The votings over....but which sandwich filling won?

Hello there,

Well, yesterday our latest poll closed...thank you to everyone who voted and joined in our various chats on Twitter and Facebook all about sandwich fillings!

We gave you quite a traditional choice of afternoon tea sandwich fillings to pick from....there was egg mayonnaise, cucumber, salmon, coronation chicken, ham or the option to pick "other". The firm favourite was egg mayonnaise with 32% of the votes, this was closely followed by cucumber at 24% and my personal favourite coronation chicken with 20% of the votes.

Afternoon tea sandwiches

So, how do you make a good egg mayonnaise sandwich...I'm by no means perfect, but this is what I do....

You will need:

1. Two slices of white bread, buttered with the crusts cut off 
2. One large egg
3. A dollop of mayonnaise (I prefer full fat Heinz mayo, but you may have another favourite brand!)
4. Seasoning (if you must)

So, I said it....white bread....yes, its not the most healthy variety (and I prefer full fat mayo for this sandwich!)...but if I'm honest I will always pick white bread for my egg sandwiches....it just tastes better!

What to do:

1. You first need to boil your egg, I prefer a hard boiled egg for my sandwiches, but I know this will vary person to person so why not experiment with your boiling! 
2. Once boiled, I peel the egg and leave it to cool (nothing worse than a hot egg mayonnaise sandwich!).
3. Once cooled I mash my egg with a fork and then add a good dollop of mayonnaise. Now mix well. At this stage please add seasoning to taste, you could also add some chopped chives or a handful of cress if you fancy something a little bit different.
4. You then need to top one piece of bread with your egg mixture, making sure you have egg from one side of the bread to the other (don't miss any bit out!). Once you are happy with your coverage, add the top slice of bread and press down (not too firmly or your filling will ooze from the sides!). 
5. Now take a sharp knife and cut your sandwich into delicate fingers and enjoy!

More afternoon tea sandwiches

I hope you've enjoyed our recent poll - I've definitely enjoyed hearing about everyones favourite sandwiches. 

Watch out for a new poll coming soon!

Thanks for popping by today,

Rachel

Time for Tea....Royal Garden Hotel

Hello there,

One of my friends messaged me on Twitter last week to say they were celebrating their wedding anniversary at the Park Terrace Lounge in the Royal Garden Hotel, London. They had never enjoyed afternoon tea before and were looking forward to the experience.

I celebrated my birthday with a group of friends at the Royal Garden Hotel a couple of years ago and we really enjoyed the experience, so I was keen to know what it was like now.

Kate and her husband were impressed with their experience and sent me the following photos.....

Afternoon tea at the Royal Garden Hotel

Lets take a closer peek at that afternoon tea stand.......

Great service at the Royal Garden Hotel

 The Royal Garden Hotel offers guests two different afternoon teas, there is the Kensington Tea and the Royal Tea. 

The Kensington Tea includes tea of your choice from the extensive tea menu and a selection of sandwiches. This is followed by scones served with clotted cream and jam, and a selection of cakes and pastries. This tea costs £24.00 per person.

If you fancy some bubbles and strawberries with your tea, indulge in the Royal Tea which costs £34.00 per person. This tea includes all the above and also strawberries with a balsamic drizzle and a glass of champagne.

Afternoon tea at the Royal Garden Hotel,
photo from website

In addition to the green, black, white and fruity teas on offer at this tea, for a supplement guests can also try a selection of Asian-inspired Ceremonial Teas.

Tea is served daily between 2:00pm - 5:30pm in the lounge and guests enjoy live piano music as they dine.

I am pleased to discover that this tea is just as wonderful as when I enjoyed it with my friends a couple of years ago. 

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel

Time for Tea.....BB Bakery County Hall

Hello there,

Welcome back to another afternoon tea post from Tea With Me and Friends....today we have a wonderful guest post for you written by my Twitter friend Alex who indulged in a spot of tea at BB Bakery County Hall.

Take a peek at her experience......

"I fancied afternoon tea with somewhere close by where we could walk off the calories afterwards. After much Internet perusing I found the website for BB Bakery County Hall. Situated right on the Southbank and just £26 for an afternoon tea, it seemed too good to be true.

