Sandwich, Massachusetts is one of my favorite towns to visit. In addition to the sea-side charm you hope for in a small Cape Cod town, the center includes several museums and shops. The Heritage Museums and Gardens includes exhibits for antique cars, American folk art, and the Cape Cod League baseball Hall of Fame, and the gardens and landscaping are themselves nearly worth the price of admission. The Sandwich Glass Museum is much more interesting than you would expect, and the free Thornton Burgess Museum is worth a quick stop. Across from the Burgess museum is Dunbar Tea Room, where you should stop for a nice lunch and tea if you are touring the town. Try the Ploughman's Lunch and you'll be inspired to eat simple cheese and salad-based dinners for a while (which is how I like to think Hobbits eat).
The tea room will likely be filled with little old ladies, but don't let that scare you away. The mode of tea serving is interesting: a pot filled with loose leaf tea and a miniature sieve (there must be some tea-specific name for this). You pour the tea through the sieve and into your cup, then use tongs to place the desired number of sugar cubes as sweetener. The pot has enough tea for two and a half cups, though the last half cup is likely to be overly bitter as the brew time reaches 30 minutes. Order a tea that takes excessive brew time well.
Dunbar offers many standard teas I'd expect to find in a tea shop, but they also offer their own eponymous blend. This is the best tea I have tasted from the shop; a medium-strength black tea with cranberry and almond. The cranberry is obvious but not so strong to make this a "fruit tea". The tea gives a wonderful aroma that also includes vanilla, roasted nuts, and breakfast pastries. The cranberry and vanilla balance well with the tea base, and the result is a smooth, slightly creamy tea on the palate. The cranberry adds some delightful tartness to the finish. A perfect afternoon tea. Score: 94 points (A).
Great review, and that sounds like a good tea and a very cool place to check out! Perhaps this summer.
ReplyDeleteI've come across the individual pot of "ever steeping tea" myself, and it never fails to puzzle me. Why offer fine tea, then leave it in a pot to steep well past the point of bitter?
Mrs. Bridge's tea house in Woodstock offers a Ploughman's Lunch that I get nearly every time I'm in there, though I never thought of it as a hobbit meal until now, though I suspect I will from here on out.