Indonesian Tea with the Queen

While on a recent cruise to the Caribbean, I got the unexpected chance to attend a so-called Indonesian "tea ceremony" that was to be hosted by the Indonesian meal staff. Sadly, it didn't live up to my standards at all.

Considering myself a tea connoisseur, I jumped at the chance after reading it in my daily event briefing that Holland America Line, the cruise company I traveled with was playing host to a "tea ceremony." I still don't know how they can call what I experienced a "ceremony." It was more akin to afternoon tea and cookies with the Brits.

Having arrived sharply at three o'clock, just as the day planner had specified being the start time, I was surprised to find many of my fellow cruisers already seated in the dining hall. I looked around as an attendant walked us to a table, watching many of the guests drinking down cups of pre-packaged, loose leaf tea served via tea bags.

Now, I will be the first to admit that I had expectations going in, having already attended a tea ceremony at the Morikami Museum in Delray Beach, Florida. But I did expect something far more than afternoon brunch with the Queen.

This was no ceremony. No. This was a dinner service, at least that’s the impression I got with all the attendees running around offering us things.

"Would you like a sweet, Sir?", “Maybe try another flavor?”

Sweets are small candy delights that are to be eaten in conjunction with the drinking of tea.




Of course I had something of everything, it was free. How could I resist? But the whole time, I still had a lingering thought in the back of my mind. Where was the ceremony? The coordinated, rigorous and ritualistic behavior that comes packaged with the word.

Well, it wasn't there, and that was a disappointment. Especially considering how amalgamated the staff was. On the Holland America vessel I was traveled on, the Eurodam, there were only two ethnicities: Indonesian and Filipino. The Indonesian crew dealt with the dinning services while the Filipinos handled the rooms and the bars.


I mention this only because each crew, all having the same background bring their cultural heritage on board. That culture, I expected, was to show through during this "ceremony." The only real culture, non-commercialized culture I got from this event where the hats that each attendant wore. I asked, they said they were real. Who am I to argue that?

But this was nothing like at the Morikami. The tea was not fresh and the sweets were nothing more than coconut covered coconut balls and banana fritters. Looks like Holland America done goofed on that one.


Had Holland America let their Indonesian Crew actually put together a real ceremony, maybe even explain that Indonesia became a hub of tea production and how the leaf influenced their country. Then maybe it would have been a real "ceremony."