Afternoon Tea in Charleston and Savannah: A Lowcountry Guide

Two hours of coastal highway separate Charleston and Savannah, and tea is one of the better reasons to drive it. Charleston holds a jewel-box hotel service and a French Quarter café that serves high tea by reservation; Savannah holds a tea room operated by an art school inside a 1926 landmark and a loose-leaf shop that began life as a Broughton Street restaurant in 1996. Between them, on Wadmalaw Island, tea actually grows.

Every listing below is verified against the venue's own published information. Run it as a weekend: Charleston Thursday through Saturday, Savannah on Sunday.

Charleston

Camellias at Hotel Bennett is the Lowcountry's formal service, a champagne lounge with an etched-mirror ceiling, a crystal chandelier, and marble reclaimed from the historic library that once occupied the site. Afternoon tea runs $80 per adult and $55 per child: chilled canapés, tea sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and jam, and Lowcountry-inspired pastries from La Patisserie, with champagne pairings and caviar service on the standing menu. Seatings run Thursday through Sunday, with an added late-afternoon seating on Sundays. In the French Quarter, East Bay Meeting House is the neighborhood answer: a café and tea house open for breakfast, lunch, and high tea, with pastries, sandwiches, salads, and a bar that runs from craft coffee to cocktails. High tea is by reservation, and its pricing is not published online, call ahead.

Where the Tea Grows

The Charleston Tea Garden on Wadmalaw Island is North America's oldest tea garden, with acres of tea fields a short drive outside the city. Factory tours are free; the trolley tour through the fields and greenhouse is ticketed. The gift shop carries American-grown Charleston Tea Garden and American Classic teas, the rare souvenir that was actually made where you bought it.

Savannah

Gryphon Tea Room on Madison Square is Savannah's landmark, owned and operated by the Savannah College of Art and Design inside the 1926 Scottish Rite building, where remnants of the original Solomon's Pharmacy sit alongside carved mahogany bookcases, stained-glass panels, and chandeliers. The traditional afternoon tea, finger sandwiches, scones, and treats with a wide tea selection, is staffed by SCAD students and sourced from local purveyors. A few blocks into the Historic District, The Tea Room Savannah is the leaf specialist: begun as a tea restaurant on Broughton Street in 1996, it has evolved into a tea speakeasy and loose-leaf shop carrying white, green, oolong, black, pu-erh, and herbal tisanes, with antique teapots, cosies, and strainers on the shelves.