The Friday Review.....Eros Tea

Hello There,

Welcome back to another Friday tea review from Tea With Me and Friends.

This week I have enjoyed a rather lovely, delicate cup of tea from a company called Eros. I think I picked up this individually wrapped tea bag at a hotel I stayed at recently....

White tea, elderflower & apricot tea from Eros

Such pretty packaging!

As you can see this is a white tea, blended with elderflower and apricot. The tea once brewed for a couple of minutes is a lovely golden colour, and both the taste and fragrance were light and fruity....

Eros Tea

This makes a lovely afternoon tea blend, as it's light and refreshing, not at all artificial in flavour or too sweet. A thoroughly lovely cuppa! 

I have discovered that you can buy this tea from Amazon (instead of finding it in hotel rooms like me!), currently priced at £4.25 for 20 individual tea sachets.

Have you tried any of the other Eros blends? They offer an English Breakfast, an Earl Grey, a red berry and a Lemongrass, Ginger & Citrus fruit tea amongst others in their collection. If you've tried one we'd love to know what you thought.

Don't forget to pop back next week to see what tea we've been enjoying!

Rachel

Time for a spot of......Afternoon Tea News

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends.

Now, some of you might have noticed that we have a lovely new badge on our sidebar which belongs to Afternoon Tea Online....

If you haven't come across this website before it's an online guide to afternoon tea across the UK, where you can book online to enjoy a spot of afternoon tea!

As well as searching for and booking afternoon teas on the website, you can also read afternoon tea themed articles and browse the various special offers. There is also a nifty search function that allows you to see afternoon teas in "best for...." categories such as "hidden gems" or "gluten free menus"

Thanks for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

Scone Wars Alert!

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends!

Do you remember when we first started writing our little afternoon tea blog and there was a bit of a debate about the way your scones should be dressed? This subject continues to be a hot topic of conversation which rears its head whenever we introduce new people to our blog! People are very passionate about whether the cream or jam or should be put on first (I can see some of you muttering to yourselves as you read this!).

Lorna and I are firm believers that cream goes on first.....it can be spread to give a good solid base for the preserve or curd which goes on top...the jewel in your crown if you like. We know however that not everyone shares our passion (including our best friend Becca....who puts whatever she reaches first on her scones first - scandalous!).

Last weekend scone wars started all over again on Twitter....and all because I innocently commented on a photo of Philip Schofield, who had enjoyed afternoon tea at Claridges....

Now, I didn't really expect a reply from Philip...but look what happened next...

Yes....you read that right! He said jam first!

As you can imagine Lorna was outraged....

For those of you that remember Lorna has tried the jam first method on one of her scones....

Tea with Me and Friends
Scone Wars!

The result was a bit of a mess and we decided that cream first was definitely the way to go!

Scones dressed the wrong way (according to us!)

With this experience in mind I tried to make Philip see the light with a lovely scone photo.....

But it seems he was not to be swayed!! It appears it takes all sorts to make the world go around....and even celebrities get their scone dressing wrong!

The debate quickly spread as people joined in our conversation, I even got included in Tweets like this.....

I love how passionate people are about this subject....and everyone has very valid reasons for their preference! 

Thanks for popping by today,

Rachel

The Friday Review....Hampstead Iced Teas

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends, today we are starting a new series of articles where we share with you our thoughts on various tea inspired beverages.....welcome to The Friday Review!

Recently Becca and I decided to try out some of the iced teas from Hampstead Tea. Now I know its not exactly the weather for ice tea, but we fancied something a little bit different and refreshing....plus the pretty packaging of these teas really caught our eye.....

Hampstead Tea - Iced Teas

We found these in the refrigerated section of a local food market and cost cost just under £2.00 each. We opted to try the Lemon Green Iced Tea and also the Raspberry Darjeeling Iced Tea. There is one other iced tea variety to try - Elderflower oolong.

Hampstead Teas herbal teas come from biodynamic growers all over the world, wellbeing and Fair Trade are both promoted by this tea company. As well as the iced teas, Hampstead Teas offer a range of black, green, herbal and fruit teas.

Both the teas we tried had a pleasing look when poured....

Hampstead Tea

We decided to try the Lemon Green Iced Tea first, which not surprisingly was the slightly more yellow beverage. This is supposed to be a tangy and fresh tasting iced green tea....

Hampstead Tea
Lemon Green Iced Tea

To be honest we couldn't really taste the lemon in this tea - it was a very refreshing drink which we enjoyed....but if you want a lemony hit you might be a little disappointed.

Next we moved onto the  Raspberry Darjeeling Iced Tea which is a more fruity blend....

Hampstead Tea
Raspberry Darjeeling Iced Tea

This tea had a ruby appearance and again was very refreshing.....but we struggled to taste the raspberry flavour. You could definitely tell which was the green tea and which was the darjeeling, and they both had refreshing and robust flavours...they were just missing the fruit aspect.

