BAY LAKE, Fla. – Not all tea parties are created equal.
At Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, the Garden View Lounge is raising the cup on what an afternoon tea experience can be.
I recently visited the Garden View Lounge – Tea Experience alongside News 6 Insider Guide Kara Moeller and Florida Foodie Kaia Poisall.
The lounge quietly reopened in March for the first time since before the COVID-19 pandemic, and trust me — it was worth the wait.
From the moment you walk into the intimate space, you are greeted with elegance.
“The views were beautiful, and there was such attention that I really felt like I was at a magical tea party,” said Poisall.
“It was a great way to satisfy that need for a cute, girly tea party,” said Moeller. “Every tea we got to try lived up to the Twinings name, and the food was the perfect pairing to go with the tea. I would highly recommend to anyone thinking about going.”
A whimsical world of tea
The experience is inspired by Walt Disney Animation Studios’ “Alice in Wonderland,” and the theming doesn’t disappoint.
Kara, Kaia, and I each ordered the Afternoon Tea, and choosing our tea selections felt like its own kind of adventure. The menu ranges from classic to unique blends. We also got the chance to smell all the tea selection to help us decide, something I highly recommend.
We settled on the following: London Strand, Redbush Caramel Velvet, Blackcurrant & Lavender, Spicy Chai, and Exotic Mango & Ginger.
Tea guides are on hand to help customize each cup with aromatic additions and optional sweetness — a thoughtful touch that makes the whole thing feel personal.
The main event
Each of us started with an Orange-Cranberry Scone before working our way through an impressive lineup of savory bites and sweet finishes served on a three-tier tower.
Savory selections:
- Curried Chicken Salad Playing Card Tart — savory curried chicken salad filling topped with cherry gelée
- Footman’s Feast — Wonderland Salmon Crisp with a salmon rillette on a miso brown butter crisp
- Tweedledee Egg Salad Sandwich — traditional egg salad on beet bread
- Caterpillar Cucumber Roll — butterfly pea-infused cream cheese and cucumbers on pumpernickel
Sweet finishes:
- The Matcha Mad Hatter — sponge cake with apricot jam and yuzu buttercream
- Tea Party Tart — vanilla tart, coffee custard and chantilly cream
- Flamingo Croquet Choux — filled with passion fruit cream and a raspberry crunch
- Painting the Rose — Earl Grey-flavored teacake painted tableside
Plant-based options and enhancements — including a Seasonal Cheese Selection and Royal Osetra Caviar — are also available for those looking to elevate the experience even further.
Meeting tea royalty
Sipping tea at a Disney resort is one thing. Sipping with a 10th-generation member of the Twinings family? That’s a whole different level of enchanted.
Stephen Twining serves as Director of Corporate Relations and Global Brand Ambassador for Twinings and was a special guest for our afternoon tea experience.
Kara, Kaia, and I had the chance to ask him about his tea expertise and family legacy. The Disney connection runs deep: Twining’s father helped open the United Kingdom Pavilion at EPCOT.
“There are so many things that we have in common with Disney,” Twining said. “We’re always looking to the future. At the end of it, it’s about attention to detail and a great experience for guests — straight customers. That makes us very natural partners. They’re not afraid to try new things, and neither are we.”
When it comes to his personal tea choices, Twining said they shift throughout the day — and even with the weather.
“Breakfast time, I’m very old-fashioned English. I like my English Breakfast tea with my breakfast food,” he said. “Then I choose my tea according to where am I, what am I doing, how am I feeling, and what’s the time of day?”
Evenings call for herbal teas to wind down the caffeine. Hot weather brings him back to green tea, while cold weather returns him to English Breakfast.
On the topic of sugar, Twining is firm — though not without nuance. He takes none in his tea.
Twining compared master tea tasters to professionals holding an MBA — experts who spend 12 to 15 years honing their craft before logging many more years of experience. Their job is to select and blend specialty teas so that every cup of English Breakfast, for example, tastes exactly the same.
“And then you come along and put a spoonful of sugar. All you taste is the sweetness. You’re suppressing the tea,” he said.
There is, however, one exception to his no-sugar rule: chai.
“If you like the spiciness in chai, by adding the sugar, you suppress the tea — so you elevate the spices,” he said. “There’s an exception to every rule, and that’s the one.”