Time for Tea.....Four Seasons Park Lane

Hello there,

Welcome back to another afternoon tea post from Tea With Me and Friends, this weekend I was a guest at the Amaranto Lounge at the Four Seasons Park Lane to try their new vintage picnic afternoon tea. Now this is a really new offering from the hotel, we were only the third party to try it! As some of you will know, as well as afternoon tea I am also rather passionate about anything vintage and so I was really keen to try this concept for myself.

The Amaranto Lounge is a wonderful space, that also benefits from a rather beautiful outside terrace (something of a hidden gem), which made the perfect setting for our picnic afternoon tea (we were really lucky with the weather). As the name suggests the afternoon tea is served as a picnic....being brought to us in a wonderful wicker hamper....

Afternoon tea - Four Seasons Park Lane

Lets begin with a look at what we found in our hamper.....

Doesn't that all look wonderful? Please excuse the slightly dodgy camera work!

All the china, cutlery, glassware and food is all served within this hamper, and its quite a delight as it is unpacked in front of you by your waiter. The china is very beautiful, and the cream, jam and milk is all served in small glass bottles and jars. 

Each of the traditional afternoon tea tiers is served in a separate tin - the sandwiches can be found in one, scones in another and finally the pastries in a third.....

Alfresco afternoon tea - Four Seasons Park Lane

Once we had picked our teas from the selection of black, white, green and infusions on offer and the champagne had been served we decided to tuck into the first tin which contained the sandwiches.....

Afternoon tea sandwiches - Four Seasons Park Lane

The selection was quite traditional, but with a wonderful twist on each sandwich filling. The bread was cut incredibly thinly (I have never seen such thin cut bread before!), to allow the flavours of the fillings to shine. 

As you'll see some of the crusts had been left on (I can just imagine Lorna tutting at this point), but this was purposeful rather than by accident and added texture.

Sandwiches made with rather thin bread!

I was rather partial to the devilled egg sandwich which was flavoured with paprika and english mustard, and Becca really enjoyed the beetroot sandwich (both seen in the photo above). There was also a tasty cheese and vintage tomato, a beef and mustard variety and a salmon and cucumber on rye. 

All were fresh and tasted wonderful, and we were offered more after we polished off the first round.

We then moved onto the scones in the second tin.....

Scones - Four Seasons Park Lane

The scones were kept in their tin until we wanted to eat them to keep them warm, and the smell that wafted from the tin when we finally opened it was amazing! Inside the tin we found three plain and three fruit, perfectly sized scones. The scones were light and fluffy in the middle and were accompanied by clotted cream, strawberry preserve and tangy lemon curd.

Finally we made it to the pastries in the last tin.....

Afternoon Tea Pastries - Four Season Park Lane

The selection included strawberries and cream with a little mint, strawberry swiss roll (wrapped in white chocolate), dark chocolate cake, lemon meringue pies and mini raspberry Victoria sponges.

All the sweets tasted wonderful, but my favourite was the mini Victoria sponge filled with cream and raspberries - the sponge was light and the filling sweet. Becca really enjoyed the lemon meringue, which was very lemony! We were offered seconds of both the scones and pastries, but we had to decline both as we were rather full!

Afternoon tea Four Seasons Park Lane
 served on the beautiful terrace

The service we received was attentive throughout and the waiter was very knowledgeable about the afternoon tea he was serving. This picnic experience can be enjoyed inside the Amaranto Lounge or on their terrace and is priced at £96.00 for two people. As well as the food mentioned above, you will also enjoy a tea of your choice from the tea menu and half a bottle of rose champagne. 

This is a wonderful treat if you are celebrating something special or want to try a rather unique afternoon tea experience. I was worried that making it into a picnic might effect the quality of the food served, but everything was wonderfully fresh and the scones remained warm.

The Four Seasons offers several different afternoon teas including a traditional tea, an Italian inspired afternoon tea, a vegetarian afternoon tea and of course this wonderful picnic afternoon tea. For more information about the menus please visit their website.

Although I was a guest at the hotel on this occasion, this has not effected my thoughts on this afternoon tea and all comments here are my own. I would like to thank the Four Seasons for their hospitality.

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel