St. John’s English Tea History
St. John’s first English style tea began in 2005, as a fundraiser and to, create an enjoyable social event at the same time, for the church. Through donations and thrift shop purchases, there is a wide variety of beautiful teapots, cups, saucers, luncheon plates, sugar and creamers, and silver serving trays. The result was a beautiful collection, although mismatched, each had its own unique character and contributed much to the charm of elegance of the tea. Center pieces were individually made for each table, first by Carolyn Sherwin for a few years followed by Olivia Wong.
A lot of time was spent trying to decide how much would be charged for the tea. We were concerned that not many of our parishioners would consider paying what we thought was a fair price. It was decided on $18 per person. As our reputation grew for this outstanding event, the price began increasing slowly until we were charging $25 person during the last few years.
The original group who made it successful were Betty Brown, Katie Carlson, Christine Hickey, Kathleen Keller, Roberta Montgomery, Jessie Perez, Carolyn Sherwin, Bunny Waldon, and Olivia Wong. As the event grew in popularity a few more volunteers joined our group, Elizabeth Boggess, Sharon Ewing, Mary Hakes, Frances Martin, and Elizabeth Martinez.
For the first tea all sandwiches were made the day before the event in Susan Bitner’s kitchen. The finished sandwiches were then transported to the school refrigerator by Walter Wong and Richard Keller. The sweets were prepared in advance by the committee members and were carefully chosen to provide color, texture and taste to complement each other.
The event was held in the courtyard, between the church and school, and with one exception, it was always a sunny day in late September or early October.
On the day of the tea, participants were seated at tables with fine linens, floral arrangements and elegant china. Along with individual menus, small gift boxes, usually with tea or special candies, awaited each guest at their assigned seat. When teatime arrived, waiters dressed in white shirts and bow ties, bistro aprons, and dark trousers, brought out plates of beautifully assembled tea sandwiches and sweets on silver trays. Many of the tea goers wore hats for the occasion, reminiscent of traditional teas.
The servers for the teas usually included Jean Bush, Al Carlson, Eric Ewing; Eric, Gail, Brian and Tyler Grant; Ricardo Gonzalez, Michael Gorin, Stan Hakes, Joe Lewis; Joe and Brian Orr. Walter Wong and Richard Keller worked in the kitchen, filling teapots and keeping sandwich trays filled.
With the funds raised for this annual event, 100+ place settings of Corelle ware, and silverware, along with round tables, tablecloths, napkins (both black and white), were purchased to be used by the parish for future events.
The Tea Group had their last tea in 2017. Occasionally, for various church fundraisers, the tea members have volunteered to provide a private tea at the home of the top bidder as an auction item, which resulted in some exciting bidding.
