Anniversary Afternoon Tea at The Langham Pasadena

Every year, The Langham Hotels around the world celebrate their anniversary with a ridiculously priced afternoon tea. The price is what the original Langham in London used to charge back in 1865: 1 shilling and six pence. That, dear readers, amounted to $0.15 this year. Fifteen cents!

Before this, I have not had the chance to try the Langham afternoon tea, and what better time to do it than when it was only 15 cents as opposed to the usual $39?

The afternoon tea is held at The Lobby Lounge of the Langham. We got a nice table by the window overlooking the green expanse of the hotel.

For this event, the servers also dressed up as if it was 1865. Our server had on a mustard suit and a cute blue ribbon while the female server was wearing a blue dress of that era.

The Langham offers a pretty nice selection of classic and scented teas. I ordered the Orchid Oolong, described as being "highlighted by a touch of coconut to offer the tranquility of a fragrant bouquet of fruit and floral notes in a rich, soothing infusion." Rich, indeed.

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Afternoon Tea at Chado Tea Room (Little Tokyo)

A pastime I enjoy but don't get to do quite enough is afternoon tea. I've slowly tried various afternoon tea places around town but have never tried Chado Tea Room before, despite the fact that they have three locations including Pasadena.

The afternoon tea is $18 per person (one of the cheaper options in LA), but I had bought a Groupon for the Little Tokyo location and invited Wandering Chopsticks to come along.

Chado has a pretty extensive list of loose leaf teas, priced by the ounce and some can be quite expensive. One good part about doing the afternoon tea is that for the same price you get to choose any of the teas on their list, some of which are a lot more expensive than others.

I ordered the Chado Afternoon Tea (usually $5.67/oz) which they said was "the most elegant blend of the best gardens from Darjeeling." It was a good cup of Darjeeling, though I ended up enjoying the tea Wandering Chopsticks ordered better, though, the Lavender Earl Grey, as it was more interesting.

Our afternoon tea set, served on the traditional three-tiered trays

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