Spill the Tea: A Jane Austen Tea

A Regency inspired Tea at The Lyman Homestead

Pahl, Danielle, and Nina standing together on one of the porch's of The Lyman Homestead

The second major dress up event we attended in May 2025 was the Spill The Tea: Jane Austen Tea Tasting co-hosted by Savvy Tea Gourmet and Lyman Orchards at The Lyman Homestead in Middlefield, CT.  Savvy Tea Gourmet is my favorite local tea shop as they source tea and make their own blends from all over the world and everything is super fresh and eco-friendly packaging. The owners of the Savvy Tea came up from Madison to offer delightful Jane Austen inspired tea pairings as well as tea education, while Lyman Orchards Apple Barrel Farmers Market provided the accompanying quiche, tea sandwich, and scones with strawberry jam in the historical Lyman Homestead. The Lyman Homestead, built in 1860, is one of the best Gothic Revival structures in the greater Middletown area. It was built to a design by New Haven architect Rufus G Russell and was completed in 1865. The 2 acre property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. 

Now this event just happened to also occur on the same day that our Dances of Bridgerton class over in nearby Middletown was to take place. Dances of Bridgerton is a bit of a passion project dreamt up by master dance instructor Susan de Guardiola. Imagine learning the  dances from the Netflix show Bridgerton, other dances by the same choreographer, and some actual Regency dances with a real time instructor and a bunch of other people at the same time!  Did you gush at Simon and Daphne's couple dance in Season One? Or did you love the dance in Episode 6 of Queen Charlotte between Charlotte and George? I've learned them both and we frequently go over them in class as well as learning new dances too!  If that sounds like an amazing time to you, the class is open and looking for more attendees. The next one is actually next Sunday, August 10, and walk-ins are welcome! 

Since pretty much everyone who attends this dance class is into dressing up in period fashion, drinking tea, and socializing, I proposed to Susan that we should let the other attendees know about it and see if they also would like to sign up. Susan was able to get the Spill the Tea event to allow us a table of 10 rather than the purported maximum 6, but every single one of us dressed in our Regency finest. It was like we absolutely stepped back in time from the historic home itself, to our fashion, the tea service, it was truly a magical moment!

Place setting at our table with my fan in the background

Somehow we ended up with an Alice teapot. Frederick is off to the left

We were having the quiche paired with the Mr. Darcy's Delight, an Earl Gray with just enough bergamot. Susan and Will in the background

Part of the gorgeous interior; Nina snapped this candid photo

Another beautiful shot of the interior of the tea room

After we enjoyed our tea pairings and food items, there was still time to wander around the interior of the building. The historic home caretakers didn't seem to mind us wandering around to the different rooms and posing in our outfits with the furniture. 

Nina matches the wall

This is my friend Nina from my CCSU days. She is excellent at sewing and drafting her own patterns. She looked at historical regency patterns and drafted this one for herself. She also has a matching petticoat she made to wear under it. The blue cotton of her dress matched the wall pretty well and I thought she should stand in front of the fireplace to show that. I asked her if she would like to go to the first "Dances of Bridgerton" class with me last year because Pahl couldn't make it and we've been hooked on the class ever since. She's also teaching me basic sewing now too!

I thought Nina should hold my fan because the blue flower matched her dress

Pahl in the library looking quite striking against the bookshelf

My coordinate in 3 angles

Now you must be wondering, is my outfit actual Regency after looking at Nina and Pahl's outfits? No, not really. It's an EGL dress from the Chinese indie brand Miss Point's Sally Gardens Series. The dress is described as an "elegant vintage one-piece dress", that features a square collar, lotus root sleeves, an empire waist, ribbons+ flower decorations at the chest and cuffs, and a long length. I am wearing a 78 cm daily wear petticoat under this dress for the poof and flow at the bottom. The straw bonnet, additional chest flowers, and lace choker are also from Miss Point. I absolutely could not forget my teapot bag, which is actually pop culture merchandise from Bridgerton via Hot Topic. It is a white teapot cross body purse with purple and green printed petals and says "Diamond of the Season" on it, which if you've seen Bridgerton, you know is the Queen's pick of female debutante each year. It was just so meta to be at a tea party with folks I learn dances from Bridgerton with while carrying around a purse dedicated to those two ideas. 

A contender for the 2026 Danielle & Pahl Calendar

Pahl (with his wool tail coat) and Danielle in front of the marble fire place in the library

Peak looking off into the distance

I have actually worn this brown and cream dress so frequently to dance class (I love the way it glides in the Queen Charlotte dances to be honest), that  Pahl and I normally go out to the same restaurant after class and the staff there knows us by our outfits and greets us very warmly and always asks us how our dance class was!  We haven't been to class for a few months because we missed the one in June for Downtown Milford Business Association's annual Pirate Day (a future blog post) and there wasn't one in July.  The goal is to learn enough dances and dance them well enough for a dance focused Bridgerton Masquerade Ball in October! I am so looking forward to it as well as planning a new EGL Regency inspired outfit for the ball!