Time for Tea....Amba Charing Cross

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends - we hope you're having a tea-riffic day!

I am pleased to share with you our first afternoon tea of 2018 - recently Lorna and I went on an afternoon tea adventure in London with Alex and Becca, visiting Amba Hotel Charing Cross for some tea and cakes!

Afternoon tea at Amba Charing Cross is served in an area called The Terrace, which is a light and airy space at the front of the hotel, above The Strand. The Terrace has high ceilings and lots of natural daylight, it is a lovely spot for a catch up over afternoon tea.

The afternoon tea was served on a traditional stand, with pretty floral china plates and teacups. It's modern, but very floral!

As there were four of us we had two stands for the group and we were told we could have more items if we wanted them - so no fighting over the cakes on the top tier! It was a very traditional afternoon tea with finger sandwiches, scones served with clotted cream and strawberry jam and then a selection of cakes.

There were four different finger sandwiches to enjoy...

The varieties included:
Free range egg & watercress on white bread (v)

Oak smoked salmon & cream cheese on granary bread

English ham & sweet mustard on brown bloomer bread

Aged Keens farmhouse Cheddar & onion chutney (v)

The sandwiches were fresh, and cut into easy to eat finger sandwiches. I particularly enjoyed the cheese and chutney sandwich although there could have been a bit more filling. I was a bit disappointed with the egg sandwich as it had an extra filling....

Yep....that's quite chunky cucumber in with my egg! I've encountered this once before and I'm still not sure I'm convinced that this is a good conversation. I love an egg sandwich and I feel the cucumber compromises both the flavour and the texture!

Moving up the cake stand we next turned our attention to the scones, we had two scones each....but not enough cream and jam (a pet hate when you need to ask for more scone dressings!).

The scones were a generous size - probably a little two big as one was enough to enjoy with a full afternoon tea. I also found the texture a little claggy, but not claggy enough not to enjoy the scone.

The jam that was served with the scone was ok - bog standard strawberry jam!

Finally we made our way to the top tier and the selection of cakes, which were rather appealing to look at because of the different colours...

The cakes were small and there were six different varieties to try, which was nice to see. We had already established that we could have additional cakes if we wanted which was nice to know (nothing worse than having to share the cakes so everyone tries everything!).

This selection wasn't to everyone's taste, and they weren't the most delicate sweets I have tried. But the flavours were at least interesting - there is a dense Brownie in there, a mango cheesecake (with a strong emphasis on the cheese), a red velvet cake, a green tea cake and another piece of brownie which was spiked with raspberry and peach . We liked the addition of peach pipette, which meant you could add as much or little peach as you liked. 

Overall it was a good tea, the service was friendly and the food was all fresh. There was a good selection of teas, which catered for most tastes from black and green to herbal and fruit. The Terrace is also a lovely space to be in - you wouldn't think you were so close to a train station!

The afternoon tea starts at £29.95 for a standard tea, which for central London I think represents a good price. 

For more information pop by the Amba Hotel Charing Cross' website

Have you enjoyed an afternoon tea recently? We'd love to hear all about it, leave us a comment or send us a photo on Twitter!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

Mother's Day Afternoon Tea 2016 - Part 2

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends where we're taking another peek at some of the afternoon tea experiences you can enjoy in London this Mother's Day!

Let's take a peek at The Modern Pantry in Clarkenwell first....

Afternoon tea - The Modern Pantry

The Modern Pantry offers guests a modern twist on the traditional afternoon tea with savouries including:

Coronation chicken sandwich, raisin chutney

Chia seed bread, parsnip, cumin & black garlic purée,

hazelnut & macadamia dukkah, sorrel cress

Spring onion & Aleppo chilli scone, Perroche goats cheese

Coconut & cardamom scones are served with gooseberry vanilla jam and clotted cream. The sweet teats on offer include: Passionfruit curd & turmeric meringue pie, Pic’s crunchy peanut butter cheesecake, caraway milk chocolate base

For something more traditional you could treat your mum to afternoon tea at the world famous Ritz hotel. On Sunday 6th March the Ritz are serving their Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea throughout the day

Afternoon Tea - The Ritz

The Afternoon Tea includes a choice of 16 loose leaf teas, finger sandwiches with a variety of traditional fillings, a selection of tea cakes and pastries as well as freshly baked scones with strawberry preserve and delectable Devonshire clotted cream.  This is a champagne afternoon tea and all mum's will recieve a Miranda Heldt opera CD as a gift.

