Among The Trees with Emily Carr Afternoon Tea at Notch8
This morning we were at the Vancouver Art Gallery, the starting point of our “Among The Trees” experience that included an Emily Carr Afternoon Tea at Notch8. But first we would learn who this famous Canadian figure was.
For those unfamiliar and unable to appreciate the full impression of this experience, we were given a private tour of the Vancouver Art Gallery’s latest exhibit featuring Emily Carr and BC’s forests with The Gallery’s Head of Learning.
She gave us a 25 minute tour and brief look at Emily Carr’s entire life’s body of work from 1871 when she was born, to when she passed on at the age of 75. During this time, it was in her 30’s that she was seen as a trailblazer and a true crusader, using her art as her platform, like social media content creators use theirs today.
During a time where majority of artists was taking queue from British art work, focusing on landscapes and realism, Carr utilized larger format canvases, bold colours, and loses brush stroke in her one of a kind tree portraits. This was given its name due to the vertical orientation and their close up perspective, as if only capturing the head and shoulders of a tree trunk.
The show in the Vancouver Art Gallery is curated in a chronological way. It follows a circular wall pattern with us starting at her most mature work and newer founded abstract style, then jumping to her originals paintings, only to work our way back to her most recent pieces once more; where she focused on changing shapes, colours, and scale.
If looking at a piece and trying to identify if it is done by Emily Carr consider the amount of colour in the blending and her ability to create shadow and light from the light source often originating from the heart of the tree. In this way she is able to paint “growing”. This skill is as strong as her ability to depict movement in her still life paintings.
Carr also used her artistic platform to champion causes and bring attention to issues as the first environmental painter. For example, many of her pieces brings attention to logging. And during a time of potlatch, when the indigenous peoples were disallowed to showcase their art and culture she created a show to bring attention to it, endeavouring out to paint all the totem poles in BC. She was then hoping to sell all mentioned pieces to the Royal BC Museum, however they were declared too abstract and of no interest. Whereas then people wanted realism, so uninspired she gave up painting for 14 years.
It wasn’t until she became a part of the Group of Seven and they celebrated her style, wanting to focus on art that was distinctively Canadian, did she start painting again. She focused on the forests giving them darkness, exploring volume, form, and abstract concepts. In this era she worked on numerous charcoal sketches, which she considered finished works. From there she moved from still life to the expansive landscapes, often painting trees as an impenetrable forest.
Now armed with all this knowledge and appreciation from our museum tour, we then took the quick walk over to Fairmont Vancouver for Notch 8’s latest high tea service. As always, this is held in their rotating tea salon, hidden behind the secret entry book shelf. The space was decorated in the same blending of colour and life as in Carr’s portfolio. It all felt welcoming and familiar, having coming out of our tour. The backdrop of the salon looked like it was taken from her painting and included a collection of Pacific Northwest artifacts the likes of moss covered rocks, wooden stumps, pebbles, and ferns.
Even the menus educated and matched the theme in design, speaking to a few of the local ingredients featured. The goal is to bring you “among the trees” as you enjoy beverages and small bites featuring the flavours of the Pacific Northwest.
The service includes a cocktail menu that draws inspiration from Carr’s love of the forest and includes cedar-infused spirits and unique tinctures.
Amongst the Cedars was a vodka based cocktail that drank like tea with white tea, peach, lemon, and the flavour of pine.
The Gravel & Moss was sweeter with rum. It had a green note with the lemongrass honey syrup, lime, and a chanterelle tincture.
The Emily Side Carr was a fun pun and the strongest of the bunch with cedar infused hennessy vs grand mariner, smoked orange, lemon, and pekoe tea syrup.
And the Chuckle Berry was your floral, berry, low ABV cocktail with lillet blanc, huckleberry, lemon, and iced very berry tea.
Your seasonal hot tea options includes Summer Breeze which is a refreshing, lemony herbal tea. Bella Coola is predominant orange with the lovely sweetness of pineapple. The Pomegranate Lemon is exactly as it reads pomegranate fuses with sweet and sour andalusia lemon. And the Ontario Icewine has the the fruity sweetness of ice wine with the smoothness of silky white tea.
The high tea bites were served on their birdcage towers. On the bottom tier was their classic house made scones in classic buttermilk, and the seasonal cranberry sea salt. Both enjoyed with a smear of chantilly cream and marmalade.
The middle tier were the savoury bites, each given a woodsy name for the sake of the theme. The Woodland Grove was a mushroom mousse tart with a hazelnut crumb that looked like a log. This made for a great transition to dessert with its sweet crust and the candied nuts.
Among the Firs was a unique take on an arancini al parmigiano with a sesame crust and torched pancetta. This was soft and cheesy, one bite risotto ball, where the sesame served more for colour, and the pancetta brought in some spicy notes.
The Red Cedar was the familiar tea time combo of salmon and cream cheese. Their take had it with dill, salmon, a caper olive soil, and crème fraîche. It was heavy with cream and refreshing with the herbs, the fish played second fiddle.
Odds & Ends was like a tuna melt with ahi tuna and sharp cheddar. The tuna was cooked dry and I found the texture off and overpowering. This was my least favourite finger sandwich.
The Tanoo was unexpected and not all that cohesive to the set, with its Indian inspired flavour and warmer spices. The coronation chicken panipuri with a spicy mango chutney felt like an outlier.
For desserts there was the Forest Floor that was the perfect name to described how this cake looked. This was a chocolate financier with chocolate butter cream, and matcha moss. Rich and decadent chocolate mousse with the topping adding levity to its dense look and mouthfeel.
The Driftwood Shortbread was a dense and crumbly cookie base topped with layers of smoked sea salt caramel and chocolate. Finished with more chocolate in shards, coarse salt, and gold flakes.
The Tree Ring was another name that described the intended look. This was a spiced carrot cake roll topped with a cream cheese mousse. I am a fan of vegetables in dessert so liked this sweet end the best.
The Burnt Forest was a chocolate macaron in a charcoal shell. Nothing new or unique.
The Lowbrush Tart was a two bite blueberry tart with compote and birch syrup. The most refreshing of all the bites and a nice way to end consider the tower was richer and heavier overall, to match the dark forest theme.
In short, this was a great way to spend the afternoon. A walk through the art gallery before a light lunch at the neighbouring castle.
The Vancouver Art Gallery’s latest exhibition, That Green Ideal: Emily Carr and the Idea of Nature, is the Gallery’s largest solo exhibition of the artist in over twenty years and features more than 100 of her paintings and drawings. It will run from February 6th through to November 8th, 2026. The gallery is open everyday from 10am-5pm and 10am-8pm on Fridays. Admission is $29+ and free for Gallery Members, Indigenous Peoples, and children under 18.
Vancouver Art Gallery
750 Hornby St, Vancouver, BC V6Z 2H7
(604) 662-4700
vanartgallery.bc.ca
The Notch 8 Afternoon Tea is running from May 22nd through to September 20th, 2026. Seating are available 11am, 1pm, and 3pm Thursday through Sunday. It is $75 per person with optional add ons and $40 for children 12 and under.
Notch 8
900 W Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC V6C 2W6
(604) 662-1900
fairmont-hotel-vancouver.com
