Contrariety contrarie-TEA!

con·tra·ri·ety (From Webster's)
1 : The quality or state of being contrary.

con·tra·ri·eTEA (From Farmer's) 1: The quality or state of having a totally different experience at a tea house that you have been to a handful of times.

Our Bible study ladies spent girly time at the Wai'Oli Tea Room, located in Manoa Valley. Manoa valley is three miles east and inland of Honolulu, is lush and green, and has beautiful thick, mature vegetation. The Wai'Oli Tea Room, now privately owned, is located on property owned by the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army once ran an orphanage here, and the tea room facility was built to teach orphan girls how to cook, in the early part of last century. There is a beautiful chapel on the grounds, tiny, with stained glass, often used for weddings. A wishing well is at the bottom of the property that was used in Elvis's Blue Hawaii.

For a long time, the Wai'Oli Tea Room has been my favorite tea room on the island. I was first introduced to the tea room by the Queen Mum of the Royal Poinciana Princesses Red Hat chapter, from Virginia. You can read all about our tea adventures three years ago, here. Since then, I have brought many visitors to this tea room, and I have loved it, loved it, loved it. I still love it. This day, though, the tea room was particularly crowded, and we had a contrarie-TEA.

This was the first time I sat inside at the tea room. Sitting outside emits a completely different atmosphere. You sit outside, under a covered lanai, with a view of palms, tropical flowers, and feel you are part of a lush jungle, all the while feeling dainty and girly. The trade winds blow through the open lanais, and you are seated under open beams with old fashioned chandelier bulb lighting. But instead, our party of six sat inside, alongside a small metal tri-fold screen. On the other side of the screen, two thirds of the room (more like a hall) was occupied by several Red Hat chapters for a large gathering, in all of their redulation. I love the Red Hat society, I really do. I used to be a Pink Hatter in the Royal Poinciana Princess chapter, with a few other pink hatters. But this seating arrangement wasn't really fair to these Red Hatters, or to us. They were a large party, of nearly 100 women, I would guess. They were expectantly, extremely loud and having a ball. At one point, a Queen Mum stood on a chair to get the large party's attention. They were having so much fun they made it difficult for her to speak over them. Finally they quieted, and she announced to the large party that she also had competition with some Pink Hatters. Um, that would have been US. A pink hatter is anyone having tea under the age of 50. We were speaking at a normal volume, but Chair Stander did not like that. She kept speaking, still competing with her own ladies that would not quiet down, in a booming voice. We continued with our little tea party, but Chair Stander turned, glared down over the screen, paused dramatically with an evil eye that screamed, "YOU ARE TOO LOUD IN YOUR LITTLE VOICES!!" Yikes! We looked at one another and shrugged meekly. Our service wasn't the best. The hostess and waitress were helping us and this other large party, and one other little table. One of our tea pots was broken, and it took awhile to refill our pot. More than anything, I was sad my friends were not having the best tea experience I know the Wai'Oli Tea Room can put forth. We were snapped at when the bill came, too. I was so sad. Since I have been here so many times before, and have adored my time at the tea room, I will forgive the Wai'Oli Tea Room, and come again. I hope my friends will, too.

Our table was dressed with eclectic place settings. All were pretty and floral, but each different. Every place setting was set with a cinnamon favor ornament, too. The hostess and waitress brought a tea cart with over 20 loose leaf teas. We passed them to smell and make three selections. We chose Berried Treasure, Almond, and Green Tea. I was surprised how much I liked the almond.

Now this right here is why I love this place. We were served three tiers of sweets, savories, and scones. Along with the devonshire cream for the scones and cranberry bread came mango butter. The Wai'Oli Tea Room's pastry chef makes their own guava bread and lilikoi bread. This is the only tea room on the island that makes these special breads. The savories included a veggie wrap, chicken cranberry spread on guava bread (pink), a fish spread on lilikoi bread (yellow), and a little open faced cucumber and tomato spread.

We finished tea just as the Red Hat tea wrapped up. Our conversation was still rich, regardless of the tea experience. Every single one of us traveled this summer, and it was the first time we had caught up, all together, in months. I couldn't let us escape without a group photo on the outside lanai. This was also the last time we were all together. Kristen moved this past Friday to California.