How to Host: Harry Potter Afternoon Tea

We wanted to release our Harry Potter Afternoon Tea party guide before Halloween because being that half of the films were released in November, for us, fall and winter often conjur images of the wizarding world. With a British writer doing the world-building, tea appears throughout the Harry Potter series, along with the characters’ favorite foods and treats. Whether you’d like to decorate and craft your afternoon tea menu around a particular character, or feature the four Hogwarts houses, (or both), we’ve collected a range of suggestions to help you plan a magical Harry Potter Afternoon Tea.

Notes on Using Destination Tea to Plan Your Tea Party

Here’s how we suggest using our resources:

1. Print out a front-and-back copy of Destination Tea’s Tea Party Planner.
2. As you browse The Scene, Tea Selection, Tea Sandwiches, Scones and Sweets ideas in our Harry Potter Afternoon Tea Pinterest board, choose which items you’ll have at your tea party, and fill in the related sections of your Tea Party Planner, adding needed items and ingredients to your Shopping List.
3. Bookmark, pin or print any recipes you like from the Harry Potter Afternoon Tea Pinterest board, and have fun making your preparations!

Setting the Scene? That’s Everything!

In The Scene board, you’ll find suggestions for creative touches that will make your Harry Potter themed teatime special, which you can add to “The Scene” section of your Tea Party Planner, including:

• Tablescape/Decor:
  • Marauder’s Map Customized Invitations
  • Harry Potter Wax Stamp Seals (for invitations/placecards)
  • Hogwarts Express Cake Stand
  • “Accio Tea” Tea Bag Holders
  • Hogwarts Floating Candles
  • Flying Keys
• Teaware:
  • Marauder’s Map Teaset
  • Sorting Hat Teapot
  • Hogwarts Express Teapot
  • Hogwarts Teaspoon
• Favors:
  • Wizard Wands
  • Harry Potter Glasses
  • Hedwig Tea Ball Infuser
  • Polyjuice Potion in Vintage Bottles
  • Dumbledore’s Sherbet Lemon Drops
  • Felix Felicis Liquid Sweets
• Activities:
  • Ultimate Harry Potter Movie Trivia Game
  • Codenames Harry Potter Edition
  • Who Said That? Harry Potter Edition
• Music:
  • Ultimate Harry Potter Soundtrack Music Mix (3.5 hours long)

The Menu: Harry Potter Afternoon Tea

Set in England, of course Harry Potter characters enjoy popular British foods and loads of tea, but the wizards also have an entire food culture apart from the muggles. Every book mentions character favorites, from drinks to snacks and candies. While you might not be able to magic these recipes together like Dobby or Mrs. Weasley can, we do include a wide range of choices, all scratchmade, for your Harry Potter Afternoon Tea.

Selecting Your Teas

If you’d like to practice some tea leaf reading as if you are in Professor Trelawney’s divinations class, you’ll want to brew loose leaf tea leaves directly in your teapot, so that some leaves will find their way into the bottom of each guest’s cup for reading. We also include a link to a guide, “Reading the Leaves,” and a Potter-themed printable tasseomancy legend. In addition to a selection of fandom Adagio teas, “Magic Potions,” we suggest the following:

• Spicy Pumpkin Black Tea by Big Heart Teas or Pumpkin Juice Black Tea by Adagio Teas (because pumpkin juice is very popular with Hogwarts students)
• Organic Dragonwell Green Tea by Western Immortal (because dragons are real in Harry Potter)
• Lancashire Black Tea (because J.K. Rowling has said this is her favorite tea)
• Some Nice Berries by Firebelly Tea (for a pink brew in honor of Dolores Umbridge’s love of pink)
• Licorice and Mint herbal by Teapigs (one of the teas served in the Ministry All-Purpose Room in the video game Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery)

AND, if you’d like to start or finish with a bit of alcohol, we also include a Boozy Butterbeer recipe.

Tea Sandwiches / Savories

First of all, a “Harry Potter / Fantastic Beasts An Official Afternoon Tea Cookbook” is coming out in 2024! We’ll likely pin more recipes to this board once it has, but the book is available for pre-order now. A clever idea we saw on Mission Food Adventures is to create finger sandwiches to match the colors of each Hogwarts house. We collected our own favorite recipes for each house, as well as some hearty savories inspired by some of the characters’ favorite foods.

• Cucumber and Mint Tea Sandwiches (for Slytherin green and silver)
• Blueberry Merlot Tea Jam & Peanut Butter Tea Sandwiches (for Ravenclaw blue and bronze)
• Egg Salad with Black Olive Tea Sandwiches (for Hufflepuff yellow and black)
• Bacon and Tomato Sandwiches (for Gryffindor red and gold, and Ron Weasley’s love of a bacon butty)
• Ham and Cherry Jam Sandwich (for the cherry studded ham served at Hogwarts feasts)
• Turkey Cranberry Tea Sandwiches (Ron Weasley loves turkey legs)
• Steak and Kidney Mini Pies (one of Harry’s favorites at Hogwarts)
• Ham and Cheese Howlers (for the scene below)

Scones & Spreads

There’s a decent amount of speculation regarding what a Cauldron Cake actually is, so we looked over many test efforts and chose our favorite iteration, perfect for the scone course. Several of these recipes are from Harry Potter cookbooks:

• Hagrid’s Rock Cakes
• Scottish Treacle Scones (because treacle tart is Harry’s favorite)
• Welsh Cakes (aka Cauldron Cakes)
• Homemade Jams to represent each Hogwarts house

Sweets

What’s for dessert? Choices abound, between the kids’ favorite candies, the Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley shops, and Mrs. Weasley’s cooking. Here are our favorites:

• Golden Snitch Peanut Butter Balls
• Pumpkin Pasties
• English Toffee
• Treacle Pudding
• Vernon’s Buns
• Exploding Bon Bons
• Chocolate Frogs
• Sorting Hat Cupcakes
• Hot Butterbeer

Let’s Get Started Planning Your Harry Potter Afternoon Tea

If you recommend a delicious treat, tea or fun Harry Potter themed party game, please let us know in the comments, thank you! Click on the pinboard below to delve into our suggestions for your Harry Potter Afternoon Tea and happy party planning!