A Picnic at the Park

If you haven’t already, make sure to check out my cottagecore-inspired posts on Rancho Los Alamitos and my blind date with a book!

What’s simple, sweet, and cottagecore AF? A picnic!

Last week, my friend Jenny and I decided to have our own. I’ll be honest, I’m lazy and did not want to go too crazy with it (as in I didn’t want to grocery shop, plan, etc). Thus, I decided on buying a Tea Box To Go each for both of us.

On a crisp Sunday morning, Jenny and I headed to Morning Lavender in Orange County to get said tea boxes.

The food:

I’ve mentioned Morning Lavender in my previous post on Tustin. This is my all-time favorite cafe in Southern California due to its pastel aesthetic and plethora of drink options for both tea and coffee drinkers. When I saw that they were offering a box with sandwiches and dessert, I knew I had to try it!

Here’s how it works:

• The box is $25 and includes 4 finger sandwiches, a scone, clotted cream & jam, 2 desserts, and a teabag

• The 4 sandwiches include chicken salad, salmon & dill cucumber & mint, and creamy spinach

• The deserts are a macaron and a vegan donut

• You can choose between a variety of tea choices; I went with creamy black tea while Jenny with Jasmine green tea

• The tea boxes are only available Saturday & Sunday

• You have to order them online beforehand and choose your pickup date and time (they are not available for purchase without a pre-order)

If you’re interested, definitely order the boxes at least 4-5 days to a week beforehand as Jenny and I did so they don’t sell out (which does happen).

The Setting:

After getting our boxes, we drove about 10 minutes away from Morning Lavender to Citrus Grove Park (also located in Tustin). This was our second time going and I have to say, it’s one of the nicest parks I’ve been to in both LA and Orange County.

Besides the grassy area seen above, there are also picnic benches, a lemon grove, and a hilltop gazebo. Moreover, if you have children, there is a playground and a bathroom (it’s pretty clean for park standards).

We put my picnic blanket down in the grass and admired the beauty of our tea boxes before we ate them.

P.S. my picnic blanket is from Amazon. I keep it in my car at all times as it is compact and waterproof.

I have to say, I thought everything was pretty good. My absolute favorite thing was the rose water macaron.

The sandwiches (close up seen above), were soft and light. Overall, it made it so much easier to bring the box to the park instead of packing several things. It also made for an easy clean up 💚.

Just a quick note that cutlery and napkins are not given with the box. Likewise, neither is hot water for the teabag.

It was a pretty warm day and so we decided to get cold drinks from Morning Lavender anyways and save the teabags for later. I got an iced jasmine green tea with sea salt foam while Jenny got a lavender lemonade. Both were fresh and paired perfectly with our food.

Our picnic was effortless and the weather was perfect. Even if you can’t go to Tustin or get a tea box, have a picnic with friends to enjoy the outdoors and each other’s company💛. What could possibly be more cottagecore than that?

@lesliestefv

My picnic with @galpaljenn 💕 ##cottagecore ##cottagecoreaesthetic ##picnic ##picnicdate ##fyp ##orangecounty ##morninglavender

♬ Paint - Trees and Lucy