Time for Tea.....The Intercontinental at The O2

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends!

We hope you're keeping well!

So, last weekend here in the UK it was Mother's Day and as some of you know, this blog exists from our family tradition of taking mum for a Mother's Day afternoon tea. One problem with last weekend though.....it also happened to be Country 2 Country - a three day country music festival that Lorna and I always attend. It's held at the O2 in London and there are music acts playing throughout the day and into the night.

We fixed our little problem though as we decided to stay at The Intercontinental hotel at the O2 this year.....and they offer an afternoon tea! So we dragged mum up to the O2 to listen to some country music with us and enjoy a spot of afternoon tea!

Intercontinental at the O2 serve their afternoon tea in the Meridian Lounge, overlooking the River Thames and Canary Wharf. We were given a corner table looking straight out onto the Thames, which was like a little oasis in the corner of the lounge....

The afternoon tea was a traditional affair, starting with a selection of finger sandwiches and savouries. The section included:

Honey roasted ham with wholegrain mustard mayonnaise on Pain de Mie
Mature cheddar cheese and pickle on carrot bread
Sliced cucumber and grated radishes with crème fraîche on beetroot bread
Smoked salmon with dill cream cheese on basil bread
Truffle egg mayonnaise on a brioche bun

It was a very pretty sandwich plate, with a variety of colours making it interesting to look at. There was also a variety of flavours to sample. I enjoyed the cucumber and radish more than I thought I would and I enjoyed the cheese and pickle sandwich. I wasn't really a fan of the egg mayonnaise on the brioche bun though, as the sweetness of the bun was rather overpowering.

The sandwiches were fresh and crustless....but take a look at the sizing....why is my ham sandwich so much shorter than the others??

At this point I'll note that our tea was refreshed regularly throughout the afternoon tea and we were given the opportunity to change our tea choice.

When we had finished our savouries the afternoon tea stand was served.....queue photo of Lorna waving at me through the top tier....

We started with the scones at the bottom of the stand, which were served with clotted cream and two different preserves. The scones were served warm, they were a good size and had a lovely colour - they looked very appealing against the white plates.

We weren't a fan of the preserves (one was strawberry and the other apricot), which seemed to lack flavour, but the scones themselves had a great texture and were not at all claggy.

We were served two scones each - one plain and one fruit. There was also plenty of cream and preserve for all three of us. 

Finally we moved onto the sweet treats, which were very pretty....

This pretty sweet selection included

Blackberry Bonbon Torte

Plum and Custard Verrine

Pear and Apple Tart

Spiced Chocolate Pyramid

Quince macaroon

The stand out item for me was the chocolate pyramid - the cake was moist and light, with layers of ganache. Each item looked beautiful, a lot of thought had gone into the presentation of this afternoon tea.

I also want to compliment the Meridian Lounge on how welcoming they are and how knowledgeable their staff were about the teas. One server in particular helped mum with her choice of tea, suggesting different ways to sweeten the tea. She also came back during the afternoon to see whether mum was enjoying her tea. It was refreshing to be served by someone who actually knew about tea and the different ways to enjoy it. 

Probably not the first choice for many people because of the location, but the Intercontinental at the O2 offers a well priced afternoon tea, with excellent service. If you'd like to know more about their afternoon tea, pop by their website

If you treated your mum to a Mother's Day afternoon tea last weekend, we'd love to hear all about it. Leave a comment on the blog, or get in touch on Facebook!

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

Mother's Day Afternoon Teas 2016 - Part 1

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends. In the run up to Mother's Day in the UK this coming Sunday, we thought we'd take a look at some of the afternoon teas that have been created especially to spoil your mum with.

Let's start by taking a peek at Muriel's Kitchen who are serving a very cute afternoon tea on a mini picnic bench....and if you book this afternoon tea on 6th March Mum's will receive a complimentary glass of Prosecco!

