Townships Tea Festival

The Townships Tea Festival, an event by the Townships Trail, will be running its second edition on June 25 and 26 in collaboration with four local tea houses, Salon de thé Scott, Uplands Cultural and Heritage Centre, Colby-curtis Museum, and

Beaulne Museum.

Marking the beginning of the English tea season for each of the establishments, the weekend event encourages visitors to come to any of the four tea houses and experience their traditional service with an extra bit of flair.

“We at the Townships Trail promote North American and British heritage in a tourist route, and tea is an integral part of that heritage,” commented project manager Géraldine Lansiaux. “The goal is to make an event to debut our English tea season and to give visitors an experience they won’t find for the rest of the season, with events exclusive to the festival.”

From Uplands in Lennoxville, Julie Marleau added, “It’s really to launch the tea season in the Townships, so we’re all working together and inviting people to go to the different places and see what everyone has to offer.”

The tea houses will be offering their special tasting events for free, with the exception of the Colby-curtis Museum, which will be offering its usual tea service for $12 per person.

At Uplands, “It will be a scones tasting and tea while the supplies last, but we hope it will last until four, and it’s a free activity for anyone wearing a hat,” said Marleau.

The event at Uplands will also be complemented by explanations regarding the English tea tradition in the Townships and people are encouraged to show up in fanciful period appropriate attire if they so desire.

At the Beaulne Museum in Coaticook, their theme for the festival is Matcha, with tasting opportunities along with live explanations on the particular type of tea.

“We’re even going to have some pastries made with Matcha tea! There’s going to be a cake and some other little pastries too,” said Louise Bélair from the Beaulne.

In Scotstown, the Salon de thé Scott will be having a tasting season of traditional Scottish tea foods, while discussing the historical role of the Scots in the tradition.

“The Scotts Tea Room celebrates the importance of the Scots in the development of the tea trade. In our tearoom we have scones; although they’ve been eaten all over, scones

are a traditional Scottish meal. We also offer shortbread, which is another recipe created by the Scots,” said Gerald Ostiguy, from the Salon de thé Scott.

“We also have cranachan, which is a Scottish dessert normally made with English cream that’s much more dense, with Scottish raspberries, which are very sweet.”

“This year we have various Scottish ales and different types of whisky which we offer, from the Scottish whisky, Irish whisky and Canadian whisky so people can know the difference.”

The Salon also encourages people to come dressed in Scottish attire, with a bagpiper on-site livening up the afternoons in addition to the other activities which add to the Scottish theme.

“I’ll be wearing the Scotstown tartan which I’ve made into a kilt, so I’m inviting people to come in their Scottish garments if they so desire, so in that way we can celebrate Scottish tradition with tea,” said Ostiguy.

The four tea houses each have their unique style and will be running their regular English Tea services for the rest of the summer after the kick-off festival.

Being the second year the event has been run, Lansiaux said, “We really hope it will be an event that we can put on every year at the start of the tea season. The first year, things went super well and we had an amazing response from the visitors, so we hope they’ll come back again.”

“We encourage people to reserve their spots now though, as space is limited,” she added. “The tea houses are lovely but the amount of room is restricted, so we advise people to reserve before showing up.”

For information and how to reserve visitors can check out the Townships Trail website at: chemindescantons. qc.ca