Author walks residents through steps for planning tea party

Even though the Lipton Tea Factory’s furnace is no longer stoked, the passion for brewing the perfect cup of tea is alive and well in Hoboken. For evidence, look no further than the public library, where more than a dozen people gathered Monday night to listen to tips from Elizabeth Knight, a Hoboken resident and author of Tea with Friends, about how to host a Valentine’s Day Tea Party. Participants were treated to a series of helpful hints ranging from choosing the type of tea for entertaining guests around Valentine’s Day, to suggestions of activities that guests might enjoy as they sip their steaming brews. The Friends of the Hoboken Public Library, a volunteer group that raises funds for the library, sponsored the event. Even though everybody who attended the small meeting sported casual clothes and smiles, it was clear that this was a serious matter. “Tea is such an interesting beverage,” said Knight, who has thrown tea parties for as many as 350 people. “It is as complex as wine. Just as you have a red wine for meat and a white wine for fish, there are teas that are well-suited to different times of the day and different times of the year.” For Valentine’s Day, she recommended a vanilla-flavored tea for potential party throwers, but cautioned first-timers to restrict the numbers to four people or less. For tea lovers who want to have an intimate event with their significant others, she recommended a “Royal Tea Party” which features champagne and dessert. “A chocolate scented tea might work well with that,” Knight said. “And if it were me, I might be tempted to make a big heart-shaped scone with a slit in it where I might put a little sheet of paper, kind of like a fortune cookie. It’s just a different way to deliver a valentine.” Knight said that she has found that tea parties are not only an enjoyable way to spend time with friends, but they also can be relatively easy to plan, prepare and clean up. “Most of us think about tea parties as fancy affairs with white gloves, but who has time for that?” Knight asked the audience. “I did not call my book How to Have the Perfect Victorian Tea Party, because I realized a long time ago that as long as you make the food and table look modestly attractive then the rest of it does not matter a whole lot.” Rather than focusing on the all the details of throwing a high-class affair, Knight urged the small group to take advantage of the opportunity to share an intimate moment with family and friends that a small tea party can afford. “The thing about a cocktail party is that everybody is flitting around,” she said “but in a tea party everybody is at the same level. It’s about intimacy and looking other people in the face. When I started doing this I could not cook, so I kept the focus on the point of the entertaining.” To accentuate the ease of personal interactions, Knight urged would-be party throwers to arrange little games for her guests. In the past, she said that she had asked guests to bring their favorite teacups with them to parties and then tell the group what made that particular piece their favorite. Many of the participants seemed to be very enthusiastic about the idea of throwing their own party. “I’m going to give this a try, but I think that I will do it with friends rather than with my loved one,” said Renee Kornblut, a West New York Resident. “This just seems like a ladies thing to do. Everything is so dainty, it’s not like pizza and beer.” Knight said that she often hears from women how the lyrical appeal of tea parties is lost on men, but she believes it is not hard to throw a party that men will enjoy. “I’d serve Lapsang Souchong, a very strong tea that was Sherlock Holmes’ favorite,” she said, “and I would also serve it later in the day. Basically I would do a high tea that was more of a meal.” Finally, Knight urged the participants to send out an invitation to their events if they could find the time. If she were going to invite a lover, she said that she might write, “My cup would runneth over if you were to join me for a Valentine’s Day cup of tea.”