My Country, 'Tis of Tea — Washington

Washington is a state that's famous for its coffeehouses, but happily, it appears that there have long been some tea lovers in Washington as well.

• The Culbertson Tea Room in Spokane, Washington, was the place to dine for ladies shopping at Culbertson's Department Store. I don't really know much about Culbertson's, and an article in the Spokesman-Review said only that "Culbertson’s, which carried everything from furniture to groceries, was deep in debt when the Depression hit and went into bankruptcy in 1930." That may be, but the place sure looked swell at the time this postcard was sent in 1919, didn't it? The sender of the postcard called this tearoom the "best place in the city to eat."

• Judith's Tea Room and Rose Café once was a favorite of tea-goers in Poulsbo, Washington. I learned of the tearoom when I found this cookbook on eBay years ago, and I was inspired to make this soup as a result. It doesn't appear that this tearoom is in operation any more, but I enjoyed finding that another blogger shared her memories of this Washington tearoom (and a delicious-sounding cake recipe) here.

• Are you a fan of women's history? If so, you might enjoy watching the video of Susan Butruille's 2007 (I think) lecture at the Washington State Library, "Tea, True Womanhood, and Uppity Women." I liked this quote of hers at the beginning of the lecture: "Historically, when women have gotten together over tea, radical things happened." (Hint: The lecture, which is divided into four different segments and totals about an hour, is accessible here. If you want to skip all the welcome remarks, start at about the 6:30 point on Part 1.)