48 Monument Square Concord, MA (978) 369-2373 Tea served Wednesday through Saturday, 3-5 pm, and Sunday, 3:30-5:30 pm. High tea: $16.95 Colonial tea: $11.50 Light tea: $8.50 Reservations required.

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From The Boston Globe (April 1996): In the heart of historic Concord, the Colonial Inn puts forth a substantial assortment of afternoon teas. High tea tips the scale with pate on cold brown bread (not warm toast, as indicated), chicken with shrimp salad sandwiches, scones, mixed berries with canned whipped cream (not Devonshire, as promised), brownies and jam squares. Colonial tea does not include the sandwiches or pate, and light tea consists of pastries and scones. My visit to The Colonial Inn (January 10, 1998): Afternoon tea is just a small part of The Colonial Inn, which serves regular meals in its dining room(s), caters to parties and functions, and provides overnight accomodations for guests. There is even a gift shop in the basement where you can buy Boston Harbor Tea and tea services and cozies. We had reservations for high tea at 3:00, and were led to a nice-sized, cozy room set aside only for tea-takers. The light was subdued and calming; there were no windows in the room, which was well-decorated (despite the fact that the majority of art on the walls was hunting-themed). The tea girl, as they called her, wheeled a cart to our table and offered us a choice of Mark T. Wendell (loose) and Bigelow (bagged) teas, which she talked us through. They also serve Boston Harbor Tea, which supposedly is the same type of tea thrown into the Boston harbor. We took our picks, and she prepared a pot for each of us. The tea itself was served in five courses, as follows:

First course: Pate with warm brown toast, two wedges of gouda cheese, a strawberry, and a small bit of raspberry melba sauce. (Save the sauce if you don't use it up now - it's scrumptious.) Second course: Four small finger sandwiches of chicken salad, shrimp salad, salmon, and cucumber. Third course: Two scones (one plain, one raisin) and strawberry butter. They also provided strawberry preserves and orange marmalade. Fourth course: A bowl of mixed berries, with whipped cream on the side. As the Boston Globe reviewer noted, they did tell us it was Devonshire cream when it very obviously was not. You'd think in the past two years they would have corrected this.... Fifth course: To be shared between us were five different small sweets, mostly involving chocolate. I enjoyed this tea very much. All of the food was good, and it was just enough to fill me without hitting the bursting point (I came in starving). The bill came to around $40 for the two of us, which was a little steep. Reserve a spot for this tea if you've come into some extra money and have the urge to splurge.