For anyone living in the Pacific Northwest, those four little words, “tea at the Empress,” are shorthand for an experience that evokes the grace, gentility and refinement of a bygone era. With great anticipation, my daughter and I indulged in that delightful ceremony on our recent visit to Victoria, British Columbia and enjoyed every delectable moment.

The Fairmont Empress, a formidable ivy-covered brick ediface fronting Victoria’s Inner Harbour, completed a chain of magnificent urban hotels and rural resorts built by the Canadian Pacific Railway in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Completed in 1908 and extended and refurbished several times over the intervening years, the Empress today provides all the comforts of a modern, exclusive hotel with all the attention to architectural detail and craftsmanship of a more elaborate time.

We settled into comfy armchairs at our table for two by one of the large windows in the Empress Tea Lobby which overlooks the Veranda and the harbor beyond. We observed seaplanes, water taxis and ferries plying the waters while we selected our choice of teas from among a menu which included decaffeinated green teas, herbal and fruit teas and, of course, the traditional Earl Grey. I finally settled on the Empress’ own special blend culled from six estates ranging from Sri Lanka to Kenya, while Jenny chose a lovely, citrusy Kea Lani Orange Pineapple tea. We had the option of beginning with a flute of sparkling wine but chose to sip tea only.

Service was on an Empress-exclusive pattern produced by Royal Doulton (both the china and the teas may be purchased for home use in the hotel’s gift shop), with sterling silver service, our own individual silver tea pots, and a three-tiered stack of hunger-abating treats. In addition to the traditional raisin scones with cream, we sampled sandwiches (smoked salmon pinwheels, egg salad croissants, mango and curried chicken), pastries (lemon tarts), desserts (macarons and shortbread) and fresh strawberries.

We decided there are few more delightful ways to spend an hour after a day of shopping and museum-going than to relax in the elegant surroundings of the Empress, sipping tea, listening to the soothing sounds of the piano and gazing out on the sunny scenes of the harbor. A girl could get used to this!

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor