Taking tea with Joy!

Now there's a headline I've been eager to write! I haven't been to an actual tearoom this year, but on Saturday, I had the pleasure of meeting and enjoying tea with someone I met through this blog, my fellow Georgian Joy Breedlove!

Joy and I met for tea at Tea Leaves and Thyme in Woodstock, a tearoom we have both visited before. Because I had several traffic snafus, and then discovered a craft show was going on in downtown Woodstock, and then the tearoom parking lot itself had no available parking spaces when I arrived, I got there embarrassingly late, but Joy was completely gracious about it and took my tardiness in stride, bless her! (Next time, I will go there on a weekday rather than a busy Saturday in March!)

When I finally sat down and caught my breath, I began to take in the details of our table. We both appreciated the little welcome card, and Joy didn't seem bothered a bit that I had to pause and snap pictures of everything!

Our server quickly took our tea orders, with Joy having a green Darjeeling and me drinking the tea of the day, a persimmon-flavored rooibos. We both enjoyed our teas, and later Joy opted to try another, the Cheeky Peach. After she bragged on it and offered me some, I tried it, too, and we both agreed it was a very peachy peach!

If you click here, you'll see that Tea Leaves and Thyme has a nice variety of afternoon tea offerings. Joy wisely went for the Light Afternoon Tea, which was the equivalent of Full Afternoon Tea anywhere else. I had skipped breakfast and decided to order the Classic Afternoon Tea. My chicken salad croissant was divine, but it was so huge that I was halfway full before I even touched the tea tray. Next time, I'll hopefully remember that Light Afternoon Tea is plenty here!

Our tea tray came out promptly, and the server took a few moments to explain what everything was. I was so eager to talk to Joy, I didn't take notes as I usually do, so I'm probably going to be guessing what a few things were!

We each had three different types of scones (plain, pecan, I believe, and I don't remember the third because I didn't get around to eating it!).

I enjoyed the scones, especially because I haven't had clotted cream and lemon curd in a while!

The sandwiches are one of my favorite courses at teatime, and I always enjoy seeing the nice variety of them. The flavors were pineapple cream cheese on raisin bread, pimiento cheese, some sort of shaved ham, and cucumber with pimientos on top. I enjoyed them all, but I think the ham was my favorite.

The sweets did not disappoint either! They included lemon bars, a chocolate chip shortbread bar, a cherry chocolate brownie and a blueberry mini muffin. I took one bite of the chocolate chip bar and said oh my, this is so good I'm saving it till the end, and I did!

This teatime actually came about because earlier this year, Joy wrote to tell me she had found some china I had been wanting *on clearance* and went ahead and got it for me because the price was right. When we talked about where to meet for the handover, we eventually settled on tea in Woodstock. Tomorrow, I'll show you the lovely pieces I now own because of her thoughtfulness. And much as I enjoyed the tea, and receiving the longed-for new china, the highlight of the day was, without a doubt, getting to meet Joy. She was even more warm and welcoming than I expected her to be, and after we chatted for 2-1/2 hours, I left feeling as if I'd just met up with a longtime friend I hadn't seen in a while. Isn't it amazing, the lovely people we meet because of tea?