Time for Tea.....St Martins Lane

Hello there,

Happy New Year!

We hope that you've had a tea-riffic Christmas and wish you a sweet new year full of tea and cake!

Afternoon tea at St Martins Lane, London

At the end of last year Becca, Lorna and I enjoyed a Narnia themed afternoon tea at St Martins Lane in London. You may remember that we've visited St Martin's Lane previously and we're always keen to revisit when they have a new theme.

Although the Narnia themed tea is no longer available, I still wanted to share the photos with you.

Afternoon tea at St Martin's Lane is served in the Den, which is a beautifully snug space....perfect for a winter themed tea. When we visited The Den was dressed with lots of cosy throws and we even had our own pretend wood burner!

Tea at St Martins Lane is served on pretty Ted Baker china.....which I just love.....

as well as the patterns, I love the art deco shapes of the handles. 

The afternoon tea sweets are served on a contemporary stand, with the savoury items presented on a separate plate. There is one item per person....so no need to share or fight over the best looking sweet treats!

Afternoon Tea Stand, St Martins Lane London

This was a serving for three people, the stand does look a bit full!

There were three savoury items on this afternoon tea menu.....however as you can see from the photo below there was not a sandwich (finger or otherwise) in sight:

Ham, mushroom and cheese turnover
Tuna, avocado, tomato and sweetcorn wrap
Spinach and parmesan swirl

Afternoon tea - St Martins Lane, London

I'm going to be honest here....this was not my favourite selection of savoury items.....I'm not really a fan of mushrooms, avocado or spinach....however I ploughed on anyway.

The turnover would have been lovely without the mushrooms, it was hot and the pastry was crisp. Becca, who loves mushrooms, assured me that the mushrooms were good. The wrap was nice (despite the avocado), but I would have preferred a sandwich (call me old fashioned!). The swirl was altogether too spinachy (spell check says that's not a word, but I don't care) for me, but the pastry was lovely. 

Moving onto the scones....there was one each....but they were massive....

Massive scones at St Martins Lane

The flavour of the scones was good, along with the cream and raspberry jam, but the texture was a little claggy for me. I think this was due to the size of them rather than anything else - you really needed a lot of cream on them!

The sweets looked good and included a pretty Aslan head which I couldn't wait to try:

Snowball chestnut, blueberry
Aslan chocolate & caramel bonbon
The wardrobe almond biscuit, pear & pecan cream
The Ice Queen's Crown coffee tart
Turkish Delights
Mini mince pies

There was a good choice of sweet treats, meaning there was something for everyone. However, they didn't all hit the spot.....

I loved the coffee tart (coffee is always a win for me), the Turkish Delights were refreshing to enjoy at the end of the meal and the mini mince pies were packed with flavour (again I love a mince pie). I also enjoyed Aslan's head (sounds a bit weird I know), but it was super sweet and a little too big to enjoy the whole head - I think we probably ate one head between all three of us. 

We couldn't really taste the flavours in the snowballs and the wardrobes were a little bit confusing with the biscuit textures and the pears.

The service as usual was friendly and professional and the waiters all knew the menu well. We could change our tea choice throughout our time in The Den, or decide to enjoy a cup of coffee or hot chocolate instead.

As well as scrummy afternoon teas, St Martin's Lane has a beautiful lobby with lots of photo opportunities.....

All in all we enjoyed our latest visit to St Martins Lane and will no doubt visit again in 2019. To find out more about the latest afternoon tea adventures at St Martins Lane pop by their website

Thank you for popping by today - we look forward to seeing you again soon!

Rachel & Lorna

Time for Tea.....remembering the Pret a Portea Spring Summer 2018 afternoon tea

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends - earlier this summer when it was still very hot in the UK I spent a rather wonderful Saturday with a friend enjoying a Pret a Portea afternoon tea at the Berkeley. I didn't share it at the time, but it was such a pretty afternoon tea that I thought I would revisit it now.

We've enjoyed a Pret a Portea several times previously, but as they change the menu twice a year to reflect the latest styles and fashions its always good to visit again! The Berkeley is an elegant hotel located in Knightsbridge and their afternoon tea is just as beautiful as the surroundings you enjoy it in. Let's start this afternoon tea adventure by staring wistfully at one of their pretty teacups....

I know I'm biased because purple is my favourite colour (I'm typing this blog post on my purple laptop), but the Berkeley china is so pretty. The cups are big enough that you get a decent amount of tea without needing to refill your cup every two minutes, but pretty enough to still look dainty.