Afternoon Tea - The Ritz

If you're treating your mum to afternoon tea this weekend we'd love to hear about your experience. Drop us a line and let us know where you went and don't forget to send us a photo!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

Time for Tea....Forest Lodge Garden Centre, Farnham

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends, last weekend I found myself wandering around a local garden centre with no plans (shocking I know). The garden centre is called Forest Lodge and as I walked through the various departments I spied the restaurant - it was one of those typical garden centre self-service affairs catering for breakfast, lunch and tea.

As I got closer I saw a stand near the front that grabbed my attention - on it was a huge pile of scones and a sign advertising a cream tea for one for just £2.99! The cream tea included a pot of tea, a giant scone, a pot of cream and a mini jar of jam. All this for £2.99 - I had to try for myself!

Cream Tea for One - Forest Lodge Garden Centre, Farnham

Just look at the size of that scone!

The teapot, although giant too, held just two cups of tea - so no need to worry about a caffeine overdose. In fact the two cups were just right to enjoy the scone with. You could pick your tea from a small tea menu - I went for a standard breakfast tea.

The servings of clotted and jam were also the right size and I was pleased to see that you could chose your jam from a selection of varieties - I opted for raspberry.

Roddas clotted cream and Wilkin & Sons jam 

I was a little concerned that the scone would either be dry or not quite baked properly in the middle due to it's size - however I was pleasantly surprised! The scone was well baked and rather scrummy!

In fact the whole cream tea was a real bargain for just £2.99 and I even managed to get a seat by the window so I was overlooking all the plants outside. The fact that you can chose your tea and jam means you can enjoy a personalised cream tea, which I think is fab!

Scones dressed the Tea With Me and Friends way - cream first!

If you happen to be in the Farnham area in Surrey I would highly recommend you pop by! For more information about the restaurant opening times pop by the Forest  Lodge website.

On my way back out I also noticed that they also offer a full afternoon tea - so I think I will be popping back soon for the full experience!

Have you enjoyed a scone in a garden centre - what was it like? We'd love to hear from you, why not leave us a comment below!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel

Time for Tea....The Old Cream Shop, Croyde

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends....if you popped by during the week you'll know that I recently stayed in the North Devon area where I enjoyed some lovely scones! This weekend I will be sharing some more photos of my afternoon tea adventures!

First stop is The Old Cream Shop which is in Croyde, and as well as being a shop has a lovely Tea Garden at the back where you can enjoy all kinds of local treats......

With a shop front like this and a sign declaring "tea garden open" of course I had to investigate further!

Once you have made your way through the shop you will find yourself in the multi-level garden which has a very relaxed feel. There is both covered and open seating, with plenty of seats.

I opted for something a little bit different, ordering a mixed cream tea (sweet and savoury) and Joe ordered a slice of Homity Pie. The portions were a good size and the food arrived quickly.

Let's start with Joe's Homity Pie which was served with a lovely chutney....

If you are not familiar with Homity Pie, its a bit like a flan I suppose....a pastry case filled with a potato, onion and leek mixture, topped with cheese. Its rather scrummy!

My sweet and savoury cream tea included one sweet scone served with cream and jam and one cheese scone served with cheese and chutney....

Look at the size of those scones!

They were served warm and were really fresh tasting. I started with the cheese scone, which is something that I don't usually go for....

I topped my scone with chutney and the sliced Cheddar cheese. The scone was light and tasty, I liked the texture which was slightly different to a standard sweet scone. I really enjoyed this!

Next came the sweet scone...

My scones were loaded with clotted cream and topped with strawberry jam. Again, I really enjoyed the sweet scone....so much so that I got a little arty with my photos....

I can't remember exactly how much we paid but I remember it being reasonable - my cream tea with a good sized pot of tea was under £7.00.

Once we had enjoyed our scones and the views we made our way back into the shop for a nose around. Inside we found all kinds of delights.....more things to eat there and then (ice-creams and take away cream teas) but also local produce such as fudge and the gorgeous chutneys we had enjoyed with our meals.

