Tea at Glen Eryie Castle, Colorado Springs, CO

Our Red Hat group has the tradition of dressing up and going for tea for our December gathering. The short drive was like driving into a Christmas card with the snow on the mountains, and the rocks of the Garden of the Gods plus the bluest of skies.

This year our tea was at Glen Eryie Castle the former home of General Palmer, founder of Colorado Springs and now home to the Navigators – a Christian group.

We had taken a tour prior to tea so we had entered the building into the entry hall that had a glowing fireplace.

The plaster ceiling in the entry way was done by Italian craftsmen.

Our server poured us our 1st cup of tea – either the Glen Eryie special blended Black tea or the Herbal Roobios Crème au Caramel tea. Then came the warm Brie cheese in a small chafing dish with a cranberry / orange chutney that we put onto small heart shaped Lavosh crackers.

This was a tea so we were not really served a meal but the next ‘course’ was several small portions, served to each guest on one plate - a salmon pinwheel; mixed mini veggies on puff pastry; fruit salad with poppy seed dressing and a tiny artichoke bite.

And of course, there was then a dessert plate served family style – white chocolate peppermint bark; Italian pizelles cookies; nutty filo fingers; a Glen chocolate from Patsy’s (a popular chocolate shop in downtown Colorado Springs) and Queen Anne’s currant cake.

The food was fine, the tea tasty and it was a nice affair in elegant surroundings and would recommend it as a place to go and then say been there, done that. Cost with the tour was $32.95 (the tip was included because we were a group of 8). Will I ever go back? Probably on the right occassion!!