As tradition dictates the savouries are served first - a selection of finger sandwiches and bite sized treats which look as pretty as the crockery they are served on.

Each diner has a whole plate full of perfectly filled finger sandwiches - that's a total of six fingers each! Plus there are two mini bowls and another savoury. You will definitely not go hungry at this afternoon tea!

The sandwiches are freshly made, with a variety of fillings. Pleasingly there isn't a crust in sight and the sandwiches look fairly uniform. The chicken sandwich was probably my favourite, a roast corn fed chicken with spring onion and celery emulsion on onion bread....I might have enjoyed more than one of these!

The little bowls of savoury goodness were as pretty as they were tasty - both pleasing to the eye and the palate. Again, they were freshly made and the flavours were well balanced. The crab dish was my favourite, the flavours were delicate it was so pretty....

You are offered....encouraged even....to indulge in as many savouries as you can enjoy. But remember to leave room, there maybe no scones in this afternoon tea feast but there are plenty of sweets to be enjoyed.

How pretty is this stand.....

This is the Spring Summer 2018 Pret a Portea and it will be different to the one you would enjoy if you visited The Berkeley now, but the sweet treats will be just as pretty! There were a total of nine different sweets, including biscuits, patisserie, cakes and mousses. 

Each sweet treat is inspired by a fashion designer and looks amazing, you'll spend a long time trying to decide which one to try first! The waiting staff are extremely knowledgeable though and happy to help with flavour recommendations.

I really enjoyed the upside down black forest gateaux which consisted of a chocolate cone (far right in photo above), layered with chocolate and vanilla cream and cherries. This was recommended as a favourite by our waiter and it definitely didn't disappoint! 

I can also highly recommend the biscuits - beautifully decorated and flavoured.

The whole afternoon tea experience at The Berkeley is a delight from start to finish. The surroundings are elegant, the staff are professional but friendly and the food is both beautiful and tastes great too. Plus you'll have plenty of photos for your Instagram feed!

Slightly more expensive than the norm - this tea is a treat, but well worth it. For more details pop by The Berkeley website

Thank you for popping by today, we look forward to seeing you again soon.

Rachel & Lorna

Time for a spot of spooky afternoon tea!

Hello there!

Wow, it's been a long time! It's been a rather busy year for me personally, so I hope you excuse the lack of scrummy afternoon tea posts from me.

As some of you know, I love Halloween baking and always host a Halloween afternoon tea for my friends. So I thought I would break my silence by sharing with you this year's Halloween baking!

This year we had a selection of cakes and hand-iced biscuits, as well as a tower of egg mayonnaise finger sandwiches, mini coronation chicken rolls and handmade quiches to enjoy.

Over the years I have collected lots of Halloween themed table decorations and I love covering the table with skulls and handmade felt bats. I also love getting out my collection of vintage china to serve everything on and this year Becca made us cute little ghostly name tags for everyone.

Anika loves nothing better than a vanilla cupcake, so you will always find them as part of my afternoon tea spread. The monster cupcakes in my Halloween tea are vanilla sponge which I coloured green, topped with lashings of vanilla buttercream (with more food colouring) and some edibles eyes.....lots of edible eyes! 

Becca and I had great fun baking and icing the biscuits, we had pumpkins and bats with lime flavoured icing and tombstones and ghosts with lemon flavoured icing.

We used the flooding technique to ice the biscuits, outlining the biscuits first with a slightly thicker icing and then filling in the shape with a thinner icing. Finally details were added with the thicker icing. 

Among the other treats was a chocolate loaf cake which contained a cherry flavoured secret ghost in the middle! I love making cakes with hidden shapes in the middle, especially when the flavour isn't quite as expected! This cake went down especially well with a dollop of clotted cream!

Altogether we enjoyed a very spooky afternoon, watching movies as we enjoyed the treats! 

And the best thing about hosting an afternoon tea at your house.....you get to enjoy the leftovers the next day!

I hope you enjoyed seeing our afternoon tea spread and I promise to return soon with more scrummy posts! In the meantime if you enjoy a wonderful afternoon tea let us know all about it - we'd love to hear about your afternoon tea adventures.

Thanks for popping by today,

Rachel

Time for.....some afternoon tea chocolates!

Hello there!

Welcome back to Tea With me and Friends - we hope you're well today.

Recently I spotted a box of chocolates in Marks and Spencers that caught my attention.....