We might have taken some of the chutneys home with us....

If you happen to be near Croyde and fancy a sweet (or savoury) treat, I'd highly recommend a visit to The Old Cream Shop! As well as great food everyone we talked to was super friendly and you can't beat the views!

Don't forget to pop back tomorrow and take a peek at my post about the gorgeous Elsie May's in Tiverton.

Thanks for popping by today,

Rachel

Time for Tea...The Langham

Hello there,

Welcome back to another afternoon tea post from Tea With Me and Friends, now it was Mother's Day in the UK this weekend and as some of you may know that is where our love affair with afternoon tea first began. We have been taking mum for afternoon tea on Mothering Sunday for years and years now...enjoying some time together in beautiful surroundings, while sipping tea and eating cake. It's a tradition that we all love and look forward to each year.

This year we visited somewhere that I have wanted to try for a while now, The Palm Court at The Langham, in London. The Palm Court has been serving afternoon tea since the Victorian era and offers guests a beautiful lounge to enjoy tea in. As soon as you are ushered into the room you leave the hustle and bustle of Regents Street far behind, the air is sweet with roses and everyone smiles at you and makes you feel very welcome.

Everything about The Palm Court is elegant and under-stated, from the beautiful china to the fresh red roses on each table....

A beautiful setting awaits you at
Palm Court, The Langham

As it was Mother's Day we enjoyed The Mother's Day Langham Afternoon Tea With Wedgewood, which was served with a glass of Laurent Perrier Champagne.

There were thirty different tea blends to choose from, which included something for everyone. I decided to play it safe with the Langham Blend, which was a light black tea perfect with the cakes scones we were about to enjoy.

Lorna enjoyed the Exotic Blend which smelt like grannies (aka roses) and Mum tried both The Langham Blend and also the Peach tea, which was a black tea lightly flavoured with peaches (a very subtle blend). 

As we enjoyed our champagne (which was lovely!) we were served a wonderfully light lemon posset to begin our afternoon tea adventure...

Lemon Posset - the perfect start to
afternoon tea at The Langham

Once we had finished the posset, the sandwiches were brought out on silver trays. The waiters described each sandwich in turn and we could choose which ones we wanted to try....as you can imagine we opted to try all of them (well we had to make sure all the flavours were good - all in the name of research!). 

The sandwiches are served onto individual plates for guests to enjoy.....

Afternoon tea sandwiches
The Langham, London

These were perfect examples of finger sandwiches, small and crustless and made with the freshest bread. The two small rolls were also very fresh and easy to eat (although the ham was a little messy). 

The fillings in the sandwiches were as follows:

London cured smoked salmon with whipped brie and rocket

Corn-fed chicken with tarragon mustard and plum tomato

Cucumber with cream cheese and chives

And in the rolls we enjoyed:

Burford Brown free range egg and mustard cress

Smoked mountain ham with Comté cheese and white truffle oil

I enjoyed each of the sandwiches, although my favourite was the egg roll. 

Once we were finished we were offered more sandwiches, which on this occasion we declined as we wanted plenty of room for the delights that lay ahead. At this point we were told that scones and pastries can be taken home, but sandwiches cannot.

Next the sweets were brought to the table....let's start with the scones which were served warm, wrapped in a napkin....

Scones at The Langham

We had both plain and fruit scones to enjoy, with clotted cream and strawberry preserve. 

The scones were perfect (yes I just said perfect!)....probably the best scones I have enjoyed. They were small, fresh and light as air. The clotted cream was rich and the preserve sweet and full of flavour - the perfect scone experience. 

Scones dressed the Tea With Me and Friends way
 at Palm Court, The Langham

Lorna and I might have enjoyed extra scones....just to make sure they were as good as we first thought!

After we enjoyed the scones we moved onto the sweet plates....

Sweet afternoon tea treats
The Langham

Now, first of all I am pleased to confirm that each guest received one of these plates - so no fighting over these beautiful treats! Secondly.....they all tasted as good as they look.

Our waiter explained each item to us, then suggested an order to try them in:

First off it was the English rose and lychee log at the front - which had a light biscuit base and a beautiful rose and lychee filling, wrapped in thin white chocolate. Again, it was light as air, fragrant and delicious - the lychees burst in your mouth as you took a bite. 

