Virtual Montpelier Festival of Herbs, Tea, and the Arts 2021

Having visited Montpelier Mansion a few times before (see here, here, and here), we were on their mailing list and decided to sign up for the festival celebrating tea, herbs, and art. This is the 25th anniversary celebration. Thanks to Covid, the celebration was virtual, which made it a little easier for us to participate. We didn't have to drag the kids there!

Stolen from their Facebook page

For a modest fee, we got a sampler of teas and some high tea snacks. The official name for the package was the "Deluxe Afternoon Tea Box." I drove to the mansion the day before to pick up the yummy supplies.

We bought two sets, one for each parent

Montpelier has its own blend of Darjeeling tea that has a nice, lightly smoky flavor. We drank that while we enjoyed our scones with clotted cream that Saturday morning.

We did use a nice plate when we ate it, good thing I took a picture earlier!

We had the other sandwiches and treats (including a lemon bar and a carrot cake muffin!) as lunch before we watched any of the videos from the festival.

Again, we were too busy eating to take a picture on an actual plate

After watching the tea tasting video, I realized that the other tea samples were supposed to pair with the individual sandwiches. Whoops!

The tea collection

The other teas in the package were...

• Orange Spice Black Tea--this was spicier than I was expecting (though not chai spicy) and definitely perked me up. The blend is fairly common but still delightful.
• Forever Fruit Herbal Tea Blend--I'm afraid herbal tea is not my specialty. This has the typical generic berry flavor that I've experience the one or two other times I've tried something similar. This was not my favorite but, I'll be honest, it probably never had a chance to begin with.
• White Peony White Tea--The tea actually brews green, though maybe that's because of this specific blend. It has a smooth, woody flavor that's fairly subtle.

The online festival included other videos. Most of them are dance performances by Silk Road Dance Company. As you might guess from the name, the dances are traditional ones from Middle Eastern countries, with colorful costumes and fascinating music. My favorite of the set is DAF SOLO, which includes the playing of an Iranian drum (which is called a "daf") that can make a lot of different sounds.

 

There's also an educational lecture and recital by a soprano and a presentation about using herbs and self-care to manage anxiety.

The videos for the festival are conveniently on a YouTube playlist if you want to see the rest.

This was a lot of fun but hopefully next year's festival will be in person!