Time for a Guest Post ......Kavanagh’s Tea Room, Oakham

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends, we hope you're having a lovely day.

Today we have another lovely guest post from Victoria, who has enjoyed an afternoon tea adventure at the newly opened Kavanagh's Tea Room in Oakham. The tea room only opened in May and we love to hear about new places to enjoy a spot of tea and cake. Let's see what Victoria thought.....

Kavanagh’s Tea Room has opened within Oakham in Rutland (England’s smallest county!) over the last month. Having popped in for a coffee during its first couple of weeks of opening, I felt that it was my duty to book their Gentleman’s Afternoon Tea for a Fathers’ Day treat for my father. Just for research purposes, you understand!

We were welcomed warmly by the owners, Clare and Martyn. It was Martyn who explained the menu to us and there is a separate tea menu of loose leaf tea. We all ordered English Breakfast tea, which was beautifully smoky and perfect to accompany our food. The staff also brought us bottles of chilled water as it was such a hot day.

Each one of us decided to try the full selection and it arrived on a tiered stand. No finger sandwiches, but beautiful bread. Clare did tell me later that she is a coeliac so everything available on the menu is also available in a gluten free form, without any prior knowledge. The fillings on the sandwiches were plentiful, the pulled pork was divine but my favourite was the goats cheese with roasted vegetables and pesto. 

The scones are freshly baked each day and are all gluten free. Strawberry jam and clotted cream was served in accompaniment. I’m afraid that the sweet treats on the top nearly defeated us, but oh my word, the brownie was divine.

Definitely a place to return to time and time again! A quirky treat was a tiny Polaroid picture that Martyn took of us all enjoying our tea.

That all looks and sounds tea-riffic! Those scones look amazing!

A huge thank you to Victoria for sharing her afternoon tea adventure with us. If you've been somewhere new (or an old favourite) we'd love to hear all about it - drop us a line!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

Time for Tea....Frensham Garden Centre

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends - I hope you are well today.

Last weekend Alex and I decided to visit another local garden centre in the Farnham area to try their afternoon tea. For this afternoon tea adventure we decided to pay Frensham Garden Centres a visit, as they have a tea room and restaurant located outside with the plants....

When we arrived at the tea room we were shown to a corner table that had been reserved for us and we were asked what we wanted to drink before the afternoon tea stand was brought out. The afternoon tea consists of a stand featuring sandwiches, scones and cakes for two and your choice of a cup of coffee or a pot of tea. 

When I called to book the tea I was asked if I had a sandwich filling preference, and I opted to go with the standard fillings that are served - this included:

cucumber

egg mayonnaise

salmon

ham

The sandwiches were all fresh, crustless and well filled. I also liked the addition of fresh cherry tomato and rocket.

Next we moved onto the scones. There were two large scones on the stand, which were served with clotted cream and preserve....

Alex was very pleased to see that we each had a pot of cream!

The scones looked rather "robust", but when we cut into them they were baked well and not too tough! We had two pots of jam, one strawberry and one raspberry.

Finally we moved onto the selection of cakes and pastries....

We were spoilt for choice with the selection, which included a piece of Victoria sponge, a piece of lemon drizzle cake, an eclair and a millefeuille.

All the cakes were fresh and tasty, but the lemon drizzle was my favourite, which full of flavour.

All in all this was a scrummy afternoon tea. 

You didn't get any additional food or drink refills - but at £19.95 for two this is great value. Everything was fresh and tasty and we didn't leave hungry!

As this is a small garden centre tea room you need to call in advance and book a table if you want to enjoy the full afternoon tea experience. Otherwise you can just pop by and enjoy a piece of cake from the selection on offer.

Do you have a local garden centre or tea room that offers a brilliant afternoon tea? We'd love to hear from you if have - please drop us a line!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel

Time for Tea....Daisy May's Tea Room, Taunton

Daisy May's Tea Room - Taunton

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends - we hope you're feeling tea-riffic today.


This week I visited Taunton for work and found myself with a little spare time at lunchtime.....so I did what every afternoon tea lover does...and Goggled "tea rooms in Taunton" (that is what we all do isn't it??). I had several options to pick from, but I happened to find Daisy May's Tea Room first.


The exterior of the tea room was very cute and appealing, with lots of chairs outside for the warmer weather. Inside was just as cute with lots of wooden furniture and china. On offer at Daisy May's is a variety of  hot and cold dishes, served between 10am-4pm each day. I visited on a Wednesday lunchtime and it was very busy!






I didn't have a huge amount of time and so couldn't try the full afternoon tea experience, but I was pleased to see a cream tea option and so ordered that.


The cream tea consisted of a pot of loose leaf tea (picked from their tea menu), along with a scone, clotted cream and jam. The tea stocked at Daisy May's is Jenier Tea and there is a good selection on offer. I opted for the Lover's Leap which is a ceylon tea, medium body and full of flavour. Perfect for a chilly January lunchtime!


The staff were all friendly and despite being busy in the tearoom, the service was very quick.


When my cream tea was brought to me I have to say I was a little disappointed....some might call me greedy....or maybe spoilt by the sheer amount of scones I have consumed....but this one seemed rather....well....small....

Cream Tea - Daisy May's Tea Room, Taunton

Everything was served on pretty china and the tea was loose leaf. But the scone had something very "shop bought" about it - it definitely didn't look homemade. The servings of clotted cream and jam were adequate - although the strawberry jam was a little disappointing in flavour.

The scone itself hadn't risen much and was very small - I could have easily eaten two of them!

Afternoon tea scone - Daisy May's Tea Room, Taunton

This cream tea cost £4.95, which although not hugely expensive didn't really offer value for money as the scone was so small and the jam not the best quality. The tea however was loose leaf and there were two cups in the pot and the service was efficient and friendly.

 A nice cup of tea at Daisy May's Tea Room, Taunton

The cakes on offer looked very nice and there are lots of good reviews on the Daisy May's Facebook page, but I'm not sure I would return for their full afternoon tea experience. For more information about Daisy May's please visit their website.

Have you enjoyed a spot of tea and cake at Daisy May's Tea Room - we'd love to hear about your experience, please leave us a comment!

Thank you for popping by today.

Rachel