Yes, it's a box of chocolates inspired by classic British desserts and afternoon tea! As you can imagine I decided quite quickly that I needed to sample a box.....purely for research purposes!

 

The selection includes eight different chocolates, covering white, milk and dark chocolate. With inspiration for the fillings coming from both traditional puddings such as jam roly poly pudding and banoffee pie, and afternoon tea treats like bakewell tart and strawberries and cream.

Take a look at the menu....

When I first opened the box the smell of chocolate was so strong it made my mouth water - always a good sign! But would it be all style and no substance for these chocolates?

As I have a really sweet tooth and usually like most chocolates I thought I would recruit someone else (with a slightly less sweet tooth) to help give a more balanced view. My partner in crime for this review is my boyfriend Joe - he loves a cup of tea and his favourite cake is plain vanilla.....he puts jam on his scones before cream, but I suppose I'll let that slide for now. 

Joe declared that the chocolates looked posh when he first saw them (he's not usually a fan of fancy chocolates), but when he looked at the menu he seemed a bit more excited. 

He decided to try the banoffee pie chocolate first....

As you can see the chocolate has a thick milk chocolate shell, with a soft caramel and banana filling. Joe enjoyed the chocolate and described it as liquid banoffee pie. Not so good was the sticky toffee pudding, which featured a toffee mousse in a milk chocolate case. Although there was a toffee flavour, it wasn't particularly reminiscent of a real sticky toffee pud which was a bit disappointing. The mousse was also more like a heavy ganache.

However, overall Joe thought that if you like chocolates and you like puddings, you're probably going to like these chocolates!

I was tempted by the strawberries and cream chocolate and the bakewell tart....

I'm not normally a white chocolate fan, but in this chocolate it complemented the strawberry and cream ganache filling. Again, there is a good shell of chocolate encasing the filling. It was quite a rich chocolate....but I could imagine myself enjoying a couple of these with a glass of prosecco!

The bakewell tart chocolate had a weird texture which I couldn't quite put my finger on. However the flavour of almonds and cherries was very delicate and well balanced with the milk chocolate.

Overall this was a good box of chocolates, with a variety of different fillings. They would probably make a nice end to a meal at home with friends if you didn't fancy making pudding.....or you could keep them to yourself and just gobble them down with a cup of tea (I won't tell anyone I promise!).

Have you tried any afternoon tea inspired chocolate that we should try? 

We'd love to hear your recommendations!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel & Joe

Time for Tea....The Connaught

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends! Today we have a very elegant afternoon tea experience to share with you, as recently Lorna and I enjoyed a wonderful champagne afternoon tea at The Connaught.

Afternoon tea at The Connaught is served in the bright and modern surroundings of Jean-Georges at The Connaught. The day we visited the sun was shining and we were seated in a window seat, with plenty of room for us to spread out and enjoy our afternoon. We began our afternoon tea adventure with a glass of perfectly chilled champagne and an amuse-bouche - these delicious Smoked Tomato Brioche bites, which were served warm and complimented the champagne....

Champagne and amuse-bouche at The Connaught

Afternoon tea is served on elegant white china - no floral chintz here - which suits the surroundings of the modern lounge. The tea menu provides enough choice without being over complicated, allowing both the tea novice and tea connoisseur to pick a tea to enjoy. The menu includes six black teas, three green teas and five herbal blends to pick from. 

Once we'd finished the scrummy smoked tomato brioche bites, the finger sandwiches were served. 

First of all lets appreciate how beautiful the afternoon tea sandwiches look - perfectly cut with no crusts in sight. The sandwiches were everything you'd want them to be - with fresh, soft bread, plenty of fillings and well balanced flavours.

Afternoon tea sandwiches at The Connaught

The flavours offer a combination of traditional English fillings with South East-Asian flavours:

Cucumber & lime, with Greek yogurt and mint 

Truffle egg mayonnaise, with watercress 

Chipotle smoked salmon, with coriander and spring onions 

Miso mustard ham & aged cheese, with mayonnaise, honey and walnuts 

Coriander coronation chicken, with spiced mayonnaise and chopped nuts

Next up were the scones, which were huge....

Afternoon tea scones at The Connaught

The scones were served with homemade strawberry jam, Cornish clotted cream and my favourite lemon curd (I think lemon curd goes so well with clotted cream). The scones had a good flavour and texture, but I could only manage to eat one as they were rather large.