Let me tell you, it was everything and more.

Such delights await you inside these doors!

When booking our reservation we requested a vegetarian tea and one normal tea, we also told them that we would have a baby with us.

The bakery was big and quirky chic with pictures and vintage tea decorations everywhere. There were lots of sweets in jars, and cakes on display that had you ready to dive in! Upon arrival they were friendly and welcoming and had reserved us an area with a sofa so the baby could lie on it if needed (we thought this was very thoughtful).

Such pretty displays!

Wouldn't you love this in your living room??

When asking us what we would like to drink, both of us said we were not huge tea drinkers to which we were informed we could have as many soft drinks we liked. The savoury part of tea was served on two different plates, so the vegetarian bits were separate. Then a plate of sweet treats was on top.

Afternoon tea at BB Bakery County Hall

The waitress informed us to ask when we were ready for scones as they serve fresh from the oven! You can imagine at this point I was thankful for the stretchy dress I had worn!

The sandwiches were fresh, tasty and with a mixture of fillings such as pesto and mozzarella and ham and Edam. We also had a miniature quiche which was light and well seasoned.

Then came the sweets..... 

Cake anyone??

Well they were good, a little too good! We had macaroons, chocolate brownies, cupcakes, lemon meringues and raspberry tartlets. Each one was so beautifully made and perfectly sized.

But the scones, the scones were the icing on the huge giant iced afternoon tea cake. Hot and fresh, the jam was home made and the clotted cream was light and delicious. All together we oohed and ahhed.

After Alex's description I think I need to try one of these scones!

Every mouthful of this tea was just wonderful and we felt so relaxed and welcomed. We even got goody boxes to take our leftovers home in. Yes we had leftovers!!!"

Well, I don't know about you....but I might be drooling just a little bit after reading that! It sounds like Alex had such a lovely tea, I had heard good things about this afternoon tea so I am glad it lived up to other people's experiences. At £26.00 each (or £33.00 each with a glass of bubbles) I think this is a great value tea, offering lovely service and a fab selection of goodies - definitely one for my wish list!

BB Bakery County Hall offers so many different sweet and savoury treats, take a peek at their menu here. If you fancy trying afternoon tea for yourself you need to give them at least 24 hours notice.

Thank you Alex for sharing your experience with us....and for taking so many lovely photos! 

If you've enjoyed afternoon tea anywhere recently, why not drop us a line and let us know about it. We'd love to see your photos too!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel

Time for Tea....St Martins Lane

Hello there!

I hope you're having a tea-riffic day!

Yesterday Lorna and I indulged in an afternoon tea with a difference at St Martins Lane hotel, London. We were there to try the Cafecito afternoon tea at Asia de Cuba, a sweet and savoury feast with both Asian and Cuban influences.

In the modern surroundings of Asia de Cuba, with Cuban music playing in the background, our tea was served on wonderfully quirky bespoke china. 

Quirky china at Asia di Cuba's afternoon tea

 As you arrive each diner is presented with a cigar box full of the utensils required for your tea, and you are told that you will need to make just four choices during your whole experience....and all of these are drink related!

Inside the box is your knife and fork, a beautiful tea strainer and your menu.....

Inside the cigar box......

Afternoon tea is served in two parts, with the savoury items being served first and the sweet only served when you are finished with the savoury. Each "course" comes with a different tea.

Our first decision of the afternoon was whether or not we wanted a cocktail to begin our experience. There were three different cocktails on offer, and our waiter gave a recommendation of which one he liked best. 

Of course we decided it would be rude not to try a beautifully crafted cocktail to compliment our afternoon tea! I opted for the fruity "Passionate About Tea" (a rum based cocktail) and Lorna went with the recommendation of the waiter and enjoyed an "Old Cuban Martini". Both were very tasty!

We also had to decide which of three teas to enjoy with our savoury course. There was an Iron Buddha, a Dragon Well and a smokey Lapsang. Lorna went with the Dragon Well and I tried the Lapsang. The teas were served in modern, glass teapots.

A fruity cocktail and a pot of smokey tea!

The first course was then served....a fruity smoothie to begin and then a wonderful selection of savoury items all served on a very quirky stand.......

The first course at Asia de Cuba
- the savoury selection!