Next we moved onto the beautiful miniature Victoria sponge which was flavoured with strawberries and white balsamic. The sponge was surprisingly light and the icing encasing the sponge, thin and sweet....

A tiny, but perfect Victoria Sponge
Afternoon Tea at The Langham

After the sponge we moved onto the cinnamon teapot cookie and then the raspberry and lime macaroon....

Raspberry & Lime macaroon
Palm Court at The Langham

The macaroon had a small square of raspberry jelly in the middle, while the lime came from the cream surrounding it. The macaroon itself was light and crisp - all in all a lovely treat.

Next we moved onto the lime pana cotta in the shot glass which acted as a palate cleanser before the final sweet....

Chocolate, raspberries and pistachios
at The Langham

This treat featured 64% chocolate, raspberry and toasted pistachio - making for a rich and indulgent end to this afternoon tea feast! Those tiny little hearts were made from creamy white chocolate.

This is definitely one afternoon tea adventure that you enjoy with your eyes as much as your taste buds, everything looked so pretty! But Pastry Chef Cherish Finden has ensured that as well as looking good, every element tasted wonderful too....

Afternoon tea
Palm Court - The Langham

At £59.00 per person, this is definitely a treat rather than an every day afternoon tea experience. 

However, every part of the tea is well thought out and well delivered. The service was friendly and attentive - our tea cups never ran dry - the surroundings comfortable and beautiful, and the food of a very high standard. It's no wonder that Cherish was named pastry chef of the year 2012 by the Craft Guild of Chefs.

I thought I would leave you with one last look at that beautiful sweet plate...

Afternoon tea sweet plate
The Langham, London

More information about the current afternoon tea on offer at The Langham can be found on their website. 

So, over to you - where has been your most favourite afternoon tea experience...we'd love to hear from you....

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

Scone Wars Alert!

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends!

Do you remember when we first started writing our little afternoon tea blog and there was a bit of a debate about the way your scones should be dressed? This subject continues to be a hot topic of conversation which rears its head whenever we introduce new people to our blog! People are very passionate about whether the cream or jam or should be put on first (I can see some of you muttering to yourselves as you read this!).

Lorna and I are firm believers that cream goes on first.....it can be spread to give a good solid base for the preserve or curd which goes on top...the jewel in your crown if you like. We know however that not everyone shares our passion (including our best friend Becca....who puts whatever she reaches first on her scones first - scandalous!).

Last weekend scone wars started all over again on Twitter....and all because I innocently commented on a photo of Philip Schofield, who had enjoyed afternoon tea at Claridges....

Now, I didn't really expect a reply from Philip...but look what happened next...

Yes....you read that right! He said jam first!

As you can imagine Lorna was outraged....

For those of you that remember Lorna has tried the jam first method on one of her scones....

Tea with Me and Friends
Scone Wars!

The result was a bit of a mess and we decided that cream first was definitely the way to go!

Scones dressed the wrong way (according to us!)

With this experience in mind I tried to make Philip see the light with a lovely scone photo.....

But it seems he was not to be swayed!! It appears it takes all sorts to make the world go around....and even celebrities get their scone dressing wrong!

The debate quickly spread as people joined in our conversation, I even got included in Tweets like this.....

I love how passionate people are about this subject....and everyone has very valid reasons for their preference! 

Thanks for popping by today,

Rachel

Meet the Chef.....Ben Purton

Hello there,

Welcome back to another "meet the chef" blog post from Tea With Me and Friends, this time we are asking Executive Chef from the Lancaster London hotel Ben Purton our afternoon tea questions.

Executive Chef Ben Purton

You'll remember that Lorna and I enjoyed the afternoon tea created by Ben and his team just after Christmas and Lorna was rather impressed with his scones! So we decided we needed to find out more about the creative process behind this scrummy afternoon tea.

Afternoon tea at the Lancaster London

Chef Ben has worked at the Lancaster London since August 2014, and prior to this he was executive chef at The Royal Horseguards. So, let's find out if he is cream or jam first kinda guy.....

