Cost: $30 Afternoon Tea; $20 Child’s Afternoon Tea Destination Tea Tips: We recommend requesting a second tea when you reach the scone course if you’d like to sample others from Sweet Tease’s vast selection. Also, if your child would like to enjoy the full adult afternoon tea, make sure to specify this in your reservation.
Destination Tea Notes: Afternoon tea at Sweet Tease is a leisurely affair made special with beautiful teacups and homemade goodies. The eye alights upon creative design elements from embossed tabletops to multi-colored fabric streamers as we walk back to the cozy, private room near the kitchen for our afternoon tea. Her tone sweetly gracious, our server is accommodating and informative throughout the meal. Our only tweak to this satisfying tea service would be that Sweet Tease invites guests to choose from the tearoom’s impressive tea selection, rather than pre-choosing one tea for the bottomless pot of tea. Don’t hide your (tea) light under a bushel!
To enter, find the pink doors by passing through this canopied corner.
Brightly colored main tearoom with overhead fabric streamers
To find our table, we pass through the main room to this cozy space, softly lit with outdoor string lighting.
The next generation of Destination Tea (love these girls)
Having Grandma, 94, at a tea table with her great-granddaughters makes this our most special afternoon tea of 2018. Asked to share one of her favorite songs from her time, she shyly broke into the sweet, “Pal of My Cradle Days.” As I wished to forever remember this moment, I thought, this is the beauty of afternoon tea. We slow down, we connect and we make memories with the ones who are so very dear to us.
Tea Service
Bourbon Street Vanilla Rooibos is ready and waiting for us when we arrive, which is a welcoming touch. Afternoon tea here includes bottomless pots of the pre-selected tea, but later in the meal we agree we would also like to sample a caffeinated tea from Sweet Tease’s varied selection (pictured below), and very much enjoy our choice of Monk’s Blend.
Here’s a first for us: sugar offered in the whimsical form of a swizzle stick. You can rightly predict that the kids love this touch.
Gorgeous teacup
Scones & Spreads, Savories and Sweets
Vegan tomato soup has a multi-layered flavor that has us guessing at its ingredients — lentils! We appreciate this dairy-free version of a tearoom favorite, to balance the richness of courses to come.
Our afternoon tea curate arrives.
We love homemade afternoon teas! Sweet Tease serves homemade chicken salad with cranberries, pecan, celery and onion on homemade croissant, homemade egg salad with sweet red pepper on multi-grain, and cucumber and herbed cheese pinwheels – all delicious!
Not naming names, but some of us had to go back for second helpings of these scrumptious homemade orange cranberry and vanilla scones, served with organic strawberry jam and homemade clotted cream.
Dessert includes apricot rugelach, double fudge brownies (yes, as rich as they look), homemade cheesecake and pecan sandies.
Child’s Tea
Children’s sandwich plate includes cream cheese and jelly on white, and cucumber pinwheels with grapes.
For the kids, time to decorate cupcakes with frosting, sprinkles and sugar pearls.
This is our favorite world: The World of Tea! Many tempting choices to take home.
We spy tea-themed and locally made gifts in the main room. Love this mug’s message…