Finally we have the cake stand - the plain stand allows the cakes to really stand out. The pastries looked really exciting, plus we had cute shortbread dogs with a chocolate fondue to enjoy....

Afternoon tea at The Connaught

The sweet treats from Executive Pastry Chef Nicolas Rouzaud include:

Green apple tart, with apple jelly and basil mousse 

Carrot cake, with walnuts, cream cheese and cinnamon 

Rhubarb, with rhubarb compote and fromage blanc 

St Honoré  - a caramel cream roll with vanilla whipped cream 

Rocher - hazelnut praliné and milk chocolate

Each of these pastries is quite exquisite - they look beautiful and have well balanced flavours. The St Honore was so light with the cutest caramel roll on top and I really enjoyed the apple and basil flavours together in the mini tart. But the best piece for me was the carrot cake, which was moist and flavoursome - definitely the best carrot cake I've had the pleasure of enjoying!

As we were celebrating my birthday I was presented with an extra treat....more of that wonderful carrot cake! I love a personalised plate when you are celebrating something, there is something lovely about seeing your name written in chocolate!

Celebration plate at The Connaught

We had a wonderful afternoon at the Connaught, the service was warm and friendly and the food delicious. A great place to celebrate a birthday or another special occasion. To find out more about the afternoon tea at The Connaught please visit their website.

I will leave you with a warning tale today for anyone who enjoys taking photos of their food....be careful not to drop your camera on your food before you enjoy it. 

This is what a very squashed Rocher looks like.....

Whoops!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel and Lorna

Fes-Tea-Val 2018 - Celebrating National Tea Day!

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends - we hope you're feeling tea-riffic today!

Here in the UK we are getting closer to the biggest par-tea of the year - the UK's only dedicated tea fes-tea-val takes place on the 21st and 22nd April at Chiswick House and Gardens. The fes-tea-val is to celebrate National Tea Day - a movement to get people drinker more tea! We believe there is nothing better than catching up with friends or family over a cuppa and so can't wait for this event dedicated to tea!

The event is divided into dedicated zones with themed activities and delicious food, drink and lifestyle delights in each.......and of course lots of tea samples to find your new favourite tea! The zones include, the Bou-tea-que, Tea ‘n’ Tipple Boulevard, The Tea Bazaars, Tea ‘n’ Treat Village, The Vitali-Tea Garden and the Picnic Park - just take a peek at the map.....

The event is open 10am-5pm on both days, with Tea & Tipple Boulevard open until 9pm so you can par-tea long into the night!

For more information and to buy tickets pop by the National Tea Day website

Thanks for popping by today,
Rachel & Lorna

Time for Tea....London at Ten Trinity Square

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends - we hope you're well today.

Last weekend Sheree and I visited London at Ten Trinity Square, a Four Seasons hotel, for a spot of afternoon tea. Situated near the Tower of London, this hotel is impressive from the outside and has a glamorous interior. Afternoon tea is served in the Rotunda Lounge, which has a 1920s feel to it with a beautiful art deco domed ceiling - a nod towards the buildings history (it was the 1922 headquarters of the Port of London Authority).

The afternoon tea is also a glamorous affair with a 1920s theme - the menu is called The Bright Young Things and is served on elegant china and a rather unusual stand...

If I am honest I'm not sure I like this presentation, although it's not tall and imposing it does create a wall between you and your fellow tea friends....just look at Sheree over the other side of the food! However, as you can see all the food was easily accessible and we had enough room on the table.

The savouries were served on individual slates and included five different items....

On first inspection I liked the variety on offer, it's always nice to see more than just a finger sandwich on the menu. The fillings were all very different too:

Chicken coronation Curry mayonnaise & allysum flowers

Heritage beetroot Hazelnut, chives & goat cheese mousse

Salmon rillettes Lime mayonnaise, egg roe & lemon balm leaves

Roasted beef Pink peppercorn sauce, rocket & parmesan

Egg & truffle Watercress & soft cooked quail egg

There were two items that I was really looking forward to trying on the menu....the coronation chicken (my guilty pleasure) and the egg sandwich. Unfortunately, although the flavours were good and there were no crusts, the bread itself had started to go a bit crusty.

The rest of the savouries tasted fresh, but these two sandwiches had the air of a crustless sandwich which had been waiting for us to arrive rather than one that was freshly made. It was a real shame as I really enjoyed the coronation chicken filling, probably one of the best I have enjoyed.

Moving on, we turned our attention to the scones....

Do not adjust your screen.......there are two very pink scones there! 

