In New York, there is always something new to do and see, and new shops and restaurants opening up all the time. That also means that some shops and restaurants are closing very often too. It is a tough city to make it… But then again, there are some unique spots that opens for a limited period of time, which makes us want to go visit even more. I found a perfect pop-up spot in Brooklyn called Mad Hatter’s G&T Party. It is fun, tasty, and a bit strange…sounds awesome, right? This all takes  place inside a double-decker bus, which has magically transformed itself into a cottage.

While we waited around this magical cottage, a strange and eccentric Mad Hatter came out of the vintage bus with what it looked like a tea with fruits in it. He introduced himself and started to pour the “tea” drink into tea cups. We all got lined up and got a cup of iced “tea.” They don’t call this a “G&T” party for nothing, the tea was spiked with Gin! Naturally, this is adult only event, and it goes for two hours.

While Mad Hatter was busy pouring the “tea” for everyone, another character appeared from the bus! It was a handsome March Hare with a flare. He helped Mad Hatter to get the first “tea” going. They were quite fun and entertaining, kept us all laughing.

 

The “tea” was really good, ice cold on a hot Summer evening was just perfect. It had lots of fruit slices, with some kind of sweetner. It went down smooth…so smooth that my cup got empty rather quickly. But not to worry, they had enough to give us second round! The alcohol was not too strong, but enough to be able to taste it. I say it was the perfect drink to start off this whimsical wonderland adventure.

As I was enjoying my second cup of fancy tea, a third character appeared! She was a Dormouse. Now the entire cast members are present, to lead us into the rabbit hole…to their tea party! Or, so I thought.

They had a small grass area in front of the cottage for croquet. They wanted to show us and teach us how to play it…of course, all wrong. It was fun to watch them try to play their own croquet… Then, it was a photo time! We all got to take photos with the characters, which was awesome!

Then, it was finally time…to go down the rabbit hole! Or actually, rather going UP the tiny, narrow stairs to the second floor. A cat greeted us at the entrance by the driver’s seat used to be, with his big shiny eyes and a big grin.

Inside the cottage was, well, the size of a bus. Narrow and long, with a table beautifully decorated. They really did a great job in my opinion. The center piece had the green, mossy, grass-type table runner all the way from the front to the back. The decor was mix of antique, whimsical and feeling of outdoor. We went all the way to the back of the bus and took a seat around the round table in the back.

Once we were all seated, our main host, Mad Hatter started this whirlwind, mad tea party. They divided the room into three sections, and each was hosted by each character. Our host was Mad Hatter, then the middle section was hosted by the Hare, then the front of the bus was hosted by the Mouse. It was fun to get some quality time with Mad Hatter among the small group of 8 people.

Mad Hatter started with his own concoction of “tea.” He poured vibrant blue liquid into a large glass container, explaining that it containers Butterfly Pea Syrup, which has syrupy sweet flavor with its beautiful blue color. He told us that it is used for some kind of blue tea in Thailand. Interesting…

The source, butterfly pea flower, is caffeine-free, and guess what? It is high in antioxidants, vitamin A, C and E. How awesome is that our drinks are made with something so healthy! There was a light right under the glass container, and Mad Hatter flicked it on.

Then, he chose three participants to help with the creation of this tea/cocktail. The cocktail is called The Caterpillar’s Chrysalis, and just like the caterpillar, it will metamorphose throughout the creation of this cocktail. The chosen ones started to add different kinds of herbs such as rosemary, sage, and thyme into the tea pot as instructed by the Hatter. He added hot water in the pot and let it steep for a few minutes. And then…

Surprise, he added dry ice into it! The pot started to smoke immediately, it was making this whimsical place even more strange and magical.

 

He inserted the hose into the glass container, so that this enchanted cocktail will get infused with all the herbs. So, essentially, this became a blue herbal tea with a twist.

 

As we poured the now infused blue drink into our cups, it was quite pretty! We added some cucumber water to it, as it was just straight gin with syrup in there at this point. Then we were given a little vial with butterfly potion. We were told it contains acid. Why? Because Butterfly Pea syrup reacts to acid!

 

As we put a drop or two in the tea cup, the color of the Caterpillar’s Chrysalis changed into bright pink! How fun is that! We added a bit of carbonated water to the mix (since it was quite strong alcohol at this point), and then had the magical transforming tea cocktail. It was quite nice, interesting flavor (mainly cucumber and gin) with a good amount of herbal notes and scent to it.

 

And it is not a tea party without treats! It was called Eton Mess, named after a traditional British Treat, made with mixture of strawberries, broken meringue, and whipped double cream. But, this no ordinary tea party. The version we received was a bit different… We were told it is a “Clotted Cream Gelato” with strawberry syrup.  Basically, it was a ball of whipped cream with strawberry syrup drizzled over it. LOL.

At this point, it was time for a different kind of entertainment. Everyone was given a trump card. We were told not to look at the card just yet. Mad Hatter said that anyone who has the Queen of the Heart has to eat whatever is inside the teapot that says “Eat Me.” First round, no one had Queen of Heart. He dealt the card to everyone again. The second round, everyone got the Queen of Heart!!! How cool was that!

Well, I thought it was cool, thinking that we get to have some kind of treat. But… What was under the lid of this cute tea pot??? Warms!!!! So, even though everyone got the Queen of Hearts, no one had the courage (or no one was crazy enough) to eat one. After the warms (also known as caterpillar’s children” by Mad Hatter) were passed on from one person to another, we closed the chapter… But before we moved on, Mad Hatter actually ate one or two of them! My goodness…he really is mad!

