The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum in Norwalk has announced it will host “The Artistry of Afternoon Tea: Rituals, Etiquette, Food and Fashion.”
The April 26 event will feature Ellen Easton, an author and authority on “the art of afternoon tea.” The afternoon event, to be held from 2 to 4 p.m., will include an illustrated talk by Easton, a demonstration and signing of her book, “Afternoon Tea: Tips, Terms and Traditions.” (Red Wagon Press).
Easton is a consultant to the hospitality, food, retail and special event industries with a client list that has included The Waldorf Astoria and Plaza hotels and Bergdorf Goodman.
Easton’s family can trace its tea roots to the Austrian Empire’s Baron Solomon Benedict de Worms (1801-1882), who with his brothers Maurice and Gabriel settled in Ceylon, where they developed one of the biggest and best-cultivated tea plantations on the island.
In addition, her lineage includes Almina, the 5th Countess of Carnarvon, whose home, Highclere Castle, is now known as the setting for television’s “Downton Abbey,” and Louis and Benjamin Hirschhorn, pioneers of the tea bag industry. In 1913, their New York company, The National Urn Bag Co., developed the first industrial tea bag, which revolutionized the ancient way of making tea.
Easton credits her mother, Reva Paul, the sugar artist whose hand-decorated confections were celebrated in the tea world for more than five decades, for introducing her to tea with love.
For more, visit lockwoodmathewsmansion.com.
– Mary Shustack
