Comments on The Boston Teacup: Swans Cafe at The Boston Park Plaza Hotel

Yay! We're glad that people are reporting even bet...

2009-03-18T07:27:00.000-04:00

Yay! We're glad that people are reporting even better experiences now at Swans Cafe. Having Cynthia Gold there as a tea sommelier is truly a treasure for Boston and hopefully the rest of the service is improving to match up to her wicked-good tea skills.

I'm glad I saw Ruth's follow-up comment. I want to...

2009-03-18T07:21:00.000-04:00

I'm glad I saw Ruth's follow-up comment. I want to say that I have since had excellent interactions with Swans Cafe. Ms. Gold could not have been more gracious and inviting. I have now had two fantastic tea experiences there and I would highly recommend.

I have gone to two afternoon teas with tastings at...

2009-03-18T01:10:00.000-04:00

I have gone to two afternoon teas with tastings at the Swans Cafe and both were excellent. The first one was with my daughter and mother-in-law last summer for a belated Mothers' Day and we liked it so much that I took them back with 6 friends to celebrate my 60th birthday recently. My daughter had no problem making the arrangements for my birthday tea and everything was perfect! We had three servers, who were skilled and well-trained, and with each new food, we were brought new varieties of teas, which Cynthia explained. I noticed that she would tell us the background of the particular tea and if one of us had a question, she would continue, which we enjoyed because two of my friends know quite a lot about tea, one being English/South Indian and having gone to a school in Darjeeling. The teas were exquisite...I had never tasted teas like them and Cynthia told us the proper way to brew black and green teas (the water is at different temperatures). We enjoyed the food (the scone was tender, and I think it was served with clotted cream, a airy and fluffy butter and a nice marmalade. The sandwiches and desserts were very nice and we took some of the desserts home. When she found out that it was my birthday, she brought out a very special jasmine tea and gave me a bag of the signature blend. All in all, my girlfriends, mother-in-law, daughter and I had a wonderful time and I would definitely recommend a tasting with Cynthia Gold, the tea sommelier, at the Swans Cafe. By the way, we enjoyed the hubbub of being in the lobby of the big hotel and the live piano music. The last thing I liked was that it was very leisurely...the staff were very inobtrusive and we spent a few hours there, never feeling rushed.

I've really enjoyed your afternoon tea reviews.As ...

2008-04-18T23:47:00.000-04:00

I've really enjoyed your afternoon tea reviews.

As a surprise for my birthday, my husband wanted to take me to afternoon tea/tea tasting at Swans Cafe. He had read about the tea sommelier and knew it would be perfect for his tea-obsessed wife.

The website and every article we read said to just call and request it. Not so fast. He's been calling for 2 weeks and keeps getting the runaround. We've set up babysitting and are all ready to go to tea, but they still won't commit to the tasting.

It would be really helpful to customers if they made it clear what the process was and were consistent. Disappointing. I think we'll likely go to the Taj instead.