Q How long does it usually take you to create new afternoon teas?
It really depends - sometimes you can think of new ones all the time and others take longer to develop. We plan to have 4 changes per year and then a few themed ones thrown in too.

Q. Where does your inspiration for new teas come from? 
Everywhere and anywhere! It’s great seeing what other people are doing as you end up taking bits from all of them - sometimes you see things and think oh I have to do that. I love being creative and challenging the team - the bigger the challenge the better.

Q. So, what is your favourite part of your latest afternoon tea?
I love it all because it's a back to basics afternoon tea so we do the right things right etc but I have to say the flavoured savoury tarts and the raspberry and white chocolate lollipops are some of the best yet!!

Q. Do you enjoy a spot of afternoon tea yourself and have you tried tea anywhere else? 
I love it !! What's not to like, it's such a nice way to spend an afternoon - no rush, no hassle just tea, scones and maybe just a bit of bubbles. I love the Lancaster London afternoon tea (and who wouldn't) but I must confess that The Langham, The Goring and Browns do it very well too

Q. What is your favourite filling in an afternoon tea sandwich? 
Again I like them all but there is something to be said for a classic cucumber sandwich done right! Soft bread with salted butter layered with peeled sliced and seasoned soft flesh of cucumber - yum - most people don't like them because they don't do them right - we can all make smoked salmon and roast beef taste nice but there is an art to that one that I love.

Q. The all important question - do you put cream or jam on your scone first?
Oh come on - that's fighting talk and there is not an answer that will please everyone but as you asked ..... I'm a cream spooned on first making a perfect area for the jam to sit type of guy (I apologise in advance) When we pre split for passing at events etc we then top the scones with freeze dried strawberries too – lovely!

Q. If you could invite any guest to enjoy afternoon tea with you, who would it be and why? Wow - what a question! Too many to choose just one, but Bon Jovi is someone I'd love to spend an afternoon getting to know - I've always loved his music and passion for his trade and his songs are soundtracks to my youth and I'm sure he's a champagne, cucumber sandwich and cream first kind of guy too !!

It's good to know that Chef Ben prefers cream dolloped on his scones first and its brilliant to hear from someone so passionate about afternoon tea! I have to agree with him that the raspberry and white chocolate lollipops are really quite amazing!

Raspberry and white chocolate lollipops
at Lancaster London

I'd like to send a huge thank you to Chef Ben for his entertaining answers to our nosey afternoon tea questions! If you'd like to know more about the afternoon tea created by Chef Ben and his team pop by the Lancaster London website.

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel

Time for some of our favourite scones

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends.

Today we would like to share with you some of our favourite scones we have enjoyed since we started our afternoon tea adventures. To us a scone should be light and fluffy, but have a lovely crunchy exterior and should most definitely be served warm. And if they say they are fruit scones.....then they should contain more than one raisin!! Finally they should be eaten with clotted cream and a preserve or curd...we're not fussy about which as you'll see from our choices below.

Lorna's favourite scone was one she has enjoyed fairly recently when we visited the Lancaster London hotel....the scones were traditional and perfectly sized, they were light and fluffy in the middle with a wonderful crust and went particularly well with their house-made marmalade and clotted cream...

Lorna enjoying a scone at the Lancaster London

A better look at those scrummy scones

While I rather enjoyed the less traditional scones that Pastry Chef Ji Sun Shin has on offer at the Ampersand Hotel which contain white chocolate....

White chocolate scones at Ampersand Hotel

White chocolate is my least favourite type of chocolate, however it adds a creamy dimension to these light scones and goes really well with the strawberry preserve on offer.

The Rosewood Hotel served up some rather scrummy warm scones....

Warm, light and fluffy scones at the Rosewood

We enjoyed these cute little scones with zingy lemon curd.

We also had a citrus experience at The Athenaeum hotel when we took Kirsty there for her Birthday, as they served both fruit scones and orange flavoured scones....

Orange scones at The Athenaeum hotel

Finally do you remember those amazing mini scones served at the Chocolate Teapot in Esher....

Sadly the Chocolate Teapot has now closed, but I am so pleased I had the opportunity to enjoy these little mouthfuls!

So, where have you enjoyed your favourite scone and what makes the perfect scone for you.....get in touch and let us know!

Thanks for popping by today,

Rachel