Then they pointed to their crazy clock at the front of the bus. The numbers on the clock was mostly “6” except for one that says “7.” They have been staying at 6 o’clock 10,000 years according to them. However, while we were there enjoying this mad tea party, the clock has moved by 15 minutes. Thinking that the cause of this magic 15 minutes was the tea party, all excited, they decided to keep on going with the tea party to see if they can get to 7 o’clock. In order to move the clock more, we have to drink more!!! They collected all the tea cups, and spoons. Once the table was all cleaned up, we were told to stand up, and move counter-clock wise until we got to the middle of the bus. I didn’t understand the reason why we had to do that…but it was actually brilliant move.

Here in the middle section of the bus is hosted by March Hare. So, by moving inside the bus, we get to experience different host! How clever… We were then given a basket filled with clean tea cups, we got to choose whichever we liked. We were told to put some ice cubes into our cups to begin his “tea” concoction. He called his drink the Bursting…Foaming…Foamy…Drink. LOL.  It is made with Gin, Shrub Liqueur and Juice. Hare told us that Shrub is made with bunch of fruits that were mashed together, with a bit of vinegar. Then it is put on a fire all day, until it becomes sticky and “sexy.” This shrub contains beets, rhubarb, and few other veggies which was interesting… The juice component was cranberry, and lime juice.

He had a “magical pot” with “magical” motor. He pushed the button, which made whatever that was in the inside the pot to foam us, or as he call it, “bursting with foam” – hence his unique name.

He was really into making the foam to burst inside the tea pot. LOL. It was quite theatrical and fun to watch. Once the foam was almost coming out of the pot, it was ready for consumption.

We were ready to finish creating this drink ourselves. We first poured the deep-pink-colored liqueur into our cup, and then put the foam on top. The foam was quite fluffy and bubbly, it was fun! The foam ingredients includes hibiscus and vanilla. Pretty interesting!

Then our bursting foamy drink was ready! It was quite cute, like a little pink bubble bath that you can actually drink. Wait, that is a bit weird…you don’t really want to drink your bubble bath, right? How about a rosy pink magic potion with puffy cloud on top that you can actually drink. That sounds better.

The drink was quite tasty, fruity and fun to drink. The foam actually had nice vanilla flavor and aroma of hibiscus. The foam alone was tasty, to my surprise. It went perfectly with the fruity drink beneath it.

The treats for this round was finger sandwiches. It was a classic Cucumber Sandwich with mayo and caviar on top. It was…well, a-ok. Not the best cucumber tea sandwich, but hey, we were there for the fun time and cocktails! During our time with Hare, he asked us an interesting question. If we could be any animal, what would it be? It was fun to talk about it and learn about the people you are having this “tea” party with. We had lots of laugh!

At this point, the strange clock has moved a bit more! So, of course, we had to keep on going to see if we can get the clock to make it to 7 o’clock! The tea cups and other items were collected again, we all stood up, and moved around the bus. Now, we are going to be seated at the front of the bus, this section hosted by Dormouse.  We were given a clean tea cups once again. I wonder how many tea cups they have in this cottage…

She had two cocktail shakers, which she handed to two of the participants to hold. She put some “frozen water” (a.k.a. ice cubes). She had a bottle filled with deep red liquid. It has of course, Gin in it, with Sloe Gin. What is Sloe Gin you might ask? Sloe gin is a red liqueur made with gin and sloe drupes, similar to plum. However, Dormouse said that this sloe gin is made with flower. The last ingredient in this concoction was pineapple juice.She poured this red liqueur in the cocktail shaker, and time to do some shacking! She poured the shaken drink into our tea cups.

We took a small sip, it was really good and fruity, we liked it! And then she pulled out another container that had dark red liquid in it. It was nice and sweet from pineapple, with a bit of sour and tart flavors as well. But then, we brought out a smaller glass jar with reddish liquid in it. It was a different kind of shrub, this one is made with pineapple, strawberry, raspberry, and vinegar. It is for the ones wanted the drink to be a bit sweeter and less sour.

We all got a teaspoonful or two, which made the drink sweeter, and also the color to be even more bright and brilliant. This was so tasty, so fruity and sweet, and I would say this was my favorite. If you are a fan of sweet and fruity cocktails, especially pineapple flavor, you will really enjoy this one!

The last treat that was offered with this cocktail was Spotted Dick. It is a British pudding, usually made with suet and dried fruit, often served with custard. The top was custard pudding, with sponge cake that is harder than regular sponge cake the bottom. I am not sure if that contained any fruit or suet. It was simple and easy dessert.

And then, it was time to wrap up this fun and weird and awesome G&T party! The hosts gave us round of applauds for being such awesome guests! So, did we make it to 7 o’clock on the strange clock that they have? Well, we did a big count down to 7 together. But then, when the count down reached to zero, the clock’s arms moved like crazy all around, and re-setted itself to 6 o’clock again!!! So, the hosts once again have to reset for the next tea party, and then the next, and next…until they can reach 7 o’clock (or until this pop-up event ends).

This was such a fun, whimsical and magical event! All of the hosts were great in their own way, super funny and kept us laughing the whole time. The two-hour extravaganza party went by so quickly. Time flies when you are having so much fun! The cocktails were legit, the treats were a-ok, but the experience was just marvelous! I am so glad we got to try this pop-up G&T Party. I had high expectations, then delivered above and beyond my expectation! Thank you Mad Hatter, March Hare and Dormouse!

 

Mad Hatter’s G&T Party – 173 Morgan Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11204