Never seem to have enough time to catch up with your best girlfriends? Why not host a coffee and chocolate afternoon tea? It’s a bit of a modern twist on the traditional high tea with its fancy china cups and itsy bitsy, crustless cucumber sandwiches and it’s the perfect excuse to catch up with your friends. With these easy steps from SheKnows, you can successfully host a coffee hour your girlfriends will rave about.
Get creative with your invites
Once you’ve decided on a date, time and place, the only limit to the invitations is your imagination. If you’re a graphic design whiz, you could send out invitations in the shape of coffee cups accompanied by a bite-sized chocolate bar as an enticement. However, if you’ve been too busy to catch up with your girlfriends, chances are you’ll be after a quick and cheap option. Flick out a group email asking for friends to indicate interest. If you don’t hear back within a day or two, follow up with a quick call.
Coffee and cups
Provide an assortment of funky designs or hilarious mugs with slogans; these will become a talking point and you can pick them up fairly cheap at a second-hand store. Also make sure there is a selection of coffee (crucial for a successful coffee afternoon). Try a few different blends like the vanilla infused Moccona range or a variety of flavours with the café classic range. If you have a coffee machine, you may like to try brewing your own.
Wicked extras
Include some naughty extras like oodles of whipped cream, liqueur or chocolate shots and cinnamon sticks. Create a coffee bar with different syrups, spices and mix-ins. Don’t forget to include some non-dairy alternatives for friends who prefer not to drink dairy or have allergies. Consider fun stir sticks or get really creative and make some chocolate-dipped spoons for each guest.
Be decadent
Opt for a mouth-watering menu of rich, bite-size chocolate desserts, sinfully rich chocolate brownies and chocolate-dipped pretzels. Call into your local bakery for a selection of chocolate croissants or éclairs and splurge on a box of your favourite chocolates.
Create ambience
Now that you have the menu and coffee sorted, you need atmosphere. Pile a tray high with desserts on a three-tiered plate, have little tea lights around the room or vanilla-scented candles. Use white tablecloths and provide white linen napkins for an extra touch of class. Use chocolate-covered coffee beans to decorate saucers, or place them in tall glasses as a table centrepiece.
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