High Tea at Casa Loma

Event: High Tea presented by Winterlicious Culinary Events & Liberty Group
Location: Casa Loma
Time & Date: 11AM-4PM on Saturday Feb 8, 2014
Price: $30 (+$7 Ticketmaster fees) for admission to Casa loma, assorted pastries, finger sandwiches, gourmet teas, & gift bag.

When I saw that Winterlicious had an event for High Tea at Casa Loma, I immediately messaged my girlfriends from high school to make sure they were all down for going. We had previously talked about visiting Casa Loma as most of us had never been to this historic Toronto castle before and I couldn't think of a more fun experience to have there than high tea! The event looked like it would have great food (Winterlicious event) and it wasn't too pricey either considering admission to the castle was included. 

We all took the subway together to Dupont station as the castle was only a short walk from there. It was a cold but clear day and we could see the castle up on a hill in the distance during our walk over. We had a large set of stairs to climb to get to the grounds but it had an amazing distant view of the Toronto skyline from there. We entered to a short line scanning tickets but it became a bit chaotic in the foyer after that. I think most people aimed to be there early like us so there was quite a line to do a coat check so we just decided to hold on to them instead. They had many workers trying to move traffic and one told us to try to get a table in the Billiard room as it was less busy. 

We decided to look around the Great Hall for a bit and admire the world record setting cake stand with all its delicious pastries on it. We saw some people grabbing the tea so we decided to get in line behind them. The tea they were offering was by David's Tea and they had two kinds, Earl's Garden (a flavoured black tea) & Jessie's Tea( a rooibos). I started with the Earl's Garden. As soon as we got our tea though, they closed the section off and I don't believe people were allowed to grab tea to walk around with anymore. 

We got in line for a table in the Billiard's room which had a much smaller line than the crowd on the other side of the hall. It seemed very unorganized as many people were asking us where we got tea and how they could get some. The one lady seating people let us know that we could also give our phone number to the reservation booth and they'd text us when they had a table ready. We decided to wait since we weren't allowed to walk around with our teas past the area we were in and there was only two groups in front of us anyways. They luckily had a table for 4 about 20 minutes later and we got to pass the groups of 2 in front. We ended being sat in the Oak Room which only had about 4 tables on the border of the room. 
A server said she'd come to us soon and after a while, our teas were re-filled. We waited almost half an hour for food and no one had said anything to us! There were servers (with fancy costumes) coming around with trays of desserts but we were wondering if that was the only food they had. We finally asked the lady serving who got us tea if we got food and she was surprised that we hadn't yet. A few moments later, she came by with our trays of finger foods. I was shocked as the food was just right in the room next to us but they didn't know we weren't served yet. 

The finger foods were all bite sized and very warm. My friends and I had 2 variations on 1 or 2 of the foods but the rest were the same. It came with Cucumber Sandwich, Egg Salad Croissant, Quiche, Smoked Salmon on Corn Bread, Mango-y Tart, and a Scone. The foods were actually all quite good, I gave away my salmon one though because I don't like smoked salmon. The rest were great and a good amount of food! A waitress also finally came around with desserts for us. I choose a Raspberry Tarte and a Raspberry Macaroon the first time around. I also got to try a Chocolate Eclair like thing and a Chocolate Cheesecake Pop which was so delicious! Once we were satisfied with our meals, we decided to explore the castle! 

After walking around, we weren't quite ready to leave yet so I grabbed some more tea. I tried Jessie's Tea this time and it was very lovely, I think I preferred that one to Earl's Garden. While standing near the dessert tree, they always were coming around with new plates of treats for the onlookers to try! We finally decided to try to get another meal in the Observatory. We asked for a table and I couldn't believe that we were immediately seated, maybe because it was like 2PM that they were less busy now. So we had another high tea! The food was a bit colder this time but the surroundings were much more beautiful and fitting for the occasion. The castle is quite beautiful and we learned so much about the Pellatt family throughout the day!

Finally we headed home, but not without our gift bags! Each bag had a postcard, Lindor Chocolates, a tea bag sample of David's Tea, a free cup of David's tea, and a coupon for the Liberty Group restaurants. 

I think Winterlicious put on a unique event for everyone who attended the High Tea. I wish they worked out some of the kinks prior as they added earlier dates for this sold out occasion. It didn't ruin our time though because my friends and I had a fantastic time exploring Casa Loma and enjoying delicious treats throughout the day!