Update: Tea House Formosa has discontinued its afternoon tea service.
Where: BuHi, Atlanta, GA Style: Modern Tea Selection: 24 loose-leaf teas Teatimes: Saturday-Sunday 2-5 Reservations: Walk-ins only Contact: 470-349-8105 Cost:$23.95 Afternoon Tea Set Destination Tea Tips: Though weekends see a steady business and Tea House Formosa does not take afternoon tea reservations, we had no trouble finding seats for the seven of us. Also, Tea House Formosa suggests sharing one afternoon tea set, which you will order at the counter. We split two afternoon tea sets amongst three friends and had leftovers to take home.
Destination Tea Notes: Tea House Formosa takes its name from Taiwan’s older moniker: “Ilha Formosa” (beautiful island), bestowed by 16th-century Portuguese explorers. We found it deserving of the name, both because it is a beautiful space with its modern interior of smooth lines and warm wood tones, and because we were treated to renowned Taiwanese teas and fare. The one difficulty is choosing your tea because there are too many interesting options, from pots of hot tea to salted butter cream-topped tea, from monthly flavored teas to tea floats (yes, with ice cream) and teas con panna (yes, with whipped cream topper). In the end, we went the traditional route with hot pots of tea, but couldn’t resist going back to the counter to order a couple specialty teas to pass around for sampling.
Upon entering, give yourself time to peruse the menu’s tea choices before approaching the counter to order your afternoon tea set. You may want to take a menu to your table, and go to the counter to order once you have strategized your tea selection. We found our hosts to be very helpful, happy to answer our questions and make recommendations.Servers bring out your order, but you can return to this counter to have your teapot refilled with hot water.
Tea Service
Each afternoon tea set comes with one hot pot of tea with one re-steep. We chose the Dong Ding oolong tea and Rose of the Orient green tea.This is only the list for pots of tea! A la carte teas include signature base teas (black, green, oolong and TieGuanYin), flavor teas (flavored with infused simple syrup), milk teas (with creamer), latteas (with milk), tea con panna (with whipped cream topper), butter creamers (with salted butter cream) and tea floats (with vanilla ice cream). Try your best to choose!Tea is served in ceramic pots and cups, loose leaf tea steeping in sachet. Your afternoon tea set comes with one refill.We couldn’t resist, we ordered a butter creamer TieGuanYin tea – very rich, but tasty. Thankfully we shared it around the table so that one person didn’t have to take on this lavishness alone.For flavored monthly teas, you can choose your level of sweetness, but cannot go sugar-free because the syrups are infused with the seasonal flavors. I selected 25% and it was just right and heavenly scented. Warning: these you may not want to share.
Scones, Savories and Sweets
Servers deliver bamboo stacked baskets for the grand reveal.If you view this afternoon tea in the traditional sense – as a mid-afternoon snack rather than the robust meal that would be a high tea — then this would certainly feed two. The first basket includes a Taiwanese egg and cheese sandwich with ham, savory egg tart (a bit chewy), raspberry green tea mini muffin, strawberry and kiwi sandwich and three cookies: black tea, TieGuanYin and parmesan spice (loved this one). The sandwich bread is like that baked by nearby Korean bakeries, sweeter than a traditional American white bread.The second basket’s savory scallion scone, which while not served hot and soft, has great flavor. Tea House Formosa’s dessert offering includes oolong tea cake roll, black tea banana cake, TieGuanYin madeleine cookie, Taiwanese TieGuanYin macaroon and oolong white chocolate tart with blueberries. Favorites differ around our table, but the one thing we agree upon is that we appreciate that all these desserts are tea-infused.If you are looking for more savories and less sweet in your meal, why not order one afternoon tea set and a couple of à la carte snacks from the menu? For example, the hand-cut sweet potato fries are not to be missed.
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