Tea at the White Heather Tea Room in Victoria

My SO and I are relaxing for a few days in Victoria, attempting to recuperate from my recent field course (see the Gym for details). Thus we only had two things on our schedule for today: breakfast and afternoon tea.

In Victoria, tea seems to be synonymous with The Empress. However, The Empress is also synonymous with pricey, as they apparently charge $55 per person for the pleasure of dining there. We looked for alternates.

We ended up at the White Heather Tea Room, a highly recommended, cozy little restaurant a little ways from downtown Victoria. The White Heather has three teas: the Wee Tea, the Not so Wee Tea, and the Big Muckle Giant Tea for Two (the names alone were enough to get us to go there). We couldn't resist the Big Muckle Giant Tea for Two, which lived up to its name, as it included two big scones (which came with Devonshire cream, lemon curd, and raspberry jam), cheesy tarts, mini quiches, a number of tea sandwiches (including cucumber and cream cheese, egg salad and chive, and ham salad), smoked salmon in split cheese and herb scones, lemon curd tarts with whipped cream and berries on top, lemon cake, savory wafers with cream and apple on top, Scottish shortbread, and blueberry bars. They also had a good selection of loose-leaf teas, which came in teapots covered with very cute tea cozies. Everything appeared to be homemade, and was delicious. As the service was also excellent, and the price only $36 Canadian for the two of us, the White Heather Tea Room gets the Radagast Seal of Approval.