Desserts Make Me Insanely Happy: Banana Chocolate Scones and Tea with Alice in Wonderland

It's a Mad Hatter Tea Par-tay!

I love quaint. I tend to tilt my head and sigh "awwww" when I spot quaintness. This is one reason why I melt as soon as I land anywhere in Europe; any city on the entire continent could be renamed "Quaintville". (Side note: I just made up two new words. If you're playing a drinking game while reading this, I advise you to buckle up; there's more ridiculousness where that came from).

One of my favorite things to do every morning in any European city: sit outside at a quaint little cafe on a tree-lined cobblestone street, while sipping something warm and soothing and munching on a deliciously flaky pastry, watching the elegant locals stroll by. So quaintly.

Magical Fairy Dust kindly greeted us at the front door.

This is just one reason why I love New York: it can rival Europe with its quaintliness.

By now you can probably guess which word popped into my head the first time I walked into Alice's Tea Cup: quaint! This charming little tea shop is not only adorable, it serves some of the most tasty scones I've ever had.

I ordered the appropriately named "Alice's Mad Morning Tea" which included my choice of one scrumptious scone, my choice of eggs, crunchy homemade granola with vanilla yogurt, and of course, a quaint little pot of tea. My friend Mel chose a similar spread, except instead of granola, she received a plateful of yummy cookies. We quickly learned an important lesson: you can't go wrong here.

Homemade granola sprinkled with fresh berries

I chose the signature "Alice's Tea", a blend of Indian black tea, Japanese green tea, vanilla and rose petals. Smooth, silky, almost creamy...one sip and I immediately understood why this tea has a dedicated following.

Then came the hard part: choosing The Scone. I have never seen so many different types of crazy tasty scones in my life. Scones are one of my favorite breakfast pastries (anything made with outrageous amounts of butter ranks high on my favorites list), so I took some time making my very important choice. After staring at them for a while, and animatedly discussing them with the Scone Lady (there was lots of pointing and oohing and ahhing), I finally narrowed it down to three:

Option #1: Glazed Pumpkin Scone

Option #2: Berry Chocolate Chip Scone

Option #3: Banana Chocolate Scone

While I wanted to try them all (and I will--these have been added to my already very long Next Time List), I chose #3. First, because it contains bananas, which is a fruit, which made me feel better about eating a scone the size of my head. Second, because I believe that chocolate makes everything better. And it did--crumbly, buttery, fruity and chocolatey, this scone was quaintly delicious.

As if the to-die-for scones weren't enough reason to come back, Alice's Tea Cup also makes cupcakes, cakes, and many other mouthwatering desserts that have also been added to my Next Time List.