Afternoon Tea News - Flower Afternoon Tea, Lancaster London

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends - today we have some afternoon tea news to share with you as Lancaster London is launching their new floral afternoon tea!

As London starts to bloom with summer flowers and the annual Chelsea Flower Show amazes guests, the chefs of Lancaster London will be switching bags of flour for flowers and the butter for buttercups as they present the ‘blooming marvellous’ Flower Afternoon Tea. 

Lancaster London Blooming Afternoon Tea

A beautifully botanical arrangement of sweet delights includes:

a creamy Lavender chocolate mousse cake;

White chocolate macaroons topped with crystallised violets;

a tangy Lime and elderflower trifle with edible flowers.

The Flower Afternoon Tea features both traditional and raisin scones with classic toppings of strawberry jam and clotted cream, plus a delectably nectar-sweet orange blossom jam.

The savoury treats also have a wild theme with:
Lancaster London home-smoked salmon roses on rye bread,

Coronation chicken served on sweet cranberry bread,

a warm tartlet of English asparagus, with saffron and sun-blushed tomatoes

Sunflower seeded choux buns with wild mushroom, truffle oil and cream cheese are full of wild British woodland flavours. 

Lancaster London Blooming Afternoon Tea

The blossoming tea is served in the hotel’s Lounge Bar from 2pm until 5.30pm, Wednesday 3 May until Wednesday 31 May 2017. The tea is priced at £30 per person and £45 with a glass of Pommery Champagne included. The Flower Afternoon Tea is also available as a Flower ARTea, priced from £35 per person. For more information pop by the Lancaster London website.

This certainly looks like a beautiful afternoon tea experience - if you give it a try during May we would love to know what you think!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

Afternoon Tea News....‘Blooming delicious’ afternoon tea

Hello there,

Welcome back to another Afternoon Tea News article from Tea With Me and Friends....this time we have another beautifully floral tea to share with you.

Between the 12th May - 22nd June 2015 guests visiting the Chinoiserie lounge at Jumeirah Carlton Tower can enjoy this beau-tea-ful afternoon tea...

Afternoon tea - Jumeirah Carlton Tower

This beautiful feast is the creation of executive chef, Simon Young which includes a rosewater and raspberry flower tart, a mini plant pot filled with chocolate mousse, or orange blossom and golden raisin scones.  There is also a coconut and pineapple delice and an elderflower and chocolate window box. 

The savouries include brioche filled buns with roast peppered beef and watercress, saffron bread with Laverstoke Park mozzarella and Sussex goat’s cheese and lemon thyme muffin with Loch Fyne smoked salmon.

Afternoon tea - Jumeirah Carlton Tower

For more information about this afternoon tea please visit the Jumeirah Carlton Tower website. 

If you enjoy this limited edition tea we'd love to hear all about it - don't forget to take a photo for us!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

Afternoon Tea News....Chelsea Flower show at Langham London

Hello there,

Welcome back to another afternoon tea news article at Tea With Me and Friends.....and since it is RHS Chelsea week we thought we would share with you another beautiful afternoon tea inspired by the flower show.

This time we have Chef Cherish's latest creation at the Langham London....

Cherish has taken inspiration from Laurent-Perrier’s annual designer garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show to create this pretty plate. The sweet treats include a Daisy Victoria Sponge, Langham 150 Chocolate mousseline with Raspberry (made with ‘No 150’, the Langham Chocolate soon to launch at the hotel) a Vanilla Pannacotta with lemongrass and Pineapple compote, Pina colada macaroon and a key lime log with sable.

Not only is the tea beautiful, but the Palm Court where tea is served has also been given the floral touch....

This afternoon tea adventure is limited however, available from now until 24th May. For more information please visit the Langham website.

If you enjoy this afternoon tea....or another floral inspired afternoon tea...we'd love to hear all about it!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

Time for....a spot of gardening?

Hello there,

Welcome back to another post from Tea With Me and Friends.

You might not know this about me, but as well as afternoon tea I am also rather partial to a spot of gardening! I am very lucky to have a lovely space at home to grown flowers and plants and I can often be found covered in soil watching my garden grow!

As you can imagine I also love the RHS Chelsea Flower Show (although sadly I've never been), and so when I saw a display that combined my two passions I just had to share it with you!

This is Interflora's floral design exhibit entitled ‘Time for Tea’ which is inspired by the tradition of afternoon tea.....

Time for Tea - Interflora - RHS Chelsea
Image from Interflora Facebook page

Interflora have won five medals for displays at RHS Chelsea in previous years, and this wonderful display has earned them a Silver Gilt award! The display can be found in the Great Pavilion, where visitors will find a teapot, teacups, cupcakes and certain jammy biscuits....

Time for Tea - Interflora - RHS Chelsea
Image from Interflora Facebook page

Time for Tea - Interflora - RHS Chelsea
Image from Interflora Facebook page

A truly beau-tea-ful display I think you'll agree....

Time for Tea - Interflora - RHS Chelsea
Image from Interflora Facebook page

For more information about the display visit the Interflora Facebook page and for details about the flowers used take a peek at the Interflora blog.

If you visit RHS Chelsea and see the tea-riffic flower display in person we'd love to hear all about it!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel

Afternoon Tea News.....Coworth Park Launches New Tea

Hello there,

Welcome back to another afternoon tea post from Tea With Me and Friends. Today we are sharing with you some exciting news as Coworth Park in Ascot launch their new Meadow Tea. Celebrating British summertime the Meadow Afternoon tea is inspired by flowers that grow on the estate and features exclusive fragrant hand-blended tea.

Meadow Afternoon Tea - Coworth Park
Photo from Website

The Meadow Tea will be served in the elegant Drawing Room of Coworth Park when the meadow blooms, between the 1st June and 31st September 2014. Pastries will be accompanied by a selection of finger sandwiches and scones, and complemented by seasonal homemade compotes.

Head Pastry Chef Luke Frost has created such delights as a Raspberry and Rose Fancy which is a twist on a British favourite inspired by the pinks and reds of Coworth Park’s own rose garden with layers of raspberry and rose between light sponge and the Gooseberry Fool with estate picked elderflower.

 

There will be two sittings each day at 2:30pm and 4:45pm. The Meadow Afternoon Tea is priced at £29.00 per person or from £42.50 per person for champagne meadow tea, for more information please visit the Coworth Park website.

Meet the Head Pastry Chef

Head Pastry Chef Luke Frost
Coworth Park

To celebrate the launch of this summery afternoon tea we asked Chef Luke some afternoon tea questions......

Q How long does it usually take you to create new afternoon teas?

Guests at Coworth Park are treated to individually hand crafted pastries when enjoying tea in our drawing room. Perfecting each pastry from idea to final result can be less time consuming than you may think due to the skills of my team, although it’s the often the ones you believe to be the easiest that pose the most difficulty. The art here is to balance colours, flavours and textures to ensure a balanced selection for the guests to enjoy which is where the creativity comes in. 

Q. Where does your inspiration for new teas come from?

I love Coworth Park’s mantra ‘Rewriting the rules’ and my current afternoon tea selection reworks classic British pastries. In the summer I cannot fail to be influenced by Coworth Park’s stunning wild flower meadow and this year the view from the Mansion House will provide fresh inspiration for the team in both flavours and presentation. 

Q. What is your favourite part of your latest afternoon tea?

Manchester Tart, a staple in any northern bakery, is normally made with powdered custard and heaps of dessicated coconut. My modern interpretation has banana crème brulee, homemade jam and coconut marshmallow and I think best represents an example of reworked British classics.

Q. Do you enjoy a spot of afternoon tea yourself and have you tried tea anywhere else?

I love the experience of Afternoon Tea, lingering over something so delicious in the late afternoon is wonderfully indulgent. At my own wedding reception I chose to have Afternoon Tea, it was more relaxed and guests could socialise rather than be restricted by a seating plan. Afternoon Tea at The Dorchester is a classic that cannot be rivalled. 

Q. What is your favourite filling in an afternoon tea sandwich?

This is a tough choice, both egg & cress or smoked salmon would be contenders but I have to pick Coronation Chicken. Last summer at The Dorchester I had a chicken and mango sandwich on cumin bread which was a modern adaption on the traditional coronation chicken and it was excellent. 

Q. The all important question - do you put cream or jam on your scone first?

Jam first. It’s all about what you want to feel on you palate and the aftertaste you want left in your mouth and for me that means the lingering smoothness of the clotted cream. 

Q. If you could invite any guest to enjoy afternoon tea with you, who would it be and why?

I am very interested in both the history and architecture of buildings so it would be fantastic to sit with The Earl of Derby who is the original owner of Coworth Park. I would love to discuss how the estate has evolved over the years and his thoughts about the hotel today. 

A big thank you to Chef Luke for answering our questions, I hope to enjoy tea at Coworth Park in the near future as the Meadow Tea sounds wonderfully summery.

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel