Welcome to our blog....here we will share all our afternoon tea adventures with you...the good, the bad and the wonderful!
Showing posts with label thank you. Show all posts
Showing posts with label thank you. Show all posts

Thursday, 1 January 2015

Happy New Year!

Welcome back to another afternoon tea post from Tea With Me ands Friends - we hope your year has started well!

We decided to start 2015 with a look back over the wonderful year that was 2014. It was a special year which saw us become finalists in the UK Blog Awards 2014 and celebrate our first Birthday with a Giveaway, we have been overwhelmed with the support of all our readers. We spent a tea-riffic Saturday at an afternoon tea masterclass with Dominic Teague, the talented chef behind the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Inspired afternoon tea at One Aldwych. We also met Pastry Chef Ji Sun Shin - the creative force behind the amazing afternoon teas on offer at the Ampersand Hotel.

Then there were the afternoon teas themselves.....it's very hard to pick a favourite, so here is a selection of the teas we have enjoyed.....

There was the Cuban-inspired afternoon tea at St Martin's Lane which we enjoyed in January...

Afternoon tea at St Martins Lane

We enjoyed afternoon tea at the Rosewood Hotel in February, where they egg mayonnaise was piped into the sandwiches and a Valentine's afternoon tea at Royal Horseguards Hotel which included corset cookies and edible lipsticks!

Afternoon tea sandwiches at the Rosewood Hotel

A saucy valentines afternoon tea at Royal Horseguards Hotel

In March we played with dinosaurs and edible planets at the science themed afternoon tea at The Ampersand hotel.....

Science themed afternoon tea at Ampersand Hotel
In April we paid The Dorchester a visit to try their rather elegant afternoon tea and we walked the red carpet at the UK Blog Awards 2014 (we even found cake!)....

Elegant afternoon tea sandwiches at The Dorchester

Tea With Me and Friends at the UK Blog Awards 2014

We tried an edible garden afternoon tea at the Intercontinental Westminster in May and learnt a lot more about tea at the Mandarin Oriental Tea Master afternoon tea in June...

Edible Garden afternoon tea at Intercontinental Westminster

A selection of teas at the Mandarin Oriental

The sun shone for us in July when we visited Chewton Glen in Hampshire and in August we visited the Isle of Wight for a spot of afternoon tea at Chessell Pottery Barns.....

Afternoon tea at Chewton Glen

Sweet treats at Chessell Pottery Barns

We visited the zoo in September for afternoon tea at the Marwell Hotel and got our bunny ears out in October for afternoon tea at the Playboy Club in London....

Afternoon tea at Marwell Hotel

Bunny ear cupcakes at the Playboy Club

We enjoyed individual tea stands in the New Forest at the Limewood Hotel in November and finished the year at the Lancaster London Hotel in December.....

Afternoon tea at Limewood Hotel

Lorna picking her favourite sweet treat at the Lancaster London

And these are just some of the wonderful afternoon teas we have enjoyed! 

We were also joined by some lovely guest bloggers who shared their afternoon tea adventures with us, including Sarika who has shared her international afternoon teas and Nicci who visited The Bentley in London. We like to thank everyone who has contributed to our blog this year, from the guest bloggers who have written articles to the hotels who have shared their afternoon tea creations with us and the pastry chefs who have answered our nosey afternoon tea interview questions! 

We would also like to thank everyone who visits our blog, leaves comments for us on our Facebook page or follows us on Twitter - we love hearing from all of you and hope that you will continue this journey with us in 2015.

Tea with Me and Friends

Thank you for popping by today,
Rachel & Lorna

Tuesday, 16 December 2014

A little sad news....

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends.

Unfortunately we didn't make the shortlist of the UK Blog Awards 2015, but we wanted to thank everyone for their support and for their lovely comments on Twitter and Facebook.

We're so pleased that you enjoy our little afternoon tea blog and we really enjoy sharing our afternoon tea adventures with you! 

Afternoon Tea - Tea With Me and Friends

Just remember if you ever fancy joining us as a guest blogger, just drop us a line.....we're always keen to hear about the afternoon tea adventures you've been on.

Afternoon tea treats - Tea With Me and Friends

You can either leave a comment on this blog, or send us a message on Twitter or Facebook - we'd love to hear from you!

Thanks for popping by today,
Rachel & Lorna

Thursday, 26 June 2014

Time to Celebrate!

Hello there,

**Competition is now closed**

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends - today we are very excited as our little blog is nearly a year old! It's been an amazing first year, we're featured over 60 different afternoon teas, including experiences from the 1950s and the 1920s! We've featured large hotels and tiny tea rooms and lots in between!

We've met pastry chefs and poked our noses into hotel kitchens, and we've featured afternoon teas from so many lovely guest bloggers. Plus we were finalists in the UK Blog Awards 2014.

Most importantly we've met loads of wonderful people, all united in our passion for a spot of afternoon tea! We can't thank you enough for your support this year and we hope you continue to join us on our afternoon tea adventures as we have lots more to share with you!

Competition Time....

We are delighted to announce that we are being joined by The Ampersand Hotel in celebrating our first blog birthday. To celebrate we are holding a little competition and The Ampersand Hotel has kindly given us a champagne afternoon tea for two to give away!

Ampersand Hotel Afternoon Tea
Photo from Website

The winner of our competition is in for a lovely experience at the Ampersand Hotel, which is one of our favourite spots for tea! The present day hotel opened in the Summer of 2012 in South Kensington and is home to Head Chef Chris Golding and the talented Pastry Chef Ji Sun Shin.