The scones included two plain and two cranberry scones, served with clotted cream, apricot preserve and strawberry preserve.

As you can see there was fruit in the cranberry scones, but I couldn't really taste the flavour. The scones themselves had a great texture though and were served warm.

Finally we moved onto the 1920s themed sweet treats, which included hats, lips and an ashtray complete with cigar!

As well as being some of the most unusual looking afternoon tea treats that I've seen in a while, the sweets were also diverse in flavour and we couldn't wait to tuck in!

Rubi grapefruit cheese cake Cream cheese mousse, pink grapefruit confit

Mango, coconut & ginger Citrus mousse, mango jelly, coconut & ginger dacquoise

Pistachio, blackcurrant & violet Pistachio chantilly, blackcurrant & violet jelly

Chocolate & salted caramel Salted butterscotch, Guanaja chocolate mousse

Lime & raspberry pannacotta Lime pannacotta, raspberry jelly

We both thoroughly enjoyed the sweets that accompanied this tea. It's not often that a menu contains so many flavours that all appeal to me....I'll usually really like one or two and the rest are just ok. These however, were nearly all wonderful ....I wasn't a fan of the pistachio and violet, but that was purely a flavour preference (Sheree really enjoyed it).

All the rest were delicious!

I think my favourite was the ashtray....

Don't let the blue colour put you off....the chocolate and salted caramel were very well balanced and the biscuit base was amazing! 

We also both loved the raspberry and lime pannacotta - again, really well balanced, fresh flavours and a beautiful consistency. I'm not usually a pannacotta fan and so this really surprised me.

Although our tea was topped up throughout our afternoon we weren't offered anymore food. I probably couldn't have eaten anymore, but as this is a more expensive afternoon tea it would be preferably to have the option if we wanted seconds of anything. 

This afternoon tea costs £45 each or if you fancy a glass of champagne with your tea it costs £55. For more information pop by the London at Ten Trinity Square website.

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel

Time for.....Hot Chocolate!

Hello there!

We hope you're well today. Here at Tea With Me and Friends Towers we love a great cup of tea with our afternoon tea and are partial to a cup of coffee in the morning....but we also love a really good hot chocolate! There is something so comforting about hot chocolate, like a lovely warm hug in a mug!

So when Natasha at Pretty Patisserie told me that they were launching a new hot chocolate menu I just had to check it out! Then when I saw the menu.....yes they have a hot chocolate menu....I knew I had to pop back to Pretty Patisserie really soon to try  of the hot chocolates!

Each hot chocolate is made to order, using real chocolate. There is also a dairy free option.

In total there are nine different hot chocolates to sample....I think I'm going to be visiting rather a lot in the near future! From a classic hot chocolate to a chocolate orange, a chocolate mint and a wonderful creation called The Unicorn (which is white chocolate and raspberry, complete with lots of marshmallows and a unicorn horn!).

I popped by Pretty Patisserie to try my first hot chocolate last week, opting for the chocolate orange variety (I love Terrys Chocolate Oranges!) and of course I had to sample another cake while I was there. This time I picked a rather wonderful looking lemon cupcake (the lemon drizzle that I love so much had already sold out). I took my seat in Squires and waited for my treats to be brought over.....

I decided to have a lemon cupcake because surely that's two of my five a day right there! 

To start with just feast your eyes on that hot chocolate...it truly is magnificent! Classic hot chocolate, spiked with orange oil and topped with whipped cream! Now cast your eyes on the cake...just look at that perfect icing!

The hot chocolate was scrummy - served at the perfect temperature and the balance of the chocolate and orange flavours is great. Not too sweet, not too bitter. I really enjoyed it and probably consumed it far too quickly!

The cake was also delicious - the sponge was light and flavoursome and there was a great lemon filling in the middle. The icing on the top also has a great flavour and the texture is lovely too. All in all a lovely cake!

If you live near Farnham in Surrey or happen to be visiting the area and fancy a lovely hot chocolate and a great piece of cake you can't beat Pretty Patisserie! While you're there you can also take a look at the wonderful cakes and biscuits on display in Squires.

On this occasion I'd like to thank Pretty Patisserie for their hospitality as they treated me to my hot chocolate. Don't worry though - the sweet treat didn't go to my head and all opinions expressed in this blog post are my own.

I'll definitely be popping back to work my way through the rest of the hot chocolate menu! If you visit Pretty Patisserie we'd love to know what you enjoyed! Leave us a comment and let us know!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel