For Northern Hemisphere readers, the concept of Christmas in July or “Yulefest” must be an odd one at best. Why would you have Christmas in the middle of the year and why in July? One reason why we Antipodeans celebrate it is because of the weather. As a child I used to watch television shows where Santa would visit children who lived in houses covered with snow and Christmas was a time to feast on warm roasted turkey, potatoes and other delicious warming goodies. Santa never delivered presents to kids wearing shorts and thongs (flip flops, not G strings!) and as such I always yearned for a White Christmas. During December the weather here is so warm that having a Roast Turkey and potatoes during the 40 Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) degree temperatures seems for the hardcore traditionalists and salads and cold seafood feature mostly on the Australian Christmas dinner table. However July is the coldest month here and as such we can simulate some sort of cold Christmas.
So when Lisa organised a High Tea at the Loft and the theme was Christmas in July I eagerly agreed straight away. I’ve spoken often of my absolute love for Christmas (almost as much as Halloween) so I take any chance to celebrate it. It’s not really freezing cold and it seems nowadays Sydney is often bathed in the warm embrace of sunshine but I’ll also take any excuse for a High Tea. My fellow High Tea-ers were Betty, Helen, Karen, Lisa, Steph and Suze.
For $45, the High Tea with a twist features a teapot cocktail, a selection of sweets and savouries and a pot of tea. We take our time choosing everything as they look pretty tempting. All teapot cocktails are serves for two so we try one of each of the three Christmas in July cocktails: Santa’s Little Helper, Rudolph’s Nose and Silent Night. They arrive in adorable teapots and we ask Betty who is suitably attired for a Christmas in July in a green and red jacket to pour them for us.
The Santa’s Little Helper teapot cocktail has fresh berries crushed with cranberry juice, bourbon and fruit liqueurs balanced with a hint of citrus topped off with a red fruit tea. The bourbon is a bit too strong and medicinal as it’s virtually identical in appearance to the pinky red hued Rudolph’s Nose once poured, we do a lot of sniffing and guessing to try and avoid it.
The Rudolph’s Nose teapot cocktail is delicious and the definite crowd favourite with homemade rhubarb purée and fresh cherry shaken with bison grass vodka and a hint of citrus finished with Turkish apple tea. It’s sweet, with a light dash of alcohol and vodka is always a great choice to avoid clashing with other flavours.
The dark brown shaded Silent Night cocktail was the one that people were dreading the most with a chocolate liqueur combined with Martel VS and a touch of espresso, rounded off with peppermint tea. The flavour is more espresso with a touch of liqueur more that anything else and not really a chocolate peppermint crisp flavour that I was envisaging. Still it’s more palatable than the Santa’s Little Helper.
Sencha Quince Fizz – Lillet shaken with a hint of vanilla, fresh passion fruit pulp, pink grapefruit and chilled T2′s “Sencha Quince” tea
The last teapot cocktail is the Sencha Quince Fizz which is Lillet shaken with a hint of vanilla, fresh passion fruit pulp, pink grapefruit and chilled T2′s “Sencha Quince” tea. It’s sweet and favoured by many however the passionfruit flavour overwhelms most of the other flavours within the teapot cocktail.
When food bloggers attack! Nicely of course…we’re ladies!
The food tiers arrive but of course we must go through the customary ritual and the cameras capture the tiers from every angle. The sandwiches are quite tasty with fresh fillings although the bread is a touch dry on the outside perhaps from sitting uncovered. There is turkey and cranberry, baby prawn and mayonnaise with sprouts, honey roasted leg ham with mustard pickle.
Sandwiches, frittata, chicken and pistachio galantine and baby red peppers stuffed with goat’s cheese
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