Time for Tea....Coworth Park

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends.....we hope you're ready to drool today! We have a rather wonderful afternoon tea adventure to share with you today, as recently the lovely Alexandra treated Rachel to a spot of tea at Coworth Park as a Birthday treat.

Coworth Park is a luxurious country house hotel on the borders of Windsor Great Park. Situated in picturesque parkland, Coworth Park is part of the Dorchester Collection, a beautiful country retreat that we'd wanted to visit for a while. Afternoon tea is served in the Drawing Room, which is located in the main Mansion House and enjoys stunning views over the hotel’s terraces and the Berkshire countryside. Words that I would use to describe Coworth Park are elegant, beautiful and peaceful....somewhere to escape to and enjoy time with friends.

Afternoon tea is a quintessentially English affair, with sandwiches, scones and sweet served on an elegant tea stand. Guests also have over 20 teas to choose from and can enjoy their afternoon tea with a glass of bubbles.

The afternoon tea sandwiches included:

Poached salmon with bronze fennel on caraway bread

Smoked chicken and basil on basil bread

Cucumber with cream cheese and mint on onion bread (v)

Montgomery Cheddar cheese savoury on wholemeal bread (v)

The sandwiches were freshly prepared, served on soft bread which was well filled. We all really enjoyed the smoked chicken sandwich, but all the fillings were tasty! The finger sandwiches were a tiny bit rustic, and not quite even...

But that added to the charm! 

We were offered a second round of sandwiches, which we happily accepted ...... well it would be rude not to when they were so nice!

Next came the scones, which were served with clotted cream and a choice of strawberry preserve and cherry compote. 

The scones were still warm when we enjoyed them. They were small enough to enjoy more than one and were light and fluffy in the middle. 

Finally we made it to the top of the cake stand and those beautiful pastries....

Each item looked beautiful and was the perfect size. The flavours were quite traditional and nothing was too fancy:

Lemon verbena éclair

Kentish strawberry and elderflower trifle

Raspberry and meadow sweet frangipane tart

Chocolate and hazelnut sponge cake

The frangipane tart was so cute, with a little bee on the top

Each pastry was well made and the flavours well balanced....it's quite hard to pick a favourite really. If you like Bakewell Tarts you will really enjoy the little frangipane tarts - the pastry is perfectly light and the almond and raspberry well balanced. But I think the chocolate and hazelnut stole it for me - chocolately without being too rich. 

As this was a birthday treat, Coworth Park helped me celebrate with a little Birthday cake:

I took the cake home with me as I was rather full from afternoon tea, but it kept really well and I enjoyed it later that week with a cup of tea! 

After tea we were encouraged to explore the beautiful grounds, including a walk through the meadow. It was a lovely sunny evening and so off we went....

From the moment we arrived at Coworth Park, every member of staff we encountered was friendly and professional and keen to help us. This coupled with the beautiful surroundings and well put together afternoon tea made for a wonderful afternoon.

I'd like to thank Alexandra for treating me to this afternoon tea - I'd definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a treat. For more information about this afternoon tea please visit the Coworth Park website.

https://www.dorchestercollection.com/en/ascot/coworth-park/restaurants-bars/the-drawing-room/

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel and Lorna

Afternoon Tea News - Wimbledon themed ARTea, Lancaster London

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends - today we're sharing some afternoon tea news with you. With the Wimbledon Tennis Tournament just around the corner Lancaster London has come up with a tea-riffic tennis themed afternoon tea!

Game, Set and Match! Lancaster London has once again ‘smashed’ another ARTea Afternoon Tea, this time in honour of the 131st Wimbledon Tennis Championships, which take place from 3 – 16 July 2017. The iconic hotel is renowned for its innovative afternoon teas, and for the Wimbledon ARTea, available from Wednesday 28 June until Sunday 16 July 2017, the pastry team have gone all ‘OUT’!

As the professionals take to the court to warm up their first and second serves, chefs at Lancaster London will be doing the same! The first round commences with savoury bites of Lancaster London Smoked Salmon and Citrus Cream Cheese Granary Pinwheels; a Warm Tartlet of Goat’s Cheese and Red Onion; and a Sesame Seed Choux Bun filled with Confit Duck, Sun Blushed Tomato and Hoisin Sauce. 

The second round promises to be an exciting one with a tie-break between the Summer Berry and Traditional Scones, served with Homemade Strawberry Jam and Clotted Cornish Cream. 

For the grand final, a tangy Lemon Tennis Ball Tart will be landing on the grass next to a Mini ‘Murray’ Mess and a Centre Court Strawberry Macaron. Wimbledon wouldn’t be Wimbledon without a glass of Pimms, so the Tipsy Pimms Cupcake and Pink Champagne Teacake are the sure favourites to win the crowd’s favour. 

Served in the classic Park Room, which boasts beautiful views of Hyde Park, the Wimbledon ARTea Afternoon Tea is priced at £35 per person, or can be enjoyed with Champagne for £45, and Rose Champagne for £50

I don't know about you, but I think Chef Ben Purton and his team have created an amazing looking afternoon tea feast to celebrate Wimbledon. The Tipsy Pimms cupcake and Pink Champagne teacake sound very tempting!