What do you need to do to enter this little competition I hear you cry - well just leave us a comment under this post telling us your favourite thing about afternoon tea! You do not need a blogger profile to enter, and you do not need to follow the blog (but we would love it if you did!).

Please remember if you are visiting us from an IPhone you will need to click onto the mobile view at the bottom of this page to leave a comment in the comment box.

The boring bits....

The competition will run from 8am on Monday 2nd June and will close on midday on Thursday 26th June 2014, the winner will be picked at random and announced on the blog on 27th June 2014.

Entrants must be over 18 years old and must live in the UK.

The winner will be sent a voucher for a champagne afternoon tea for two at the hotel, which needs to be redeemed before 30th November 2014.

This post will stay at the top of the blog until the 27th June - for new afternoon tea posts please scroll down!

Tea With Me and Friends!

Good luck to everyone in the competition and thank you again for all of your support.

Best wishes,
Rachel & Lorna

Sunday, 27 April 2014

UK Blog Awards 2014 - we found cake!

Hello there,

Welcome back to another blog post from Tea With Me and Friends......a little earlier this year you might remember me talking rather a lot about the UK Blog Awards that we entered at the end of last year. We were so amazed when we were shortlisted at the beginning of this year and have all our wonderful readers and supporters to thank for that.

As one of the finalists in the Food and Drink category we attended a rather glitzy awards ceremony at The Grange Hotel St Pauls in London on Friday night. There we met a LOT of bloggers! Everyone was very friendly and it was great to actually meet some of the people behind the blogs/tweets that we read! We met the rather lovely Roch and Tash from Next Route Style and also creative cook Colin from My Foodie Blog to name just a few.

We enjoyed a chance to network, eat and drink and then the awards began...

UK Blog Awards 2014

This year we didn't win... but we did get a certificate......


.....and a goodie bag complete with wallpaper and flooring samples (there was also some Twinnings tea bags and a biscuit in there so we were very happy!)......

Our goodie bag !

....and we managed to find some rather nice cake to eat.....

Tea With Me and Friends

We'd like to say a HUGE thank you to everyone for their support. We started this blog less than a year ago and we're overwhelmed that so many people want to join us on our afternoon tea adventures!

Join us again this week for more afternoon tea photos and posts!

Thanks for popping by today,
Rachel & Lorna

Monday, 3 February 2014

Thank you so much for your tea-riffic support!

Hello there!

We just wanted to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who voted for Tea With Me and Friends in the UK Blog Awards. The public vote is now closed and I am delighted to tell you that we were shortlisted!

We our now through to the industry judged round!


To see all the other fab food blogs that got shortlisted take a peek here.

I can't tell you how proud I am of this and want to thank everyone who reads our afternoon tea blog for your support and lovely comments. I have met some lovely people writing this blog and been able to experience some wonderful afternoon teas. 

We have lots more plans for 2014 and can't wait to share our journey with you all.


Thank you for popping by today,
Rachel and Lorna

Tuesday, 31 December 2013

2013...our year of afternoon teas

Hello there,

Well its finally the end of 2013 and what a tea-riffic year it's been! Lorna and I have sampled rather a lot of afternoon teas this year, many of which have featured on this blog.

Looking back over the year we've indulged in traditional afternoon teas in the sunshine......

Afternoon tea at Warren House
and afternoon teas inspired by the catwalks.....

Pret a Portea at The Berkeley

We've sampled disappointing afternoon teas....with no tea in sight.....

Not Afternoon Tea at The Oxo Tower


and saucy afternoon teas accompanied by nipple tassels.....


Burlesque Afternoon Tea at Volupte Lounge



We've enjoyed an afternoon tea inspired by a children's book.....


Charlie and the Chocolate Factory inspired tea at One Aldwych

and spooky offerings at Halloween.....


Halloween afternoon tea at the Ampersand

Its been a lovely experience and we are so pleased that you've joined us on our tea adventures so far!

Lorna and I have been reviewing the tea's we've indulged in this year and we've tried to decide which was our favourite....but it turns out that is a very hard decision to make!

We both loved the service at the Intercontinental Westminster hotel, the waiters were all friendly and so helpful and our teacups were never empty......


Afternoon tea at Intercontinental Westminster

And we were both blown away by the tea knowledge that the waiters at the Athenaeum hotel demonstrated when helping me decide what tea to drink with my afternoon tea.


The tea menu at The Athenaeum

We had a lot of fun at The Reform Social & Grill - so much so that we actually went several times this year! Lorna really enjoyed her Gentleman's Afternoon Tea there.


Sweet treats at Reform Social & Grill

I loved the creativity of the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory afternoon tea that One Aldwych had on offer this year - so much so that I have signed Lorna and I up to their afternoon tea masterclass in March (blog post to follow!).


The savouries were not forgotten in One Aldwych's
 Charlie and the Chocoalte Factory Afternoon Tea!

If you ask our friend Becca....her favourite afternoon tea is the Pret a Portea at The Berkeley. Inspired by fashion, it is a highly imaginative tea.....


Pret a Portea at The Berkeley

Each tea we have tried has been very different and we've thoroughly enjoyed most of them! One things for sure.....there are an awful lot more afternoon teas out there for us to try and we can't wait for 2014 to begin!

Thank you once again for reading our little blog, we love sharing our thoughts and photos with you.

Wishing all our readers a Tea-riffic 2014 - filled with tea and cakes!

Rachel & Lorna