Valentines Day Afternoon Tea 2018 - Round Up 2

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends. Today we're back with another round up of the Valentine's afternoon teas on offer this year!

Let's start with Binswood Hall, Leamington Spa where guests can enjoy a Valentine's cocktail on arrival...

Binswood Hall Valentines Afternoon Tea

The afternoon Tea cakes on this menu include:

Red velvet gateaux

Macaroon with dark chocolate centre

Strawberry tartlet

Mixed berry Eton Mess

Chef Ben Purton at the Royal Lancaster, London has created a pretty afternoon tea especially for Valentines this year....

Royal Lancaster, Valentines Afternoon Tea

The sweet treats to enjoy at this afternoon tea include:

Strawberries & cream lollipop

Red velvet cheesecake

Raspberry love heart-shaped macaron

Hazelnut mousse on Sable Breton

Rosewater marshmallow tart

I can personally vouch for how good the lollipops are at the Royal Lancaster - always a highlight!

Lorna and I will be visiting our next hotel in April, but in the meantime here is the Valentine's afternoon tea from The Connaught

The Connaught - Valentines Afternoon Tea

I love the colours in this afternoon tea, all so bold and pretty!

The pastries on offer include:

Grapefruit & Lychee - Lychee Mousse, Grapefruit Crystalized Rose
Lemon Bergamot - Bergamot Mousse, Lime Cream Lemon Confit
Passion Fruit Tart - Passion Fruit Jam, Orange Blossom Cream
Coffee Éclair - Coffee Curd, Caramelized Pecan Nut
Rocher - Hazelnut Praline, Milk Chocolate

Finally we have this wonderful selection of Valentines themed afternoon tea treats from Fortnum and Masons....

Fortnum and Masons Valentines Afternoon Tea

Are you drooling just a little now?? Don't they all look wonderful?

If you enjoy a Valentine's themed afternoon tea we'd love to hear all about it! Drop us a line on Twitter or on our Facebook page!

Thanks for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

Time for Tea.....Halloween at the Royal Lancaster Hotel

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends.

Today we are sharing a very special Halloween afternoon tea with you, as we've been lucky enough to enjoy the Black and White We Always Scare afternoon tea at the Royal Lancaster Hotel. Yes we know it's a little early for Halloween....but we couldn't wait to try this spooky creation from Chef Ben Purton.

We indulged in a truly spook-tacular experience with this Halloween Afternoon Tea, inspired by 1960s classic horror movies. To get guests in the mood, the lounge has been styled with spooky props and there are black and white movies playing on a screen. 

Once we'd picked our teas (Darjeeling for Rachel and a decaffeinated Ceylon for Lorna), the savouries and sweets were served on clear plate. We were impressed that there were so many different items all with the black and white colour theme....

The savouries included:

Smoked halibut, white cream cheese & black caviar on pumpernickle
Axe carved bresaola beef, horseradish, charcoal shell
Massacred egg, curried mayonnaise
Cucumber, cracked black pepper & tapenade in white coffins
Sushi roll, blackened seaweed and crab
Mini Scotch egg, black crust

The bread used in the sandwiches was fresh and crustless and the fillings were all very unusual.

We both loved the curried egg mayonnaise sandwich which had a great flavour, but the stand out savoury item was that miniature black scotch egg (we might have had more than one of these!).

Before we tucked into the sweet treats, the scones were brought out to us, these were served warm with clotted cream and jam. There was one coconut scone and one dark chocolate scone - in keeping with the black and white theme!

The scones were a good size and looked appealing despite the unusual colours....

Both scones were a great texture, they cut in half easily and were not claggy at all. We were surprised at how well the flavours came through in the scones, the coconut one was a little more delicate but you could definitely taste both flavours. The flavours also went really well with the cream and jam

Our favourite one was the dark chocolate scone. 

Finally we made our way to those sweet treats...

The sweets included a great selection of different flavours - Cursed Blackbird Macaroon (which was flavoured with orange and white chocolate); Psycho chocolate Lollipops; Black Sunday Battenberg cake; Night of the Living Tart; and a black forest mousse cake. Something for everyone there!

Each sweet treat was a good size - not too big and not too small - and everything was fresh and tasty. 

The rich chocolate lollypop was amazing, as was the black forest pudding (which was gobbled down in two bites!).

All in all this was a tea-riffic afternoon tea - with an elegant, grown up Halloween theme.

All the staff at the Royal Lancaster are friendly and attentive and we really enjoyed our afternoon at the Royal Lancaster.

If you fancy trying this afternoon tea you need to be quick though, as its only on offer until 31st October 2017. For more information about this afternoon tea please visit the Royal Lancaster website.

We'd like to thank Chef Ben and his team for this wonderful experience. Please note that although we enjoyed this afternoon tea on a complimentary basis this has not affected our taste buds and all opinions expressed in this blog post are our own.

If you enjoy a Halloween themed afternoon tea this year we'd love to hear all about it - please leave us a blog comment!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

Afternoon Tea News - Discount Offer!

Hello there,

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

We have some very exciting news for you today as Chef Ben Purton and his team bring us two very special afternoon teas this month at the Royal Lancaster London Hotel.....plus he is offering us some rather tea-riffic discounts!

Chocolate Afternoon Tea

For one week in October, Royal Lancaster London will be the chocolatiest hotel in the capital for Divine Chocolate Week 2017. From today until Sunday 15 October 2017, every bite of chocolate will be fashioned from Divine Fairtrade Cocoa. 

The Chocolate Afternoon Tea (£35) is presented as a classic afternoon tea with a Divine twist. The intense dark chocolate and unexpected flavourings will put every chocolate aficionado’s taste buds to the test.

Confections include Chocolate Chip Scones; a bittersweet Dark Chocolate, Mango and Coconut Tart; a Chestnut Breton with rich 70% Dark Chocolate Cream; Elderflower Marbled Lollipops; and a White Chocolate Macaron with Ginger and Orange.

The Chocolate Afternoon Tea also features Royal Lancaster savoury favourites such as Home-Smoked Salmon Rye Pinwheel Sandwiches; Smoked Corn-Fed Chicken with Roasted Red Pepper on Cranberry Bread and a Duck Confit with Plum Sauce on a Sesame Seeded Choux Bun. 

Cult Horror Movies Halloween Afternoon Tea

Indulge in a truly spook-tacular experience with the Halloween Afternoon Tea, inspired by 1960s classic horror movies. A very cold welcome awaits you, with Alfred Hitchcock classics flickering from a projector and The Little Shop of Horrors’ Audrey sitting on your table. Don’t feed her meat!

Pull the curtains back on a scene of savoury classics; though not all is as it seems... are you brave enough to try the Axe-Carved Beef with Horseradish; the Ominous Crab Sushi and the Pitch Black Pudding Scotch Egg?

Sink your fangs into an array of sickly-sweet confections so good they could bring the dead to life. Things get grisly with a Cursed Blackbird Macaroon; Psycho Marbled Lollipops; Black Sunday Battenberg; Night of the Living Tart; and a Haunted Panna Cotta.

The final nails in the coffin are the Chocolate and Coconut Scones, served fresh from the oven with Homemade Blackberry Jam and Clotted-Blood Cream. This tea is on offer between 16th - 31st October.

Royal Lancaster London invites you to embrace your inner Hitchcock and capture a chilling photograph of the Halloween Afternoon Tea. To enter, all photos must be in black and white and use the hashtag #WeAlwaysScare to win a complimentary Christmas Afternoon Tea.

Now for the tea-riffic bit.....the offer!

For 25% off your total bill simple quote the following when making your reservation:

Chocolate Tea - #Choctober

Halloween Tea - #WeAlwaysScare

To find out more about the afternoon teas on offer pop by the Royal Lancaster London website.

Lorna and I are heading to the Royal Lancaster London to enjoy the spooky Halloween afternoon tea - maybe we'll see you there!

Thank you for popping by today!

Rachel & Lorna