Time for Tea.....With lots of Audreys!

Hello there,

Welcome back to another afternoon tea post from Tea With Me and Friends - this time I would like to share with you a recent tea Lorna and I experienced with the lovely Secret Tea Society Ladies at Warren House.

Now if you are not sure who the Secret Tea Society are you should really take a peek at their website....led by our tea leader Claire, we are a group of like minded ladies who enjoy tea and a good gossip! We meet approximately once a month for afternoon tea at various locations - we're a very friendly bunch so if you fancy joining us take a peek!

This tea was a rather special one as it was a Breakfast at Tiffany's themed afternoon tea that was put on for us at Warren House in New Malden, Surrey. As well as a beautifully dressed room and themed games all the ladies were also asked to dress for the occasion....

An orderly queue of Audreys!

As you can see from the photo above, tea was served buffet style, which for this particular tea I rather enjoyed. All the food was on the buffet table, presented on stands and we could help ourselves. Tea was of the loose leaf variety and we were presented with a selection of Twinings leaves to pick from.

A selection of Twinings Teas to pick from

Afternoon Tea Stands - Warren House

We had a traditional selection of afternoon tea treats to indulge in:

Afternoon tea sandwiches

Scones with homemade jam and clotted cream

Various pastries and fresh fruit

The sandwiches were fresh and perfectly sized - not a crust in sight. The fillings were very traditional and included smoked salmon and cucumber, egg mayonnaise and ham.

Afternoon tea sandwiches - Warren House

Next we helped ourselves to scones and pastries.....

Sweet treats at Warren House!

From the lovely selection I decided to try the vanilla and strawberry panna cotta shot, the ginger spiced cupcake, the brownie and the tea bread.

I really enjoyed the panna cotta, which was rich and creamy and went beautifully with the strawberry compote on the top. I also loved the mini cupcake which was perfectly sized and full of flavour.

The scones were also a good size - not too big, not too small and were not claggy in texture. I particularly enjoyed the homemade strawberry jam as well, which had a really good flavour.

Afternoon tea sweets - Warren House

Our tea was served in wonderful, individual glass teapots. 

I loved the contemporary design....

Tea is served!

Finally I thought I should show you what Lorna and I decided to wear to this tea. We were all asked to dress in our best Breakfast at Tiffany's inspired outfits....and we decided to think outside the box a little....

Lorna opted for Audrey in her pink dress....and I went for "Moon River" Audrey, complete with guitar! 

All in all we had a wonderful afternoon, a big thank you to Claire for organising yet another wonderful afternoon tea and thank you also to Warren House for a lovely afternoon tea experience.

To find out more about afternoon tea at Warren House please visit their website.

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel

Time for Tea..... Warren House

Hi there,

A wonderful afternoon was had today at Warren House, an elegant Victorian mansion in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey.  Rachel, Mum and I enjoyed a champagne afternoon tea with luxurious chocolate coated strawberries - a decadent addition to a traditional tea.

The china was contemporary and clean and the teas seemed to be a selection of Twinings tea bags (I'm not a tea snob and found my jasmine green tea to be very refreshing, but if you are an aficionado then this detail may be important to you) although I am unsure of the exact choices available as we were not offered a menu to peruse.

The food was delicious and the sandwiches had a home-made feel about them with a controversial hint of crust remaining.  The warm scones were delicious and we all enjoyed having our very own pot of cream to ourselves, particularly myself as although I enjoy sharing many things, food is not one of them!  The warm cakes that accompanied the scones were another variation from the norm that worked very well.

The pastries have a whole paragraph to themselves as for me they were the highlight of the afternoon.  Beautiful, bitter dark chocolate complemented rich Chantilly cream in the delicate profiteroles and the chocolate and caramel slice was to die for.  The minature carrot cupcake was moist and the shot of raspberry mousse was a refreshing, tangy alternative for your taste buds.

At £23.50 each for the classic afternoon tea, we felt this offered pretty good value as there were plenty of sweet treats and a good variety. If you want to sample the champagne afternoon tea that we had today that is slightly more expensive at £38.50 per person, but includes a glass of champagne and chocolate dipped strawberries.

Warren House provides a magnificent backdrop for your afternoon tea and and we enjoyed ours on the terrace which overlooks immaculate landscaped gardens and is a lovely place to relax the afternoon away.  It was a typical British summer's day (for all you non-Brits out there, that means it rained!) but we kept our stiff upper lips in place and stuck it out until the sunshine reemerged although we knew we could have easily been moved inside upon request.

The one problem with sitting outside was that the staff sometimes seemed to forget we were there.  However they were all charming when they were with us so maybe they were just trying to maintain an unpressurised environment, it's just a shame to run out of tea at afternoon tea.

 

However, I cannot leave you with that thought as overall our afternoon at Warren House was relaxing, pleasant and delicious.  This tea in the suburbs is definitively competition for the big city hotels.

Thank you for popping by today, we'd love it if you left us a comment to say hi!
Lorna & Rachel