If you try this afternoon tea during July we'd love to hear all about it!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

Time for a Guest Post ......Kavanagh’s Tea Room, Oakham

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends, we hope you're having a lovely day.

Today we have another lovely guest post from Victoria, who has enjoyed an afternoon tea adventure at the newly opened Kavanagh's Tea Room in Oakham. The tea room only opened in May and we love to hear about new places to enjoy a spot of tea and cake. Let's see what Victoria thought.....

Kavanagh’s Tea Room has opened within Oakham in Rutland (England’s smallest county!) over the last month. Having popped in for a coffee during its first couple of weeks of opening, I felt that it was my duty to book their Gentleman’s Afternoon Tea for a Fathers’ Day treat for my father. Just for research purposes, you understand!

We were welcomed warmly by the owners, Clare and Martyn. It was Martyn who explained the menu to us and there is a separate tea menu of loose leaf tea. We all ordered English Breakfast tea, which was beautifully smoky and perfect to accompany our food. The staff also brought us bottles of chilled water as it was such a hot day.

Each one of us decided to try the full selection and it arrived on a tiered stand. No finger sandwiches, but beautiful bread. Clare did tell me later that she is a coeliac so everything available on the menu is also available in a gluten free form, without any prior knowledge. The fillings on the sandwiches were plentiful, the pulled pork was divine but my favourite was the goats cheese with roasted vegetables and pesto. 

The scones are freshly baked each day and are all gluten free. Strawberry jam and clotted cream was served in accompaniment. I’m afraid that the sweet treats on the top nearly defeated us, but oh my word, the brownie was divine.

Definitely a place to return to time and time again! A quirky treat was a tiny Polaroid picture that Martyn took of us all enjoying our tea.

That all looks and sounds tea-riffic! Those scones look amazing!

A huge thank you to Victoria for sharing her afternoon tea adventure with us. If you've been somewhere new (or an old favourite) we'd love to hear all about it - drop us a line!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

Time for....some cold brew tea from Ahmad Tea

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends!

Phew! If you're in the UK at the moment you're probably feeling the heat! Not that I'm going to complain....the sunshine is much better than our usual UK weather! But we do need something to help us cool down in this heat.....and so I was so pleased with my recent post from Ahmad Teas which included a selection of cold brew teas.

Cold Brew Tea - Ahmad Tea

Each of the teas are brewed using just a teabag and cold water and are ready in approximately 5 minutes. There are three different varieties to try - English tea, peach & passion fruit and lemon & lime.

So far I have tried the two fruity options...

Cold Brew Tea - Ahmad Tea

The peach & passion fruit did indeed brew in about five minutes giving the tea a lovely rich colour. The flavour is peachy, but I would try and brew it a bit longer next time to intensify the flavour.

Cold Brew Tea - Ahmad Tea

The lemon & lime tea brewed in under five minutes and the flavour was very refreshing. The instructions suggest you might like to sweeten the tea, but I found the flavour of this one to be great on it's own. This is definitely my favourite of the two fruit teas.

The best thing about these teas are how quick and convenient they are to make - no need for boiling water or any fancy contraptions. Just make with cold water in your favourite glass and add ice!

Ahmad Tea sells these in boxes of 20 teabags for £2.20, for more information pop by the Ahmad Tea website.

I'd like to thank Ahmad Tea for sending me their cold brew teas to try - such perfect timing!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel

When You Wish Upon A Brunch - Disney Brunch Special

Hello there,

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

So, we have something a little different for you today.....there's no tea or cake (shock horror I know) but there is lots of fun, some Disney singing and lots of bubbles! Recently we took our lovely friend Becca for a Birthday treat - a Disney inspired brunch hosted by the team at Impossible Things Entertainment.

Now this is a brunch for big kids and anyone who loves Disney, or anyone who wants to experience something really different .....it's a brunch full of your favourite Disney songs, quizzes, dressing up!

The event was held at The Birds in Leytonstone, it was the first time they had held the event at this particular venue. When we first arrived we were seated on a long table, our breakfast order was taken and bubbles were poured. We were supposed to be joined by four other guests....but they didn't show up! But unfazed by the smaller than usual group, the team made us feel really welcome and thus began the most amazing couple of hours of fun!

The food was good (we all opted for a full English), the bubbles flowed throughout brunch and the team from Impossible Things Entertainment were friendly and super talented. We were really lucky to experience this brunch with no other guests.....but we're definitely going back to get the full experience!

The three of us spent three hours taking part in Disney quizzes, hunting for Nemo in the pub, enjoying a colouring competition and singing to Disney songs. The Impossible Things Entertainment team put on a great show for us - their singing is fantastic, they had us up on our feet dancing!

If you love Disney, this is definitely the brunch for you. If you're looking for a fun Saturday out.....then this is definitely the brunch for you! To find out more about the When You Wish Upon A Brunch and where it's taking place next pop by the Design My Night website.

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel and Lorna