A visit to the Steep Tea House in Canton

On Saturday I tried out a new tea spot in Canton, Georgia, along with my tea friend Joy, her friend Sandy, and a new friend Joy had met on the Afternoon Tea Across America Facebook group, Trisha. When we first heard of it, the tea house didn't appear to serve afternoon tea, only lunch type offerings and an extensive list of teas, and that was fine. Late last week, however, Joy discovered the Steep Tea House was now offering afternoon tea some days, including Saturday from 2-4 p.m., so we all agreed we'd rather change our "lunch" plans to "afternoon tea" plans, and as it turned out, that made Trisha's tea-loving husband, Jeremy, decide to join us as well.

And here we all are: Trisha, Jeremy, me, Sandy, and Joy.

They have about 50 teas available, I believe, and we each ordered a different one. The teas were served in small individual teapots with warmers, and I liked the crisp, clean look of the white teawares. I ordered the Apple and Fig Tea, which was excellent. Because we were all sharing, I also got to enjoy some of Joy's Southern Belle blend and Jeremy's Assam tea. I liked both of those as well, and I was particularly impressed that the Assam was prepared properly and not oversteeped.

Frankly, I'm not sure any of us had any idea what this particular "afternoon tea" would be like, we just knew we were game to try it. To make sure I was good and hungry, I'd eaten only a pastry for breakfast, so I was famished by the time 2 p.m. rolled around. The sandwiches came not on a three-tiered server but on individual plates. The flavors were chicken salad on mini croissants (my favorite), a cucumber and dill cream cheese, and pimiento cheese. They were quite filling.

Interestingly, our server then came back to take our "scone order." I don't guess I've ever ordered my scone at teatime, so I found that intriguing. (Not bad, mind you, just different.) Our choices were Apple Crumble and Strawberry Shortcake, and three of us ordered apple, and two, including me, ordered the strawberry. These were the Apple Crumble scones.

And these were the Strawberry Shortcake scones. Both were served with lemon curd and cream. They tasted good, but we all agreed these were not traditional, light, biscuit-type scones. They were so crumbly (both flavors) that we ate them with our forks, yet I happily polished off every bite of mine. I didn't mind so much, but I have a feeling those who've had typical scones might not have been pleased with this type of scone.

I was a little surprised when no sweets course followed, yet after eating all of the tea sandwiches and the large scone, I was quite full. When we got our checks, I was also surprised to realize our tea was only $15, which I thought was fair considering that the amount of food was less than you usually get at afternoon tea. So while the Steep Tea House is not the sort of place I would visit if I were in search of a traditional white-gloves-and-bone-china-teacups type of experience, I did enjoy the food, the atmosphere, and, of course, the excellent company! I probably won't be a repeat customer for their afternoon tea unless they decide to go with an expanded, traditional type of tea service, but I would gladly return for lunch there if I were in the Canton area. And the employees (especially the beautiful young lady who was our server) were quite accommodating and attentive. I'd classify this as a new and more modern type of tea experience, and best of all, it was another happy day enjoyed with tea and friends!