Nestled in the junction of Harford Road and Hamilton Avenue in Baltimore, Maryland USA is today’s Travel to Tea at Emma’s Tea Spot!
The owner, Emma, previously managed a pub-style farm-to-table restaurant in London and became a Master Gardener and Holistic Practitioner. Eventually she opened Emma’s Tea Spot, which is focused on making the Hamilton community stronger by reconnecting people to their environment and their neighbors. Their business provides a venue committed to using authentic British products, local vendors and farms, and seasonal or organic produce.
Opened Wednesday through Sunday from 10-4pm; you need to make reservations if you would like to enjoy High or Queen BE tea. Otherwise, you can walk in and choose what you’d like to eat off their menu. However, the seating area was completely full so you may not be able to eat in house.
I will admit I was a bit flustered navigating how Afternoon Tea works at Emma’s Tea Spot. First, this is only my second time taking my two year old to tea. He was 4 months old and sleeping in his stroller the first time. Second, this was my parent’s and sister’s first time going to tea, so I was in charge. Third, I had to order all of our teas and selected sandwiches at the front counter and pay before they prepared our meal.
Okay, everything was figured out and ordered. I could sit at our reserved table. Soon after, our 5-7 pots of tea were brought out for us to begin our relaxing Tea-venture.
Looking around the “tea spot”, I saw people of all walks of life enjoying their experience. It felt like a Cafe, but also a tea room. I did not feel uncomfortable having my two year old there and thought it really is a great place to have a family outing.
After a while, our 3 tier tray of food came out. The sandwiches were pretty good. It was difficult to order for the picky kids because the sandwiches had more on it then what the menu indicated. For example, I ordered a ham and mustard sandwich for my son. Well, it actually was ham, a spicy mustard, tomato, and maybe one or two other things. Everyone had to donate their plain egg sandwich to him.
The scones were good. There were savory and sweet. The sweet were delicious, my sister said it was the best scone she’s ever had! Nice and soft and wonderful with the raspberry jam and creme (there was also a mango spread I didn’t care for too much). The savory had a harder outer crust with a fresh inside and a very good cheese.
Now to the main event that my son was impatient for. He kept pointing to the cupcakes.
Yes the strawberry cupcakes were super fresh and I could have thrown back 5 of them. However, I was surprised at how good the coconut candies were. They were pink, yellow and purple colored, with a fresh coconut mix in the middle. Our boy kept asking for more, but it’s only one per person. And I will admit I lost the “mother of the year” award because I definitely was not sharing mine.
The tea was good. I particularly liked the Peach Blossom white tea out of the 5 teas I tried. Overall, we really liked Emma’s Tea Spot as a family friendly tea experience. At the end, my son had a bit of a sugar high and started playing under our table and ran with his Dada to see all the cool vintage England tea displays. No one reprimanded us or payed us any mind. Of course we didn’t let him touch anything, so no damage done. The food and tea were good, so it’s a perfect location for a casual tea time out.
Rory, Tea & Me 