Saying this both teas are organic and natural, with no artificial flavours and so I think you can expect the flavours to be more subtle. 

We would drink them again as we found the blends refreshing....they would be lovely enjoyed on a summers day!

For more information or to discover the other teas on offer at Hampstead Teas please visit their website.

Do you have a favourite tea that you would like to see featured on The Friday Review? Maybe there is a tea that you want to know more about? Please get in touch and let us know!

Thanks for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

Time for Tea....Randolph Hotel Oxford

Hello there,

Welcome back to another afternoon tea post from Tea With Me and Friends. This time we are sharing our afternoon tea adventures from our recent mini break in Oxford.

We decided to pay a visit to the Randolph Hotel, which is a five star Macdonalds hotel situated in the centre of Oxford. To be honest Lorna and I had dithered a lot about this mini break and as a result we didn't have any afternoon tea booked. We were therefore really gratefully that the Randolph could accept us as walk-ins on this Sunday lunchtime.

Afternoon tea is served in The Drawing Room, which is a grand but relaxed space within the hotel. The decor is comfortable and welcoming, and the service is friendly and discrete. I liked the muted tones, punctuated with splashed of red.....

The Drawing Room - Randolph Hotel Oxford

The china used at the hotel is plain white and stylish and there is a good selection of black, green, white and herbal teas on offer for guests to pick from....

Time for tea?

On arrival at our table within The Drawing Room we find a discrete nod towards Alice in Wonderland. For those in know Alice in Wonderland was penned by Charles Dodgson, an Oxford don, after he made up a story to keep Alice Liddell and her sisters amused while on a boating picnic up the River Thames from Folly Bridge in Oxford. Alice enjoyed the story so much that she begged him to write it down.....

Lorna and I opted to try the celebration afternoon tea (well we were on a mini break) and so began our afternoon tea with a glass of champagne. Once we had enjoyed this, our tea and tea stand were served....

Afternoon tea
Randolph Hotel Oxford

Look at the size of those scones!

We started at the bottom of that pretty cake stand with the wonderful selection of finger sandwiches. Now, there was a slight controversial hint of crust on some of the sandwiches and the cucumber and cream cheese sandwich was a tiny bit soggy....but on the whole we enjoyed the selection....

Afternoon tea sandwiches - Randolph Hotel Oxford

The bread was all fresh and soft and the sandwiches cut into fingers. The selection included the previously mentioned cucumber and cream cheese, egg mayonnaise and rocket,

ham, smoked salmon and cream cheese and a rather wonderful turkey sandwich. Now, normally if I hear the words "turkey sandwiches" my heart sinks a little...I'm not a fan of turkey at the best of times and don't really enjoy it in sandwiches. However, this turkey was different as it was complimented with some kind of spice. We couldn't put our finger exactly on what it was, but it was really tasty!

The sandwiches were all a good size, with the fillings being just right (nothing worse than too little or too much filling in an afternoon tea sandwich!)

After we had enjoyed the brilliant selection we moved up a tier to those wonderful scones....

Time for scones - Randolph Hotel Oxford

The scones were lovely - a great size, with a wonderful crust and light and fluffy in the middle. They were served warm and tasted fresh. They were served with clotted cream, a strawberry preserve and a wonderful lemon curd.

Admittedly we don't usually mention the scone accompaniments much on the blog, concentrating instead on the main event. However, both the jam and the lemon curd were both so good that I feel they deserve a special mention. The jam was full of flavour...and fruit! The curd was light and tangy and went so well with the creamy clotted cream. 

Once the scones had been devoured we moved onto that top tier to enjoy the wonderful sweet treats.....

Sweet treats - afternoon tea - Randolph Hotel Oxford

As you'll notice there was a good selection....and there was one of each for both of us (an important factor to Lorna and I). Our selection included something for every taste with mini rhubarb crumbles, dark chocolate mousses, blueberry and lemon slices and mini bakewell tarts.

Every item looked perfect, they were small and perfectly formed. Plus the hotel gets bonus points for remembering to give us spoons for the crumbles (so often we are served something in a small shot glass or dish and have to use the tea spoon to eat it! 

My least favourite item was probably the crumble, but that was personal preference (Lorna polished hers off very quickly!). The bakewell tart was lovely, with a crisp shell and tart raspberry and almond filling. But my favourite sweet treat was the chocolate mousse...

Not only did it look wonderful, but it was light and chocolately and if I was being greedy I could have easily eaten another one (or two!).

The celebration afternoon tea costs £36.50 per person, but if you do not want the bubbles a traditional afternoon tea costs £29.50 per person. For more information on the afternoon teas on offer please visit the Randolph Hotel website.

We thoroughly enjoyed this whole afternoon tea experience. The food was of a high quality, there was a good tea selection and the service was friendly and polished. If you happen to be in Oxford and want a good quality afternoon tea, this is definitely somewhere to consider.

Do you have any other recommendations for afternoon tea in Oxford? If so we'd love to hear about them....

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna