Time for our Last Afternoon Tea of 2014.....

Hello there,

Welcome back to the last afternoon tea post from Tea With Me and Friends for 2014, and we have ended a tea-filled year with a rather scrummy afternoon tea!

Recently we were invited to try the new afternoon tea on offer at the Lancaster London Hotel, a four star hotel in London. I have followed the Lancaster London's newly appointed Executive Chef Ben Purton (Ben moved here in October 2014 from the Royal HorseGuards Hotel) on Twitter for a while now (yes, I am well aware that I now sound like a stalker!) and was keen to try the new afternoon tea on offer.

The Lancaster London is very proud of it's afternoon tea, with all the preserves being made in house as well as the salmon being smoked on site. Our waiter was very friendly and knowledgeable about the afternoon tea, suggesting that we started our experience with a glass of Laurent Perrier champagne.

Novus Tea at the Lancaster London

The tea served at the Lancaster London is Novus Tea, which is a selection of loose leaf teas served in individual teabag portions. The selection is good, and includes black, green and white teas and also herbal infusions. Lorna and I both opted for white teas on this occasion - I went for the White Pear and Ginger Tea, which was sweet and warming. Lorna chose Pai Mu Tan Tea, which was a subtle and light tea. When the teas are served, they come with a little timer and a card telling you how long to brew your tea for.

Once we had enjoyed our bubbles and the tea had been ordered our afternoon tea savouries and pastries were served....

Quite a dodgy photo of us with our afternoon tea!

Let's take a better look at the savouries on offer....

Afternoon tea savouries at the Lancaster London

We were each give a plate of five different items and we were told from the very beginning that if we wanted more of anything we just needed to ask. The savouries included:

Lancaster London smoked salmon sandwich,

Egg & wild cress sandwich, 

Cucumber sandwich

Wild mushroom, chicken and tarragon tartlet

Roast beef filled Yorkshire pudding with horseradish cream

The sandwiches were fresh and tasty with no crusts in sight. I particularly enjoyed the tartlet, which surprised me as I am not a huge fan of mushrooms, but the pastry was light and tasty. The mini yorkshire pudding filled with beef was also a good size and enjoyable.

Next came the scones.....

Afternoon tea scones at the Lancaster London

We each had one fruit and one plain scone, served with strawberry preserve and a wonderful marmalade, along with clotted cream. The scones were small and perfectly formed....Lorna even declared these were the probably the best scones she has enjoyed! They had a lovely texture - crumbly and light in the middle with a good crust on the outside.

The marmalade was something we haven't tried on scones before, and we were both pleasantly surprised! The tart orange tang worked really well with the creamy clotted cream. 

We enjoyed the scones so much that we might have asked for another round! In the second serving we were also treated to one of the Christmas afternoon tea specialities....a Christmas pudding scone....which I have to say was amazing! Warm and spicy, full of flavour!

Afternoon tea scones dressed the Tea With Me and Friends way!

Finally we made it to the top tier of the cake stand....those dainty sweets and pastries which we had both been eyeing up since they were served....

Sweet treats at Lancaster London

Now, this was definitely a good looking plate of sweets, everything was a good size and well presented, but would it also taste good?

The selection included:

white chocolate and raspberry lollypops, 

apple and honey cupcake, 

lemon fruit tart, 

caramel & hazelnut tranche,

passion fruit & raspberry macaroon

I'm not sure where to start really.....because every last bite was delicious! 

The macaroon was bite sized, but full of flavour with the passion fruit really cutting through the sweetness of the macaroon. The tart was made with light, crumbly pastry and filled with a delicious lemon filling - again the perfect size.

The caramel & hazelnut tranche was well balanced and looked beautiful. One of the stand out items for me was the apple and honey cupcake which was like eating the most light apple pie! It was delicate, but full of flavour with a touch of cinnamon - truly delicious!

Which only leaves the white chocolate and raspberry lollypops, which I don't want to write too much about....only they are amazing...make sure you leave room!

Afternoon tea pastries at Lancaster London

Service at the Lancaster London is relaxed and friendly, and the environment is warm and welcoming. It's not the poshest space we have enjoyed afternoon tea in, but it was comfortable and we felt right at home. A lovely place to enjoy afternoon tea with friends or family.

The afternoon tea itself costs £30.00 per person, which is brilliant value as the food is exceptional. If you want to enjoy a glass of champagne with your afternoon tea that will cost £40.00 per person.

To find out more about this afternoon tea please visit the Lancaster London website.

Please note that although we were guests at the Lancaster London all comments in this blog post are our own. We would like to thank Chef Ben and all the team at the Lancaster London for their hospitality.

Thank you for popping by today - we hope you join us in 2015 for lots more afternoon tea adventures!

Rachel & Lorna