Time for Tea .....The Tea Shop Around the Corner, Farnborough

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends!

Recently a lovely lady on Twitter recommended that I visit The Tea Shop Around the Corner in Farnborough for a spot of tea and cake. Since I'm based in Farnham, a short drive away I decided I should definitely make the trip.

The Tea Shop Around The Corner, Farnborough

It was a Wednesday lunchtime when I popped by, and I was surprised at how busy it was on a weekday. The tea shop is fairly modern, with wooden chairs and tables. But vintage china is used to serve the cakes etc. Food is ordered at the main counter and once ready the waitresses bring it over to you.

The tea shop has a good menu, including lots of breakfast items and sandwiches, as well as a counter full of cakes and scones! As I had not booked in advance I couldn't enjoy the full afternoon tea experience....so I opted for a cream tea and a piece of rocky road cake.....

Cream tea - Tea Shop Around The Corner, Farnborough

The scone was huge, but it was served cold. However, it was well baked and tasty, it was served with clotted cream and strawberry jam. The rocky road was amazing - a huge slab of cake! It was gooey and crunchy all at the same time and full of treats like marshmallow, cherries and biscuits. The pot of tea gave me about three cups of tea.

Afternoon tea scone - Tea Shop Around The Corner, Farnborough

Rocky Road Cake - Tea Shop Around The Corner, Farnborough

This feast cost me under £7.00, which I thought was great value as everything was fresh and tasty. The service was also fast and friendly, even when the tea shop got quite busy.

Cream tea & Cake - Tea Shop Around The Corner, Farnborough

 I'd definitely like to pop back and try their full afternoon tea feast which costs £14.95 per person and includes all the traditional items. For more about The Tea Shop Around the Corner visit their Facebook page.

Have you got a favourite local tea room? Why not tell us all about it!

Thanks for popping by today,

Rachel

Time for Tea...The Aviator

Hello there,

I hope you are keeping well.

This weekend I have indulged in a spot of afternoon tea with my friend Alex, we decided to go back to The Aviator hotel in Farnborough where Alex had taken me for a Birthday afternoon tea before. The hotel is privately owned by the TAG Group and overlooks the private airport which is also owned by TAG. Its a contemporary hotel, designed for elite travellers.

We both previously really enjoyed our afternoon tea at the Aviator and were keen to go back....unfortunately our experience this time wasn't quite as good. The presentation of the food was good, and the food itself looked and tasted wonderful....but the service was slightly lacking.

Afternoon tea is served in the Brasserie in the hotel, which is a modern space overlooking the airfield. The afternoon tea food is served on a modern glass cake stand, with plain white china.

A modern afternoon tea is served

 

When we first arrived, there was a Clipper Tea tea box on the table, full of individual tea bags for us to pick from. This is slightly different to the afternoon teas I have experienced before, where you pick a tea from a menu and it is presented to you in a tea pot. However, there was a good selection of Clipper teas to pick from including traditional teas, fruit teas and de-caf varieties.

 

The tea selection - I missed the usual tea menu

 

I have to say that I'm a bit of a stickler for tradition and although I have no problem with pouring my own tea, I think its a bit weird to be making your own tea. You are left with the tea box and a teapot full of hot water (which was refreshed when we requested), however each time we finished our cup of tea we needed to make a new one. It did feel a little wasteful too as you opened a new teabag for each cup you had.

 

Once we had our hot water the savoury selection was presented to us. We had warm scotch eggs made with quail eggs, which were really tasty. However, Alex's one was slightly runnier than mine.

 

The sandwiches underneath were all crustless and really fresh.

Sandwiches and warm savoury eggs

I was a little disappointed that the lady who brought these to our table didn't know what was in each sandwich. She pointed out the obvious ones (egg mayonnaise and salmon), but had to go back to the kitchen to find out what the others were (chicken mayonnaise and feta cheese). Each filling came on a different bread, which was lovely as the breads complimented the fillings.

 

We were not offered seconds of the savouries, however when I requested more egg sandwiches another plate was brought out to us.

 

We then turned our attention to the scones....

Scones, clotted cream and jam

We had one fruit scone each, clotted cream and a little pot of branded strawberry jam between us. The scones were a good size, but I found them a little heavy.

 

Finally we made it to the bit that Alex was looking forward to the most....the sweet treats...

 

Time for something sweet....

 On the top tier we had three different sweets...

 

A passion fruit and meringue cup which was wonderful, an earl grey and peach mousse which we loved and a little sandwich cake which was filled with a basil cream. I wasn't so keen on that cake, the texture was a little too soft and I wasn't a fan of the flavour.

 

The earl grey and peach mousse however was pretty amazing, it dissolved on the tongue and had a lovely flavour.

 

On the second tier we had an orange and liquorice macaroon and a chocolate and hazelnut cake.

 

I wasn't a fan of the macaroon, mainly because of the liquorice flavour. However, Alex who also doesn't like liquorice loved the macaroon - so it was just a matter of taste buds I think.

My favourite part of the whole afternoon tea was the chocolate and hazelnut slice, which reminded me of a Ferrero Rocher. It was delicate and light and had a slight biscuit base - I could have eaten a lot more of them!



So good it deserved its own photo!

 You can either have a traditional afternoon tea or a champagne tea, and the price will depend on whether you go during the week or on the weekend.

 

The traditional afternoon tea costs £19 during the week or £23 on the weekend. If you fancy a glass of bubbles the champagne afternoon tea costs £25 during the week and £29 on the weekend. I'm not entirely sure why it costs more on the weekend, but I think the price offers good value. The food is all fresh and very tasty.

 

There were lots of little issues with the service on Saturday and unfortunately this let our experience down. Not knowing the sandwich fillings and not offering us milk for our tea (we actually had to ask for milk!) were important things that let the hotel down. It was a shame really as I enjoyed the food we had.

 

However, I'll leave you with one last image.....

 

Yes....I actually left some of my scone! I don't think I have ever done that at afternoon tea before!

 

Thanks for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

Where's Next for Afternoon Tea?

Hello there!

So we've been a little quiet recently here at the Tea With Me and Friends afternoon tea blog....other commitments have taken priority and we haven't had time to enjoy our favourite pastime!

Never fear though...that is all about to change as we have quite a few afternoon teas lined up over the coming weeks!

This weekend coming I am hosting a Halloween themed afternoon tea at my house. I am really looking forward to getting creative in the kitchen and I need to improve on the tea we created last Halloween

 

On Sunday we are off to The Ampersand Hotel in South Kensington to enjoy another Halloween themed afternoon tea! I have seen some sneaky photos from Head Chef Chris Golding and I can't wait for the whole experience!

 

In the coming weeks we are also visiting The Athenaeum also in London - we've enjoyed afternoon tea here once before several years ago. I loved the cake trolley and the beautiful surroundings....and of course all the cake!

 

Then at the beginning of November I am venturing a little closer to home with a trip to The Aviator hotel in Farnborough. Again, I have enjoyed afternoon tea here before - they serve the most amazing warm scotch eggs!

 

We are really looking forward to enjoying all these teas and I hope you will enjoy reading about them! Please pop back over the coming weeks to see the various blog posts - we promise lots of scrummy photos!

 

Thanks for popping by today,

Rachel