I’m not big on coffee (unless it’s mixed with a lot of sugar and milk), but I have been drinking tea since I was a little girl. And, like other “Alice in Wonderland” fans, anglophiles and little girls at heart, I love a good tea party. So, when my friend Kelly asked if I wanted to go to tea at the Willard hotel in Washington a few months ago, I immediately said yes.

The Willard InterContinental is a a gorgeous and historic hotel just a block from the White House. Abraham Lincoln stayed there, as did Charles Dickens and Mark Twain. And the National Press Club (which is now located across the street) was founded there. I had been there before for an event (and to do advance scouting of elevators and handrails in advance of the event), but I hadn’t been in Peacock Alley, where tea is served.

Despite the horrendous lighting in these photos, it really was quite pretty in there. And Kelly and I both loved our tea (and champagne!). I had the Willard custom blend (with sugar) and Kelly had English breakfast (which she drinks with milk, like a real Brit).

We were also very excited when we got our tea tray full of sandwiches, desserts and scones. But we didn’t love all of them, sadly. The scones were a bit dry and some of the desserts were just OK. The sandwiches were pretty good, but there wasn’t any ability to choose which kind we wanted, so there were two I couldn’t eat. The little shotglass shortcake was delicious, though.

So, it isn’t as good as the tea at the Plaza in NYC, but it was still fun and worth it at least once, in my opinion. The tea itself was awesome, and there was so much food that it’s OK that some of the items weren’t perfect. While the scones were dry, they were still good with the preserves, lemon curd and cream. Plus, we got to dress up and go to a beautiful hotel and sip champagne and tea!

As you can tell, this particular tea outing was a few months ago. But I wanted to share it with you in case you are ever in DC and jonesing for tea — and I plan to share some other posts about things to do and places to eat in DC in the next few weeks. I hope you like them!