This afternoon tea spread includes all the traditional items, including a selection of finger sandwiches, mini fruit scones with clotted cream & strawberry jam and a selection of sweet treats. All washed down with unlimited tea - you can pick from: English Breakfast, Earl Grey, Camomile, Peppermint, Chai, Super Fruit, Green Tea, Jasmine Tea, Rooibos

This afternoon tea costs £31.50 for two people, and is available at Muriel's Kitchen in Soho, South Kensington and Richmond. Pop by Afternoontea.co.uk for more information about this offer.

Another Mother's Day afternoon tea feast can be found at Sketch in London, where on Saturday 5th & Sunday 6th March  guests can enjoy Afternoon Tea & a gift for all mother's, a Dyptique scented candle, with a glass of Moussé Fils rosé Champagne for £68 per person.

This is a stylish afternoon tea....

The finger sandwiches on offer include coronation chicken, smoked salmon and Jacob's cream, cucumber and ricotta, Comte cheese panini and egg and maynonnaise, quail egg, caviar. Scones are served with clotted cream and preserve and the pastries include a passion fruit tartlet, coffee cake, pistachio choux, cassis cheesecake, chocolate and mint gateau, tangy citrus meringue and malabar marshmallow.

This afternoon tea features something for everyone!

For more information visit the Sketch website.

If you're taking your mum for a spot of afternoon tea for Mother's Day we'd love to hear all about it - drop us a line or send us a photo!

Pop back tomorrow to see some more Mother's Day inspiration!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

Time for Tea at Brown's - The English Tea Rooms

Hello there,

Welcome back to another afternoon tea post from Tea With Me and Friends. After all the themes, quirks and somethings a little bit different that we've enjoyed lately it was wonderful to enjoy a very traditional afternoon tea in The English Tea Rooms at Brown's in Mayfair to celebrate Mother's Day.

The jubilant mood was set with a glass of champagne (or a non-alcoholic cocktail if you preferred) and we took our time choosing our teas.  Getting in the spirit of Tea Month we opted for three different blends of black tea (optimal for sharing, don't you know!) and were all thrilled to try the Cornish tea which had a lovely depth of flavour and just goes to show that we Brits can do anything when we put our minds to it, even grow tea in our capricious climate!

Afternoon tea - Browns Hotel, Mayfair

The sandwiches were delicate and divine with lots of variety and subtle, well-paired flavours.  They were also bountiful but we piously declined subsequent plates so that we had plenty of room for the delights to follow.

Afternoon tea sandwiches
Browns Hotel

The scones (how do you emphasise the 'o' in text so that Rachel knows I'm pronouncing it correctly?) were petite, warm and simply scrumptious.  There was no shortage of cream and jam although shockingly I did have to request a top up of cream with our second helping of scones!

Scrumptious scones!
Browns Hotel

There was a lovely selection of dainty pastries and fancies atop the cake stand which were just the right size.  My favourite had to be the decadent chocolate tart which was simply to die for but I was somewhat disappointed by the battenburg cake which didn't have the distinctive almond taste I was anticipating.  Never happy to end a paragraph on a low note, I would also add that the lavender cake took me by surprise and was full of aromatic flavour which I was not expecting.

The afternoon tea sweet treats on offer at
 Browns Hotel were quite beautiful!

From the cake trolley (which we sadly never saw) we all enjoyed a slice of lemon drizzle cake which was moist and delicious.

Fresh from the Browns Hotel cake trolley - lemon drizzle cake

All in all we had a wonderful afternoon with fabulous food, superb service (if a tad rushed in the middle) in a splendid setting.  There is very little that could be done to improve this tremendous traditional afternoon tea.

A traditional afternoon tea at Browns costs £41.50 per person, if you would like to indulge in a glass of champagne (who wouldn't!) it will cost £51.50 per person. This is a high end afternoon tea, but the food and drink is of a wonderful quality and is plentiful.

If you would like to know more about the afternoon tea experience at Browns, pop by their website.

Thank you for popping by today,

Lorna