The Journal
Guides
Featured Guide
The Essential Guide to Afternoon Tea in Austin
From the Driskill's 1886 grandeur to gongfu pours on South Lamar — where Austin actually takes its tea.
Afternoon Tea in Houston: The Complete Guide
The most competitive tea city in Texas — four-star hotel lounges, British tea rooms, and a Buddhist teahouse where the pour is a practice.
Afternoon Tea in Dallas–Fort Worth: Where to Go
The Adolphus set the standard for Texas hotel tea. The suburbs answered with a constellation of vintage rooms.
The Texas Hill Country Tea Trail
Limestone towns, herb farms, and Victorian parlors — a weekend route through the prettiest tea country in Texas.
Afternoon Tea, Explained: Menu, Etiquette, and What It Costs
High tea isn't what you think it is. A plain-English guide to the ritual — before you book your first seating.
Your First Tea Room Visit: How to Choose and What to Know
Hotel service or neighborhood parlor? Gongfu or tiered tray? How to pick your first room — and get it right.
Afternoon Tea in Chicago: The Complete Guide
A century of tea in the Drake's Palm Court, two rival Magnificent Mile hotels, a Loop landmark run by an Uzbek family — and the suburban rooms worth the Metra ride.
Afternoon Tea in Denver, Boulder, and Colorado Springs
A Victorian atrium, a hand-carved Tajik teahouse, and two castles on the Front Range — Colorado does afternoon tea with more architecture than anywhere else in the West.
Afternoon Tea in Atlanta: Where to Go
Buckhead's hotel rituals, a book-lined room in Grant Park, tea on the BeltLine, and Georgia's only gong fu house — the full map of tea in the metro.
Afternoon Tea in Charleston and Savannah: A Lowcountry Guide
A champagne lounge built on a library's marble, a tea room inside a 1926 Scottish Rite temple, and North America's oldest tea garden — the Lowcountry's tea trail, city to city.
Types of Tea, Explained: Black, Green, Oolong, White, Pu-erh, and Herbal
Six categories, one plant (mostly). What each tea is, how it's brewed, and what to ask for when the menu runs to forty lines.
How to Host Afternoon Tea at Home
The menu, the timing, and the four pieces of equipment that actually matter. No brand names, no shopping list — just the method.
Afternoon Tea Etiquette: The Real Rules and the Myths
No pinkies, no anxiety. What actually matters at a tea service — dress codes, tipping in the US, reservations, and the handful of table habits regulars follow.
Afternoon Tea vs. High Tea vs. Cream Tea: What Each One Means
Three names, three different meals — and an American habit of using the wrong one. Definitions, history, and what a US venue means when it prints each.
The Best Afternoon Tea in America: 15 Rooms Worth the Trip
Palm courts, grand lobbies, a national park lawn, and a Loop landmark across from the Art Institute — the American tea services that define the form.
Afternoon Tea in New York City: The Essential Guide
The Plaza's dome, Baccarat crystal, a Carnegie Hall landmark — and the downtown tea houses where the leaf matters more than the tray.
Afternoon Tea in Boston: Back Bay to Newport
Tea in a Copley Square library, a Public Garden hotel, Salem's Parisian salon — and the Gilded Age mansion teas of Newport.
Afternoon Tea in Philadelphia: Rittenhouse to Cape May
The Rittenhouse Hotel's Cassatt tea room, Main Line British rooms, Victorian parlors across the river — and a daily tea on a Cape May porch.
Afternoon Tea in Washington, DC: The Complete Guide
The Willard's harpist, the Old Post Office clock tower, a 1747 Annapolis tavern, and a Hunt Country champagne tea — where the capital takes its tea.
Afternoon Tea in Los Angeles: Pasadena, Beverly Hills, and Orange County
A Langham service descended from 1865 London, a rose garden at The Huntington, and a Chinatown room that pours until eleven — where Los Angeles takes its tea.
Afternoon Tea in San Francisco: The City, the East Bay, and Wine Country
Noe Valley's mismatched china, Grant Avenue's oolong houses, a tea house in Golden Gate Park, and a plant-based Victorian in Sonoma County.
Afternoon Tea in San Diego: Where to Go
A Versailles-inspired lobby with a harpist, a British tearoom with a Sherlock Holmes room, and a La Jolla matcha bar — San Diego's small, serious tea circuit.
Afternoon Tea in Seattle: The City, Spokane, and Down I-5 to Portland
A Fairmont tradition since 1924, Ballard's oolong shops, a tea house in a landmark hotel — and the Northwest's best pours three hours south.