Fine Living
Bahamas - part two... I was served the most amazing tea, "Harney & Sons."
O.K. safe to say I'll get carried away and ramble due to my on-going love affair with The Bahamas so let me apologize in advance but I hope you'll have as much fun reading my stories as I've had living and writing about them. I'll try not to ramble off hither and yon.
If you really want to elevate your little 3-day jaunts to Atlantis, Paradise Island purchase the Gourmet meal plan and I'll walk you through why. Atlantis has something like 30+ food establishments, I'm not going to be quite so generous and call them all restaurants because they're not. Anyway, with choices like Dune, NOBU, MESA just to name three and breakfast too. We go off resort for our lunches and that way we get to have a non-resort, local experience because we go bonkers for the fresh Conch and the Grouper too. Back to the resort buy the meal plan and then select where you want to eat each night and make your dinner reservations while you're still at home, and make them well in advance. That really is the only way to eat where you want, when you want and on a 3-day whirlwind it's worth it because dinner is more enjoyable that way and special because the choices at Atlantis are so fantastic the only trouble you'll have will be selecting just one! For our latest trip we dined at Bobby Flay's MESA in the new all-suites, The Cove, Atlantis. We also dined at Dune which is up the beach at The One & Only Ocean Club and NOBU.
As I mentioned breakfast is in the meal plan and The Cove has this interesting dining concept called Mosaic which consists of cooking stations where your food is cooked to order. Everything is incredibly, beautiful, well presented and fresh everything from caviar to fresh figs interspersed in and around the cooking stations. All of this beautiful food is being served in a beautiful, elemental space which is about its wood, glass, natural light & stunning water features. The glass walls play a Zen trick of bringing the outdoor garden into the dining spaces so it's this beautiful, organic experience.
Table side the waiter has left for me the most wonderful tea box and in it are teas from Harney & Sons. Well, neither my friend nor I had ever heard of this tea company but the selection and the packaging were just wonderful so I selected the "Paris" blend. Well, when I opened the package which was foil lined I might add it unleashed these aromas one of which was pomegranate all coming from a silk sachet, triangular in shape. Aroma of the tea brewing in my cup along with the beautiful space and food transports you. But then that is part of why we love going to the Atlantis resort, they handle the details and we love Mosaic we ate breakfast there each day. On our third night we were going to have dinner there but tropical storm Noel caused them to close The Cove and move everyone into the Royal Towers so we're lucky that we popped into NOBU earlier in the evening and had sushi in the relaxing lounge at NOBU which is right off the casino floor so from the lounge you can see the flash of the casino through the glass entryway but you're in another world sound-wise. NOBU is another experience which transports you to a very special place where everything that hits your senses seems to open them wider.
Back to the amazing tea; I stopped drinking coffee over a year ago. I'm one of these people who had to have surgery and ever since I've had no interest in drinking coffee, apparently this happens to some people after surgery. I don't miss it in fact, I'm really enjoying drinking hot and cold tea. The selection at Harney & Sons is simply wonderful so much so that we've ordered three times and given one gift of their teas since we've returned the first week of November.
Here's a great clip about The Cove, Atlantis that I found on YouTube:
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