Time for Tea....Cannizaro House Hotel, Wimbledon

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends - sorry it's been a while, but we're back today with a lovely afternoon tea experience that our lovely friend Sheree enjoyed recently. Sheree visited Cannizaro House Hotel in Wimbledon. Let's take a look at her afternoon tea adventure....

My mother-in-law was visiting for the weekend so we decided on an afternoon tea treat at Cannizaro House Hotel in Wimbledon, which is part of the Hotel du Vin chain. We were seated in the bright and comfortable Orangerie which looked directly onto Cannizaro Park. 

Afternoon tea - Cannizaro House Hotel

The tea list was extensive and we opted for the Moroccan mint with rose, Jasmine petals and pearls, and the All day Decaf. The food arrived and was plentiful

The savouries included:

Severn and Wye smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel

Egg and cress mayonnaise brioche sub

Ham with Gruyère croissant

Heritage tomato and tapenade galette

Goat’s cheese and spinach quiche

Savoury selection - Cannizaro House Hotel

We also enjoyed fruit scones served with Bonne Maman jam, clotted cream and Lescure butter:

Scone time - Afternoon tea - Cannizaro House Hotel

The sweets included:

Citrus sorbet

Lemon meringue pie

Creme Egg chocolate brownie

Rhubarb and custard doughnut

Homemade apple candy floss

Sweet treats - Cannizaro House Hotel

We really enjoyed the range of treats. The savouries were particularly tasty and fresh, the scones were not served warm but were still nice, and the sweets were a good range and not too filling. Lemon meringue pie is one of my favourites and did not disappoint, and the doughnut was surprisingly light. The candy floss was a fun ending to the tea and made for an attractive display on the cake stand.

Afternoon tea - Cannizaro House Hotel

Although busy with lunches and big tables, the service was friendly and helpful, allowing for dietary requirements, lots of fresh tea and a top up of clotted cream. The cost was £25 per person and was considered worth it for the quality and amount of food.

Looks like Sheree had a wonderful afternoon tea, I love the variety of savouries on offer and the sweets look lovely!

Thank you to Sheree for sharing her afternoon tea adventure with us. If you'd like to find out more about this afternoon tea adventure pop by the Cannizaro House Hotel website.

Don't forget, if you've enjoyed an afternoon tea adventure recently we'd love to hear all about it!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

Time for Tea - Bears Restaurant , Runfold

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends, we hope you're having a tea-riffic week.

Last weekend I took my mum to Bear's Restaurant in Runfold Surrey to try their afternoon tea. Bear's opened it's doors in September 2016, located at The Packhouse antique and homeware store in Runfold, Surrey. Bears offers diners modern British-European fare across breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea, as well as offering a dinner service too.

Bear's offers a mid-range afternoon tea, costing £19.95 for two people and including finger sandwiches, scones, petit fours and tea.

Let's take a peek at their afternoon tea....

Afternoon tea - Bear's Restaurant

That's my mum there.....along with her "stop taking photos so I can eat" face! She'll probably hate me for putting this photo on the blog.

We did not have a choice of teas, but we did get a pot each so at least there was no arguing over who got the last cup!

We got six finger sandwiches between us, three salmon and cream cheese and three ham and avocado....

Afternoon tea finger sandwiches - Bear's Restaurant

The sandwich fillings weren't really to my taste, but the sandwiches themselves were really fresh. As you can see the fingers weren't overly uniform and there were some crusts left on the corners, but the bread was really soft and the fingers a good size.

Next we moved onto the scones, which were served with cream and little pots of jam....

Afternoon tea scones - Bear's Restaurant

As you can see there were two scones included in this afternoon tea, one plain and one sultana......and they were huge! Despite the size they cut well and had a great texture. I'm also pleased to report that the fruit scone was packed full of sultanas, they didn't skimp here! 

Finally we got to the petit fours, there were six different ones included with the afternoon tea....

Afternoon tea - Bear's Restaurant

The petit fours included a profiterole, a raspberry tart, a lemon tart, a piece of tiramisu, a mango slice and a chocolate slice.  Each sweet treat was perfectly made and very scrummy, although the pastry used for the tarts could have been a little crisper.

This was a limited afternoon tea adventure....what you see is what you get. But for £19.95 for two people we didn't really expect any extras. I think this was a good value tea, everything was fresh and tasted good. The highlight for me was definitely the scone....

Afternoon tea scones - Bear's Restaurant

The staff at Bear's Restaurant are all friendly and we were served quickly despite there being a large party dining at the same time. 

For more information about Bear's Restaurant pop by their website.

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel

Time for.....a cheeky scone at Landmark London

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends!

A couple of weeks ago I was in London and had the opportunity to try some scones at The Landmark Hotel. I didn't have enough time for the full afternoon tea experience on this occasion, but did enjoy a rather lovely chocolate chip scone....

Afternoon tea scones - The Landmark

Afternoon tea is served in the Winter Garden, which despite the name is not a garden at all.....so no fear of getting wet in the English weather while enjoying your scones! The Winter Garden restaurant is located in the heart of the eight-story glass roof atrium in The Landmark Hotel - its a pretty spectacular space......

Winter Garden Restaurant - The Landmark
Photo from hotel website

But back to the scones...

We were served three scones, which were accompanied by clotted cream and strawberry preserve. The scones were served warm and were a good size - not too big, not too small. The scones cut easily and had a god texture - not at all claggy!

Please excuse the blurry photo....

Afternoon tea scones - The Landmark

All in all these were lovely scones and as you can see there were plenty of chocolate chips! I would definitely like to visit the Landmark Hotel again and this time try the full afternoon tea experience. 

Currently you can either try the traditional afternoon tea or a special chocolate afternoon tea which includes chocolate treats along with the chocolate chip scones: Coconut and chocolate macaroon, Banana, pecan nut and milk chocolate cake, Blood orange and white chocolate mousse and Pistachio and chocolate Opera gâteau

For more information about afternoon tea at The Landmark Hotel pop by their website.

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel

What's inside the Teatourist February Box?

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends, we hope you're well today!

We're very excited to report that the February Teatourist has arrived with us - we first experienced the delights of Teatourist when their January box landed on our door mat earlier this year. Teatourist is a tea subscription service, which brings tea lovers six wonderful blends from different tea companies each month. To read more about the service pop by our last post.

Let's take a peek at the February box....

February Box from Teatourist

This month's box includes a selection of black and green teas from Cheshire tea, Edgcumbes, Good & Proper Tea, Oteas, Tea in the City and The UK Loose Leaf Tea Company. 

We have a breakfast blend from the Good & Proper Tea Company, which features Assam, Kenya, Ceylon and Darjeeling leaves.

There is also a full bodied blend from Edgcumbes tea blenders which features Orthodox Assam, Darjeeling second flush, Keemun and Lapsang Souchong.

Oteas have provided a tea bursting with health benefits, combining black tea with dandelion roots.

There is a lightly roasted oolong from Tea in the City.

Possibly the prettiest tea I have ever smelt....the Cherry Sencha from Cheshire Teas. This is a blend o Sencha green tea, rose petals and natural cherry flavour.

Finally we have a Gunpowder Organic green tea from The UK Loose Leaf Tea Company.

A great selection for either someone new to the world of loose leaf teas or an experienced tea lover!

Each pouch has enough leaves to make about four cups - the perfect amount to try out a new tea, as well as a tea card that tells you all about the tea and the tea company. 

I have already tucked into two of the teas....

Discovering new teas via Teatourist

Tea and cake via Teatourist

For more information about how Teatourist works pop by their website.

We'd like to thank Teatourist for sending us their February.

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

Tea Review - TweeTea for Children

Hello there,

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

Recently we were introduced to Treena from TweeTea - a collection of children's fruit tea. Treena came up with the idea of developing teas for children with her friend....over a cup of tea! They realised that when they met up for a good old fashioned catch up over a cuppa and a slice of cake that their children were quite limited in what they could enjoy, and a lot of the options were full of sugar. Treena wanted a healthier option for children which was tasty and also easy to prepare.

Twee Teas source all of their ingredients from reputable suppliers. They hand blend the fruit teas and sell them in pyramid teabags. The teas can be enjoyed both hot or cold, they are all natural with no added sugar or additives and contain no tannin or caffeine.

Currently there are three teas in the range - mixed berry, strawberry and vanilla and orange and pineapple. Treena kindly sent us the mixed berry and the strawberry and vanilla varieties to try......

Tweetea - mixed berry and strawberry and vanilla

The packaging is very cute - each has a sweet tea bird! Meet Berry-Boubou and Sunny Swift! 

The mixed berry tea contains Blackberry, Elderberries, Grapes and  Hibiscus, while the Strawberry and Vanilla contains Strawberry, Vanilla, Rosehips and Hibiscus. Each should be brewed for 3-5 minutes, developing really pretty colours in your cup.....

The strawberry tea has a really sweet aroma once brewed, it reminded me of the strawberry and cream sweets I enjoyed when I was little. However, the taste was much more mellow as the hibiscus came through. As the tea cooled it was interesting to see the vanilla flavour develop again - making the hot and cold versions of the drink quite different!

The berry tea is very subtle in both aroma and flavour, its not overly sweet but its sweeter than the strawberry tea. 

The teas are available in packs of 15 pyramids, which retail at just under £4 each. For more information pop by the Tweetea website.

We'd like to thank Treena for sending us these teas to try!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel and Lorna