Tea Around Town — Local services in Washington

This is an honest review of this experience--one of which i REALLY tried to enjoy, but sadly, my party of 3 was left disappointed and underwhelmed. My mother and niece were visiting from out of state and asked if I would get tickets for TAT. We had to completely adjust the plans for their visit when the day/time we booked was canceled by the company; we re-booked for a few days later. We had heat advisories the week of their visit, so needless to say, I was excited to step on to an air-conditioned bus to get my mother out of the heat. The bus was barely blowing cool air, and most of us on the bus were sweating and fanning ourselves as we hydrated with the room temp bottled water on our table. That's when the servers announced we would be having iced tea, so we were relieved. TEA: Not only did we not have ice placed in our insulated tea cups, but the tea they brought was lukewarm (my guess is ice was added to the carafe of hot steeped tea), and they gave us a literal splash of tea. At first, we were told it was a sample, and if we wanted more, just ask. So I asked for more tea...another splash. On another round of "tea service," I asked for more tea. As the server was pouring trickles of tea from the carafe into my cup, she says to me, "Well, you got the last of it." Wow. The tea was made from bagged tea. Not that bagged tea isn't of quality, but if you are going to call a business Tea Around Town, you might want to step up your tea game. Not just with quality, but QUANTITY. A sample of lukewarm teas, tasty as they were, was not what I expected from this experience. FOOD: Oh my. The food was unfortunate and little effort applied to make certain the sandwiches and pastries were fresh and of quality. As a foodie and culinarian, I will try anything and appreciate unique ingredients and flavors. The food here was unique for the wrong reasons. Some of the breads were stale, and the chip holding the shrimp--yikes. I can't remember the last time I had a tortilla chip that chewy. I was hesitant to consume some items because it was evident they had been prepared and stored well in advance, and I didn't want my family to ruin their vacation with food poisoning. The lobster in the lobster roll did taste fresh, and there was ample meat in the roll. That was a plus. Other offerings, such as the egg salad (which I love), had a taste that was entirely off-putting. Some of the desserts had odd flavors, as well. Everyone I'm my party loves tiramisu, however the tiramisu had a gummy consistency that was unpleasant, so we all stopped at the first bite. In fact, we did this with most of the foods. The cheesecake, cake pops, chocolate mousse, and others were awful. The only redeeming items were the scones and the lemon meringue tarts, which were delightful. We would have loved to smear the clotted cream and jelly on our scones but were not provided a knife or any other utensil to do so. My niece finally pulled the tiny spoon from her mousse to use as a spreader for the cream. The mocktail was refreshing and welcomed addition to the table. Looking at the food experience as a whole, it may be time for a new culinary team or contract. SERVICE: The ladies on the bus were lovely. The tour guide / entertainer was fantastic. She had a lovely voice, great song selection, and kept us entertained. The ladies were the reason this review isn't one star. The music that played during the interim times could have been turned down a few notches as we had to speak loudly to have a conversation. BUS: You may want to give your bus(ses) a day off and give them a good scrub. The floors, windows, window sills were filthy which doesn't give a good first impression and makes one wonder about the state of the galley downstairs. Our tour lasted 60 minutes, so it's not the 90 minute tour that is listed on the web. I spent over $300 (luxe pkg) for three of us to take a 60 minute bus ride around DC, with great entertainment, but a subpar food and tea experience. SO much potential here. Make corrections, and this could be more than a kitschy lure...

Dangerous levels of negligence! Negligent care for clients’ safety: Our bus was more than an hour late with no notice to clients, or plan for keeping clients safe in the intense heat. Two members of my party have heart conditions that make it difficult to regulate our body temperature, and this unexpected delay a major problem, with no solutions offered. Negligent crowd management: When our bus finally arrived - 60 minutes later- we were lined up like school children. No organization, no order, only first-come first-serve. Why does that matter? Because they offer two price points for tickets, one of which includes “priority boarding.” But that’s not a thing. As we were the last in line, we had to wait an additional FORTY MINUTES to get on the bus itself. After nearly fainting due to dehydration and heat intolerance, we were assigned table four, and sat at table four. Then they immediately came over the loud speakers and asked that anyone who has not yet touched their food to not eat it, because they were going to try and shuffle us around. Another group was causing a fuss over their assigned seats, and the company’s solution was to inconvenience other customers in an attempt to pacify the squeaky wheels. That’s a poor business practice. We chose not to move. Negligent vehicle maintenance: Now that we're on board, it'll be better, right? Not one bit. You see, air conditioning wasn't a thing on this bus. They had a single window unit set up to blow on the host, and nowhere else. Therefore, the ambient temperature on the bus was approximately 85 degrees, and the air was not moving at all. My party was slowly overheating. Negligent food handling: What's even more concerning is that the food was already on our tables when we finally boarded... 100 minutes after our scheduled departure time. Included on our trays were hard boiled eggs and seafood items, which are at the highest risk of food-borne illness. These “cold service” foods had been sitting in the ambient heat long enough to reach room temperature and begin melting. Our food was melting in the heat. So now we are sitting on a sweltering hot bus with zero air flow, stinking of old seafood and sipping on room temperature water in an attempt to lower our core temperatures. Time for hot tea! Negligent tour guide instruction: Off we roll on our 90 minute tour. 90 minutes of DC sightseeing! Alas, that is not the case. The tour takes 90 minutes because you will roll around the Mall at approximately 4 miles an hour, while the guide points out the buildings from Google maps. Architecture information? Nope. History of the buildings? Nay. But you will get deep insights like "the pencil-shaped thing over there" about the Washington monument. Hooray. A guest in my party ate a deviled egg during this wildly informative tour. She promptly spat it into her napkin and had to hold back a retch. It was spoiled. Two days later, she was still dealing with diarrhea. The bus is brutally hot, the food is unsafe to eat, and pedestrians are walking faster than we are driving. And our tour guide is now singing? I couldn't take it anymore. I asked them to pull the bus over to the side of the road and let my party off. My core temperature had reached the point of passing out. We hopped off, snagged some cold bottles from a corner guy, and put them around my neck to cool me off. Thankfully we didn’t have to call an ambulance, but had we waited a few more minutes, this may have been a different story. So I should ask for a refund, yes? I called their customer service number, as I am a customer in need of some service, and they told me that they only process refund requests through email. Frustrated, I asked them to handle it now, with me, on the phone, as we are two humans already talking to each other. They refused and hung up on me. So the customer service quality matches the quality of their bus tour. In short, for the love of all things holy, do not go on this tour. The company’s negligence may cause you...

Once we climbed aboard to our assigned table #6, the tour became deserving of more than a 5 which guests cannot give. The adventure began with our waiting 20 minutes in the freezing for the bus, not knowing the pickup spot was right in front of NARA the National Archives, calling New York to try to get updates on the bus arrival then leaving a kiddo hat on the bus which was enough to not give five stars but once the bus pulled up, magic happened.

The tour is pricey as other reviews have noted but sometimes you do a weight-balance equation and acknowledge the experience for me and the kiddos with me was worth every penny. I watched the four year old pack down options from the petit four and cupcakes- giving reviews on which is best and 'try this.' I watched the other kiddo who does not like to girl up go totally 'young lady' even tasting tea which is, after all, the theme of this uniquely presented tour.

Tours are tours. When it comes to this tour, the novelty is in the very cherry blossomy-ish decor of overwhelming pink and white, from the outside of the bus to the inside of the bus. You ascend up thin stairs to the deck top to head to your assigned table where you are greeted with petit fours stacked on a three tier tray. I had opted for the standard fare not the luxe. The pricing is same price for all, no kiddie or senior pricing which was ok with me in hindsight. The little guy was packing the food in. The not girly girl directed little guy on how to place his pink napkin in his lap so the napkin would not fall to the floor (which is where I expect his blue furry with bear ears winter hat fell to without our noticing) and little guy did exactly as told. I intentionally shot my memorial and touristy spot pics with the pink frill in the way as I did, too made sure to include with the pic of the protesters outside of the DHHS Department of Health and Human Services where we rounded the corner away from the Capitol towards the VOA Voice of America towards the Lincoln Memorial.

The kiddos were interested in my info filler in to what our tour guide was reading out over the intercom.

I have a unique perspective when it comes to touring DC. Photographs I took in 2003 became evidence in a landmark Supreme Court case. It was neat for me to be with the kiddos in this relaxed special environment able to fill in the more-to-the-story of this city I love.

The Tea Around town tour team were wonderful. Their taupe and pink outfits were outstanding. I am not an app person nor where others on the tour. The handsome self assured supervisor in the pink knit cap and pink coat made it work.

While the details on historic DC were thin, the theme of this unique tour clicked towards the end when Brianna brought the first of four teas we tasted. Truly, this tour is Tea Around Town.

Little guy was not interested in the tea. He was focused on the mini cupcakes and roast beef. But almost double digits girl was, asking questions about the teas and sipping away to the piped in music. When the hostess sang happy birthday, we knew we were in the presence of DC talent. She was amazing giving shout outs to birthday celebrants on our bus.

I loved every minute of it and for these moments along Tea Around Town is priceless especially with the swag box for carrying leftovers and the beautiful takeaway bus thermal mug that will make Starbucks goers jealous when I take it in for my misto.

Well done!!!! (and if you found the hat....)

Oh, photos are copyright me, only to be used with my permission. Funny thing is since doing your Tour, it seems algorithms have me getting slammed with more tea tours. You will always be...