As regular readers will know, both Lorna and I have quite sweet teeth and so you might be surprised to know how much we enjoyed this first course. Among the delicious items were a BBQ pulled pork and Swiss cheese pressed sandwich, a chicken and avocado spring roll and savoury scones served with Mojito butter.

A closer look at some of those savoury afternoon tea items!

The flavours were all rather delicious, and there was a great selection of items. It was also rather nice to enjoy the smokey tea with these savoury items.

The scones that we were served may have looked small, but they were light inside and full of flavour. One was flavoured with onion and the other with herbs. Both went very well with the Mojito butter.

Once we had finished the savoury items, the china was cleared and we were asked to pick the next tea to go with our sweet treats. This time the teas were lighter and included a caramel Oolong, a Lychee Red and a Vanilla Black tea.

The sweet selection was then brought out on a cute little platter......

The sweet treats!

The platter included the most amazing Mexican doughnuts which were filled with a butterscotch sauce. They were served warm, and melted in your mouth - completely scrummy! We also enjoyed a mini key lime pie topped with a light meringue, warm banana spring rolls and a delicious chili chocolate cream (the waiter recommended dipping the banana into the chocolate cream and I can confirm that this was a wonderful combination!).

Although there was only a small selection of sweet treats, everything was perfectly proportioned and you weren't left feeling hungry.

I had originally made this reservation for myself, Lorna and a friend as we were celebrating our friend's Birthday. The Birthday girl had to cancel, but rather embarrassingly I forgot to tell the restaurant and we were presented with two more scrummy doughnuts and a Birthday message! 

Wonderful service at Asia de Cuba
afternoon tea

We owned up straight away, and luckily the waiter found it quite funny! Secretly we were quite pleased to be able to indulge in another one of those doughnuts each!

You finally end your afternoon tea experience with one last decision as you are offered either a sweet espresso shot or one of two fruity palate cleaners.

This afternoon tea experience costs £25.00 per person, or if like us you fancy a cocktail too, it will cost you £35.00 each. I think this is great value for the selection of food and drink on offer.

The waiting staff were all very friendly, and knowledgeable - offering advice where appropriate. The surroundings were modern, but comfortable. 

All in all this was a lovely way to spend the afternoon, and we really enjoyed this afternoon tea.

Have you tried an afternoon tea with a difference? If so we'd love to hear about!

Thanks for popping by today,

Rachel

Lot's of teas to come!

Hello there!

Sorry we haven't posted much this week, its been a bit of a hectic week!

If you've popped by the blog much this month, you'll have noticed that I haven't eaten many teas myself! Luckily I've had lots of lovely guest posts to share with you.....but I have definitely been missing out on the sweet feasts!

Do not fear though....I've been busy booking afternoon teas and liaising with hotels to bring you lots more scrummy photos in 2014! There will be more afternoon teas to drool over and more Pastry Chef interviews to enjoy.

Afternoon tea with Tea With Me and Friends!

In the next couple of months we will be enjoying afternoon tea with a difference at Asia de Cuba at St Martins Lane hotel in London where Asian and Cuban delights are fused together. I will also be taking a peek at the new Rosewood Hotel and enjoying a Valentine's tea at Royal Horse Guards. Not forgetting a visit to One Aldwych for their afternoon tea masterclass and a "Confessions of a Chocoholic" afternoon tea at Podium in the Hilton Park Lane Hotel.

Afternoon tea at Podium -
photo from their website

I will also be taking a peek at the brand new afternoon tea experience on offer at The Reform Social and Grill, and enjoying tea at The Cumberland. Lorna and I will be celebrating my Birthday with a visit to The Dorchester.

New Vintage afternoon tea experience
from Reform Social & Grill (photo from their website)

Phew! I'm feeling my jeans get tighter just reading that list! Don't worry....I will also be exercising...a lot!!

I am very excited about our plans so far for 2014....but there will be a lot more to follow. Don't forget...if you've enjoyed an afternoon tea somewhere we'd love to hear from you! Please get in touch!

Also...don't forget about our sandwich filling poll....there are still eight days left to vote!

Thanks for popping by today, 

we hope to see you again soon.

Rachel and Lorna