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.