This past weekend brought two opportunities for public tea drinking: Danielle's Restaurant in Chatham, New Jersey and the Maison du Chocolat on Madison Avenue and 78th street in NYC.
At Danielle's, I ordered after-dinner tea to drink with my incredible mango sorbet. On the teapot scale, Danielle's ranks a medium-level three teapots. The water was not filtered so it had that public pool taste and the decaf black tea (Lipton or Tetley) and even herbal tea selections were not overwhelming. However, the water was served hot in a separate stainless steel pot and Danielle's does present a good selection of caffeinated black teas, including an Earl Grey. With the caffeinated options, Danielle's might be best for a cup of tea after lunch rather than after dinner.
In all fairness to the Maison du Chocolat, one should not expect the tea to be perfection. After all, their specialty is chocolate and I can certainly vouch for the absolute decadence of their chocolate pastries. However, in terms of their tea, they rank four tea pots, not perfection, but not very bad either. The menu included only four or five tea selections, most of them caffeinated. Since we were there for tea time, however, caffeine was not an issue. The tea they served was of very high quality with good water and it was served already brewed in individual ceramic pots. What keeps the Maison du Chocolat from garnering the ultimate, five tea pot ranking is that the water was only lukewarm and the tea was not strong enough for my tastes (the downside of tea that is served already brewed). On the whole, though, it was a very pleasant place to drink some afternoon tea (and have some afternoon chocolate cake!).
