10 1/2 Beacon Street
Boston MA 02108
(617) 227-0270
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Our hard work paid off! After sampling the ten afternoon teas on offer around Boston we received an invitation to take the most exclusive tea of all. Boston Athenaeum is a members-only club, a library, a museum and a veritable institution all rolled into one. Founded in 1807 and moved to the wonderful address of 10 and 1/2 Beacon in 1849, it is one of America's oldest libraries and is full of priceless histories and biographies (and even one book bound in human skin!) It reaches 5 floors high with sculptures, antiques and reading rooms overlooking the famous Granary Burying Ground below. Its collections are vast and much of the earlier artwork of the Athenaeum went on to form the basis of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. For over 200 years it's provided a meeting place for Boston's intelligentsia and is world-renowned for events such as concerts and lectures.
Afternoon tea was known to be a daily tradition at the Athenaeum during its early years. Since 1984 it has been revived as a service put on to treat members and their guests on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month. Like most things at the Athenaeum, it's a little unique. You stand outside the Long Room at 3 pm and then one-by-one pay the $20 charge ($8 for 5-and-under) and file in to find yourself a nice table looking out over the graves of patriots like Sam Adams and Paul Revere. The food is presented on a central buffet table that you help yourself too and at the end of the table a generous volunteer serves you a choice of two teas that are on the brew. You can go up as often as you like to get more food and tea (both are regularly replenished) and you can browse around the room with its Qing-dynasty vases and busts of famous minds like Ben Franklin. There is even a stash of sherry you can help yourself to. No phones or cameras though, and a bags are checked in at the Athenaeum entrance too (hence these photos have been provided by the staff).
While many of the people taking the afternoon tea here are regulars, the teas themselves are always different. The staff take a huge pride and invest a lot of effort into coming up with something new every 2 weeks. Often the menus will be themed based on lectures taking place at the Athenaeum that week - in the first few months of 2008 there's been a Roget's Thesaurus-themed menu and then there was the fantastic Jonathan Swift-themed menu that we were lucky enough to taste.
With such great ideas and a great setting, the teas are understandably popular and should be booked well in advance. If you're not lucky enough to know a member who can take you as their guest then consider becoming a member - it's $115 per person if you're under 41 (twice as much for those above) and gives you access to so much, as well as putting your name up with past members like John Quincy Adams and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Tom...
Wow, a much larger introduction than our other afternoon tea reviews, but the uniqueness of this place and their tea needs to be told. It's so mesmerizing and incredibly Harry Potter-esque here - the room is spellbinding and you are surrounded by historical antiques... and I don't just mean the other diners. I really love spending time in places with history and the Athenaeum is not short on that. Where else can you sip sherry from cut glass while tourists gather around ancient graves below?
It took me a while to get used to the buffet-style service and the themed menu idea but once I was over the initial shock of jostling for position with hardened geriatric regulars it was a breeze. As a Brit abroad, I've never felt more at home than in this old room with my tea, having to fend-off George Bernard Shaw-lookalike diners three times my age but ten times more eager than me to grab the scones and curd. It was just like a village wedding.
Although beautifully served, the two tea choices (English Breakfast and Hu-Kwa) were very limiting and not really brewed too well. The setting, the relaxed feel and the food more than made up for it. The idea of a fully-researched themed menu blew me away once I got it. After speaking to the lovely staff we found out that one dish - the sensational hot chocolate Madeira drink - was from a 300 year-old Spanish recipe that they'd looked up after diligently researching what kind of drink Jonathan Swift enjoyed in London in the 1700s. Not only was it gorgeous (I had 3) but it was a real conversation piece and that's what I loved more than anything.
Hana...
Afternoon tea is "hard" work indeed, Tom. ^-^
I have a dilemma with this place. On the one hand, like Tom, I absolutely love the setting of the historic Boston Athenaeum for afternoon tea. Yet on the other hand, it is so exclusive- tea is only available for library members. I understand that it is something special for the members. If more people are to come, only to patronize their afternoon tea, the staff might have a work overload and loyal tea members might feel un-eased. That is the reason why I felt so happy to be able to take part in this secret afternoon tea (of sorts). It was a wonderful experience - the overall tea, as well as the welcoming staff.
The buffet-style tea here actually worked to my advantage. It was because I love sweets and I don't eat meats. I was very excited at having seconds and thirds of the sweet desserts, definitely more than eating the savory pieces! As I got some food, and then some tea, I noticed the silver antique teapots - very, very classy. But it's not just that, there was more... the white linen table clothes, the modern sparkling plates, and real silverware, even down to the delightful to read menu.
So alongside with the Taj (for traditional aristocratic afternoon tea), Upstairs on the Square (for girly, funky tea), and the Boston Harbor Hotel (for seaside relaxation tea), this is the Boston Athenaeum's tea, comprising in its own uniqueness. Where else can I sip some tea, drink some chocolate, and have a shot of sherry alongside the Revolutionary heroes that now lay beneath the Earth?! At the Boston Athenaeum Library. Cheers!
...come to an end.
Holding back the tears we looked back on our year sampling teas on your behalf. Yes, there are some regrets... Why could we never get round to writing reviews of the quick-stop tea shops? Will anyone else ever sum up what bubble tea is all about? Should we have even bothered with the Inn at Harvard? But those few regrets were countered with the pride of having held our own tea-tasting party, having secured access to the wonder of the Athenaeum, and of course having reviewed all of afternoon teas on offer in this town. Well done to us and our worthy project.
And now for the conclusion - the final verdict. Five of the afternoon teas stood out way beyond the others and would be our recommendations to everyone.
