Leland Tea Company-afternoon tea

Tea Time Alert!
Leland Tea in SF is now closed. You can find Will and family down the road in Burlingame at Rue du The/Leland Tea.  We hope to see you there, it's just a quick trip on the Caltrain on highway...


It's Afternoon Tea Time again, and this week we're visiting Leland Tea Company. If you read Angela's Iron Cupcake post, this business may seem familiar as they host all SF Iron Cupcake Meetup events. This welcoming tea shop is in the Polk Gulch area of the city. We stopped in for tea on a sunny afternoon during the week and we seated ourselves while the owner finished with his customers. While we perused the menu more people stopped by to pick up tea packages for gifts and order tea to go. It's obvious that the family that owns this tea shop loves their business! Tea Time is so grateful for people who enjoy their jobs and it makes your own experience in their store that much more pleasant when their joy spills over.

For example, Angela went to place our order at the front; we chose the Tea for Two service and added 2 cupcakes for $1 each. The gentleman who took our order said with a wink, "No you can't order two cupcakes for $1 each, because it's a great day and I'm going to Give them to you. You can pay extra for them if you want." What a generous and fun place to have tea!

Our Tea for Two came with 2 sandwiches (ham/cheddar and tomato/brie), 2 scones (vanilla and chocolate chip), Romaine salad, fruit salad and our two cupcakes (vanilla and chocolate).  Our bottomless pot of tea was Ginger Tango which they blend in house using a variety of ingredients. Ginger, Hibiscus, Schizandra Berries, Licorice Root, Rosehips, and Orange Peel make this unforgettable blend of herbs and spices. Tea for Two does include a pot of the house blend tea, but Ginger sounded too delightful to miss.

Tea for Two

Chocolate Chip scone on left, Vanilla scone on right.

This salad had an addictive vinaigrette dressing we loved.

Sandwiches and fruit salad made with love by Mom.

Angela asked what the special occasion was, why they chose to give us the free cupcakes when we were served our tea tier. The reply was that every day deserved celebration and if he had to choose one thing for that day, it was that his Mom (the cook at Leland) was feeling better, her knee was no longer giving her pain. A good thing, we all agreed.

We ate our food and savored our tea, alternately chatting and listening to the family bustle and tea customers around us. Leland is a lovely shop, with dark wood and permanent paintings throughout. They also feature local artists on the walls as well. This visit we saw featured art inspired by SF neighborhoods, such as Chinatown and Protrero Hill.

The owner was happy to help set up this photo, arranging the tea on the table.

The small tins contain teas to smell, to help you choose what kind you feel like drinking that day.

Most of the tea shops we visit are one of a kind/independently owned local businesses. Leland takes that one step farther by keeping it all in the family, and you can feel the welcoming love, warmth and joy when you step inside their SF shop (they have also opened a second shop in Burlingame--road trip?). Leland Tea Company also specializes in Tea blends and they are willing to blend something special just for you, which will include packaging and personalized labels. Christmas is coming--hint!

Leland Tea Company welcomes you!

Tea Time is happy to share our discoveries with you, and we hope you'll send us any requests/discoveries of your own for us to check out. Our next afternoon tea visit will  be coming to you soon. Happy Thanksgiving!

Iron Cupcake--Caramel

Lunchbox and candy prize, the cat helped me win!

 Congratulations to our
October 2012
Iron Cupcake SF Winners:
*1st Place: Cupcake #2,
 Tania F.- Stroopwafel
*2nd Place: Cupcake #5,
Brigitte B.-Caramel Spiced Cheescake
*Most Creative: Cupcake #4,
Erin S.- Bananas Foster
*Bakers' Choice: Cupcake #3,
Dana G.- Salted Chocolate Caramel
*Best Costume- Angela M***

***YES This Angela! Me. Yay, candy!!

This event, where "Cupcake Engineers" prepare for a throwdown to win one of several prizes happens at Leland Tea Company in the Polk Gulch area of SF. Iron Cupcake made quite a splash on the scene when it first began, and it's still pretty popular. I recently joined their Meetup group, and when they announced that the ingredient du jour was Caramel, well, here is my $10 and gimme, thank you very much! JK and I have talked a few times about participating in an Iron Cupcake event, but I like to check the layout and organization of things before diving in (sometimes). So here's how it goes for a taster/judge at the Iron Cupcake event.

The competitors:

Samoa--Coconut Caramel Chocolate cupcake #1

Stroopwafel--Cinnamon caramel  cupcake #2

#3-Salted Caramel Corn

Bananas Foster--Banana cupcake "filled with caramel" #4

Caramel Spice Cheesecake--ginger caramel cake #5

As a judge/taster your responsibility is to score the cupcakes on various qualifiers. A representative from your table of 4 tasters takes your tray to the cupcake display area and then all mini cupcakes are cut into 4 pieces for the initial tasting. There can be up to 20 to 30 cupcakes to taste, but the general consensus was that most bakers may have been recovering from the Giants World Series Win the night before and couldn't be bothered to bring their 'A' game to cupcakes which is why there were only five entries. However, that meant we got to taste more of the 5 cupcakes that were on offer instead of being cupcaked out after the first tasting of each. So after we tasted numbers 1-5 (one person allergic to nuts abstained from number #3), we were able to savor  whichever cupcakes we thought needed another "taste" test.

We marked our votes on the paper and sipped more tea while we waited for the votes to be tabulated. There was a big discussion on the difference between muffins and cupcakes. Is there one anymore? (Tea Time doesn't think so... all "muffins" are really big no frosting cupcakes in disguise these days.) What makes a muffin a Muffin? Any ideas out there? Feel free to comment. We also talked some about sports, but managed to avoid (pre-election)politics. More cupcakes were eaten, then finally the votes were tallied and *surprise* a costume contest was announced!

Our tasting tray, with cupcakes cut into 4 pieces each.

The aftermath of tasting.

There weren't many people in costumes, 4 people total out of the 30 some people in attendance. I was glad the cavewoman didn't have a club (plus a bit more personality) she could have stolen the show. Luck was on my side, and I won a nice metal lunch box with retro candy inside! Then the cupcake winners were announced (listed at top of this post) and given their prizes which were similar to mine, with the lunchbox+candy, but had kitchen tools included. (Such as a fancy wisk, rolling pin, etc). Then there were lots of photo ops.  Iron Cupcake also donates all cupcakes leftover from the contest to a local foodbank. Cool!

We'll be visiting Leland Tea again (in Tea Time capacity) to partake of the their afternoon tea offerings. We may try a new tea, but the tea served at Iron Cupcake (bottomless cup/included in the price of your tasting ticket) was a Minty Rooibos from South Africa, with bits of vanilla and pear. Rooibos is a rich and flavorful herbal 'tea', perfect for those who are avoiding caffeine. I liked this one a lot!

Our Iron Cupcake hosts at Leland Tea Company.

If you want to get out and meet new people, it's always easier when food is involved! What's your favorite cupcake? The December Iron Cupcake challenge is supposed to be "what cupcake are you known for"? I don't really have a cupcake, but I suppose if I'm going to enter, I better get some ideas! Do you have any I can steal? Let me know in the comments!!