It Started With an Oolong in Chinatown

By Tiffany Moore-Jackson, Founder — Chicago Afternoon Tea Society

How a birthday food tour, a bridal shower, and my grandmother's Saturday club led me to found the Chicago Afternoon Tea Society.

This was 2014—before everything had to be photographed, before “content” was a job, before we even really knew what “curated experiences” meant. Back then, we were just living. My friend and co-worker, Frankini—an actual amazing magician, hosted a Chinatown food and experience tour for my birthday. I’d never really explored that neighborhood, but he knew every corner of it. He walked us to a little shop right on the main strip, and I remember the smell before anything else. Something warm and earthy and unfamiliar. The owner let me open jars, smell the leaves, ask questions. I left with an oolong loose leaf that was nothing like those Lipton tea bags I grew up with—and everything was different after that.

Chicago Chinatown 2014

But honestly? My love of afternoon tea goes back even further.

College-era me became genuinely obsessed with the idea of tea and crumpets—probably from some British period drama I stumbled across. I loved learning about cultural rituals around food from attending the Cultural Food Fest at WIU that the amazing, Ms. Belinda Carr mentored the students to organize. The ceremony of it. The intentionality. So when my family and friends hosted an afternoon tea for my bridal shower, I was undone. The spread was gorgeous: tea service, crumpets, pastries, and yes—my absolute favorite—cucumber sandwiches on rye. It was beautiful in a way that went beyond aesthetics. It felt like being truly honored. Held.

And then I remembered my grandmother.

My Grandmother Jimmie Lee and her mother, Big Ma-Sally Mae Hunter, held club meetings on Saturday mornings. I never knew the name of the club or exactly what they discussed—but I knew what it felt like to be near it. They pulled out the “good dishes”. The white laced tablecloths. Big Ma’s infamous pound cake. Small bites. Notebooks on the table. Laughter and gossip filling the room.

What I witnessed at that dining room table wasn’t just socializing. It was women pouring intention into their time together. Creating a space that said: we matter, our conversations matter, this moment matters.

That left an imprint on me that I didn’t fully understand until I was 47 years old.

I’ve always been the one planning the outing, booking the reservation, rallying the group.

My "Travel Boo" Chaya and I have been seeking out afternoon tea experiences everywhere we go since 2017. Thailand. New York. New Orleans. Phoenix. Every city has a version of this ritual, and every version teaches me something new about what community, rest, and shared presence can look like.

What I kept noticing—traveling across Chicagoland, exploring tea rooms and afternoon services wherever we could find them—was a gap. Not just geographically, but culturally. So many of these experiences are beautiful, but they don’t always feel like they were built with me in mind. Not my rhythms, my references, my people.

That observation became a question: what would it look like if someone built that space intentionally? What if the South Side had a tea room that felt as rooted in our community as my grandmother’s Saturday table?

I’m still building toward that answer. But the Chicago Afternoon Tea Society is where it starts—gathering people across the city since October 2025, creating the experiences, finding the community, and laying the foundation one cup at a time.

Welcome to the Chicago Afternoon Tea Society.

Our Society is a curated community for people who love tea, love connection, and love doing both with intention. We gather across Chicago for elevated afternoon tea experiences—real tiered service, quality pours, beautiful settings, and the kind of conversations that happen when you actually slow down.

Our members are professionals, creatives, travelers, and tea lovers who know the difference between a rushed brunch and a genuine pause. They’re various ages, curious about the world, generous with their time when the setting is worthy of it.

Every event we host is a direct descendant of my grandmother’s Saturday table. The good dishes are out. The tablecloth is pressed. The company is intentional. And the tea—always the tea—is the ritual that holds it all together.

This is just the beginning.

The Chicago Afternoon Tea Society is Phase One of something much larger—JL Tea Collective, a full hospitality brand rooted in the South Side, built around the belief that rest, beauty, and community are not luxuries. They’re infrastructure.

I’m glad you found us. Pull up a chair. The tea is steeping.

Happy sipping,

-Tiffany

Founder, Chicago Afternoon Tea Society & JL Tea Collective