Time for Tea.....Cole's Bazaar and Snackery, Isle of Wight

Hello there,

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

Joe and I recently spent a weekend away on the Isle of Wight, and as you can imagine......finding a scrummy scone was on the top of our "to do"list. Well, ok.....it wasn't really on the top of Joe's list, but he humoured me and let me hunt out a new scone spot!

Little did I know that we were staying in the next town to a "scone zone"....

The Scone Zone!
Cole's Bazaar & Snackery, Shanklin - Isle of Wight

As we walked along the seafront at Shanklin we came across this sign outside Cole's Bazaar and Snackery. To be honest, the name "snackery" had first caught our eye....but then I saw the board! 

As well as plain and savoury scones, the board included banana, lemon, cherry, apricot and apple scones (to name a few). Each one paired with clotted cream and a spread or preserve.

I opted for the banana scone, served with clotted cream and chocolate spread! 

Banana scone - Cole's Bazaar & Snackery - Isle of Wight

For £3.75 I got a good size scone, which was served warm. A portion of butter, a portion of clotted cream and a portion of chocolate spread. And of course.....a pot of tea! I was really impressed with the price of this cream tea - the portion sizes were great and the service really quick.

As you can tell from the photo above, we were really lucky with the weather and I got to enjoy my scone in the sunshine overlooking the sea.

Banana scone with clotted cream and chocolate spread
Isle of Wight

The scone was really fresh and tasty, I loved the banana flavour which was sweet and subtle.  The banana went really well with the clotted cream and chocolate spread.

All the scones are homemade, with natural ingredients.

I really wish we were staying on the Isle of Wight longer, I would have loved to try all the different scones on offer! I suppose at least I have a very good reason to visit again!

What's the most unusual scone you have tried? I think banana is definitely the most exotic scone I've sampled so far!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel

How not to serve a scone....

Hello there,

Welcome back to another afternoon tea post from Tea With Me and Friends.

Now, as you can probably imagine we have eaten rather a lot of scones since starting this blog! We've enjoyed debates about how you pronouce scone and how you dress your scones and we have our own opinions about how a good scone is served.

Ideally they should be warm and fresh, served with clotted cream and preserve.

Recently I visited the Isle of Wight, and found a beautiful little seaside cafe that was serving scones. The setting was perfect and so I thought I would indulge in a little scone therapy.

So far so good....beautiful setting, good looking scone and Rodda's clotted cream.

However, as I cut into my scone I realised that something wasn't quite right as the texture was a tad bit tought. Nether the less I continued to dress my scone......

Then I took a bite.......

Hmmmm...to say it was tough was a bit of an understatement. It was hot, that was sure, and hard! It turns out that the scone had been microwaved to "warm it"!!

It was such a shame as everything else about the experience was wonderful!

Thanks for popping by today,

Rachel

Time for Tea....Chessell Pottery Barns

Hello there,

Welcome back to another afternoon tea post from Tea With Me and Friends. This weekend I escaped to the Isle of Wight for 36 hours with Joe. Whilst on our mini break we explored a lot of the island...but as you can imagine I made sure that we made time for a spot of afternoon tea too!

After looking through lots of tourist information I discovered Chessell Pottery Barns which promised a rather scrummy sounding afternoon tea. The cafe first launched a full afternoon tea in 2013 when they were joined by pastry chef Bridget Wells. The cafe at the pottery is very busy and you need to book afternoon tea at least 24 hours in advance...lets take a look to see if it's worth the wait.....

The afternoon tea is served on china which has been decorated at the pottery, ours had a very pretty strawberry pattern on it. The pottery is available to buy from the gift shop.

Afternoon tea
Chessell Pottery Barns

We began our afternoon tea feast with the savoury items on the bottom of the cake stand.....

Afternoon tea savouries - Chessell Pottery Barns

Our selection included ham finger sandwiches and egg and cucumber finger sandwiches on brown and white bread. There was also salmon and cream cheese served on fingers of focaccia and a beautiful mini cheese and onion quiche.

The sandwiches were fresh and there wasn't a crust in sight. The combination of egg mayonnaise and cucumber together was slightly odd - I think I prefer these fillings on their own. The salmon fingers were tasty and a good size. We also enjoyed the mini quiche, the filling tasted so good.... but the crust tasted slightly sweet (although it was very light).

Once we had enjoyed the savoury items we moved up a tier onto the scones.....

Strawberry jam and clotted cream ready for dressing scones!

Scones at Chessell Pottery Barns

We had a selection of plain scones and blueberry scones - all perfect in size and served warm (and wrapped). The scones all had a really good texture, not at all claggy, and were very fresh. I have never tried blueberry scones before, and really enjoyed the flavour.

Finally we made it to the top tier....the sweet selection.....

The sweet selection
Afternoon tea Chessell Pottery Barns

Now, I thought you might like a closer look at these sweets and so I have made a mini movie for you which features the raspberry choux pastry, the mini Victoria sponge cake and the beautiful strawberry tart.....

Don't they look wonderful? 

I particularly enjoyed the raspberry pastry which was filled with a tart raspberry cream. As well as the mini Victoria sponge, there was also a mini lemon and lime cake (a fabulous flavour combination). Both of these cakes were quite dense, but still tasted wonderful and were surprisingly light. The final sweet item was a chocolate and nut pastry, which Joe enjoyed.

Afternoon tea at Chessell Pottery Barns costs £14 per person and includes a choice of tea, coffee or soft drink. You also get to take away a little pottery keepsake once you have finished tea....

We got this beautiful little strawberry, which was a lovely touch. I think the cost of the afternoon tea per head is really good for the quality of the food on offer. 

Chessell Pottery Barns is open daily between the end of March and beginning of November. The pottery can be found three miles outside Yarmouth,  free parking is available. For more information please visit the Chessell Pottery Barns website.

Have you enjoyed a spot of afternoon tea on the Isle of Wight, if you have we would love to hear about it!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel