Afternoon Tea at the Talking Teacup (Chalfont, Pa)
Hello Steepers and Happy New Year! I’m kicking off the year with a post about Afternoon Tea at The Talking Teacup in Chalfont, PA. My family and I had the pleasure of enjoying their New Year Afternoon Tea right after Christmas, and I’m excited to share my experience with you!
A Little Bit of History: The Talking Teacup, originally established in 2003 by Kathy Heck, has long been a cherished place for friends and family to gather, relax, and create memories. After Kathy's passing in 2020, her close friend and former employee, Patti Fitzpatrick, honored Kathy's legacy by reopening the teahouse in August 2021. Patti, who had worked at The Talking Teacup for years in various positions and desired to continue Kathy’s legacy and offer a comforting space during the challenging pandemic. Patti revitalized the beloved location with a nostalgic, cozy design inspired by her own childhood memories. The renovated space blends vintage charm with modern touches, featuring fresh daily-made food, a gift boutique, and a warm atmosphere that feels like visiting a grandparent’s home. You can check out the full history on The Talking Teacup website.
The Experience: I discovered The Talking Teacup while looking for fun holiday teas during a visit to my family in Pennsylvania. At the time, they were offering both Christmas Afternoon Tea and New Year Afternoon Tea.
The Talking Teacup is open Friday through Sunday with two seatings each day. Reservations are required for all seatings, and you need to call or email to inquire about availability. Since it’s a small establishment, their website mentions that they do not answer the phone or check email when closed or while serving guests, but they will respond by the end of the next business day. When I called, however, the phone was answered right away, and I was able to secure a reservation after providing my credit card details. I booked about three weeks in advance for my desired date.
Each seating lasts 90 minutes, and they recommend arriving 15 minutes early to ensure you’re seated on time. The first thing I noticed was how cute the place is! They’ve created a "grandma’s house" vibe, and it certainly delivered. The teahouse is located in a home that’s been converted into a tea room. It has a small parking lot, which is perfect for accommodating the size of the seatings. Since I visited during the Christmas season, the décor was like a Christmas explosion—lights, tinsel, ornaments, nutcrackers, and even Santa's clothes hanging to dry by the fireplace. It was so cute!
There are two seating rooms, but only one was in use during my visit, which had six tables of varying sizes. There’s also a back room with three tables for two, though no guests were seated there during my time. The website notes that the largest party they can accommodate for regular seating is eight. Even though there are limited tables, the space felt comfortable and not cramped at all. My party of four sat very comfortably.
The menu isn’t listed online, so we weren’t sure what to expect. First, we were asked to choose our teas, all of which were holiday-themed. I loved this! Many places offer only a few specialty teas for the holidays, but here, every tea was crafted to fit the festive theme. One example was the "Get Sleighed," a spiced chocolate-wine flavored tea. There was also "Nutcracker Sweet," a citrus-spice tea with apple, cranberry, almond, and cinnamon flavors. I opted for the "Gingerbread Chai," a rooibos tea with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, cardamom, dark cocoa, and spices. The tea was brewed in the back and brought to our table—it was delicious.
The Talking Teacup doesn’t do the traditional three-tiered setup for their Afternoon Tea, but instead serves each course separately, and it also includes a soup course! After our tea was served, we were brought two types of scones: salted caramel and almond. Honestly, I don’t know how they made these scones so flavorful, but they were amazing. I’m a big scone fan and these were packed with flavor. You could clearly taste the salted caramel and almond. Everyone in my party loved them.
Next, we were served the soup of the day, a tomato veggie soup. I can’t be an impartial judge of this since tomato soup is my least favorite, but my party really enjoyed it. I’ll leave it to the tomato fans to decide how good it was!
Afterward, we were served the savory items: a mix of sandwiches and tarts. We received six items: a classic cucumber sandwich, toasted veggie, maple egg salad sandwich, mushroom brie tartlet, onion tartlet, and an open-faced steak and potato sandwich. We enjoyed all of them, but my favorite was the mushroom brie tart.
Before dessert I asked for another pot of tea. Since they brew the tea fresh in the back and this is not simply a “refill hot water” situation, it was an additional $3 for a refill of tea. I am a crazy tea drinker so its normal for me to ask for refills during an afternoon tea seating, but I think for the average person one pot of tea would have sufficed for the whole meal. The other three people in my party did not need refills.
Two desserts were brought out to complete our afternoon tea experience: a chocolate mousse and a pistachio cranberry bar. These desserts were larger than the typical “petit four” size desserts that are given for most afternoon teas, so it makes sense that they only give two desserts. I am still dreaming about the pistachio cranberry bar. It was very good!
Service was good throughout. There were two servers in the dining area and each were lovely and attentive. It was an all-around enjoyable experience.
As of Today: The Talking Teacup is currently on a winter hiatus and will start taking reservations again on January 20th and will reopen on Valentine’s Day. Their website mentions they’ll have new hours and events posted by the middle of January so that should be updated soon! Currently, they are only open Friday to Sunday. They do not answer the phone or check email when closed and while serving guests, but will respond to messages by end of their next business day. Other than afternoon tea which for the New Year Event was around $45 pp, they also offer lunch, high tea, and Sunday Brunch! You can check out their website for the latest updates. They also have an FAQ section on their website where you an learn more about the establishment.
My Rating: 5/5 teacups! This is a small operation and you can tell a lot of heart and love goes into making it successful. This is exactly the type of Tea House I love to support!!
