Tried and Tested....Proper Tea White Peony

Hello there,

Welcome back to another tried and tested tea article from Tea With Me and Friends. Today I wanted to share with you a rather lovely white tea that I have tried recently enjoyed.

White peony tea
from propertea

Proper Tea is a contemporary tea room in Manchester which specialises in loose leaf teas. They offer a wide variety of different teas, something for everyone - including five different Earl Grey varieties, black teas, green teas, flowering teas and many more.

I have amongst my tea collection their white peony tea.....

White peony tends to be a refreshing tea, with a slight sweetness to it which I really enjoy. This tea didn't disappoint, it was smooth with a slight nuttiness, and a lovely golden colour when brewed for just under two minutes.

I found this a gentle, refreshing cup of tea which I could enjoy at any point of the day.

For more information about Proper Tea or their white peony tea visit their website.

Thanks for popping by today,

Rachel

Time for Tea....at Marwell Hotel

Hello there,

Welcome back to another afternoon tea post from Tea With Me and Friends, and this time we are sharing with you a recent visit to Marwell Hotel in Hampshire.

Marwell Hotel has recently gained the talents of executive chef Phil Yeoman who is passionate about using local produce in all his cooking, and this includes the afternoon tea on offer. Lorna and I were lucky enough to be invited to try Phil's current afternoon tea, here's what we enjoyed.....

We were seated in the upstairs of the lounge area and were looked after very well by Holly. Holly not only offered great, friendly service but also a very good knowledge of the afternoon tea she was serving. After we had picked our tea selection from the Twinings teas on offer, the tea stands were brought out.....

Afternoon tea - Marwell Hotel

On the top tier was a selection of afternoon tea cakes and pastries, and nestled below them on the middle tier were the finger sandwiches. The scones were brought out after we had finished our sandwiches, which meant they were served perfectly warm.

The hotel supports local producers and this is reflected in all the food served at afternoon tea. 

The sandwiches were freshly cut and generously filled....

Afternoon tea sandwiches - Marwell Hotel

The filling variety included:

Smoked salmon and cream cheese

Cream cheese and cucumber 

Honey roast ham, and grain mustard

The bread was fresh and I'm pleased to report crustless. The sandwiches were a good size, cut into fingers and filled from end to end - there was no scrimping here! I really enjoyed the cucumber sandwiches.

Once we had finished the sandwiches the plates of scones were brought out.....

Afternoon tea scones - Marwell Hotel

Now...these scones were quite amazing....firstly...they were huge! We were served one plain and one fruit scone each, accompanied by locally produced strawberry jam and clotted cream. As mentioned before, as the scones were brought out after we'd finished our sandwiches they were lovely and warm when we cut into them.

The fruit scones had fruit all the way through, and both the fruit and plain ones had a lovely flavour and texture to them. They had a nice bite, were light inside and not at all claggy. I really liked the strawberry jam, which was a good consistency (perfectly for dolloping on top of the cream!) and flavoursome.

Finally we moved onto the top tier of the cake stand....those wonderful looking pastries and cakes.....

Afternoon tea pastries - Marwell Hotel

There were three different sweets to enjoy:

Chocolate marquise salted caramel

Glazed strawberry tartlet chantilly cream

Carrot cake coriander cress

I started with the carrot cake, which was light and delicious. I'm not normally a fan of carrot cake, but this I really enjoyed. I followed this up with the strawberry tartlet, which again was light and delicate...and those strawberries tasted amazing! Finally I enjoyed the salted caramel and chocolate piece of heaven, which was topped with homemade honeycomb. It was rich, but light and I loved the salted caramel running through it. 

This was a really lovely selection of sweets, and all were a good size.

All in all this was a wonderful afternoon tea, we were well fed and watered and all for £15.50 per person. If you are in Hampshire I would definitely recommend trying this afternoon tea - it's great value, especially considering the quality of the ingredients.

We also had the pleasure of meeting executive chef Phil at the end of our experience who told us about some of his plans for the hotel (we also asked him our afternoon tea questions). We'll feature all this in a future blog post, so watch this space!

I'd like to thank Marwell Hotel and Phil for inviting us to try their afternoon tea. Please note that although we were guests at the hotel, this has not influenced our thoughts on the tea and all opinions expressed are our own.

If you would like to find out more about the afternoon tea, please visit the Marwell Hotel website.

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel

Afternoon Tea News....The Ampersand Hotel

Hello there,

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

I wanted to share with you a creation that will be featuring at the Ampersand Hotel in South Kensington to celebrate London Cocktail Week. Pastry Chef Ji Sun Shin has created a wonderfully cute afternoon tea, complete with cocktail umbrellas....

Cocktail afternoon tea - Ampersand Hotel

Doesn't it look wonderful? The colours are so inviting!

Currently on offer at the hotel is the London Fashion Week afternoon tea, which features lots of legs and handbags......

London Fashion Week Afternoon Tea - Ampersand Hotel
Photo from Website

London Fashion Week Afternoon Tea - Ampersand Hotel
Photo from Website

The London Fashion Week afternoon tea is available from the 6th - 21st September and includes savoury gougeres and a selection of plain and white chocolate scones as well as the pastry selection.

Ji Sun is an extremely creative pastry chef, who thinks that flavour is just as important as the look when it comes to her themed afternoon teas. I had the pleasure of meeting Ji Sun at the beginning of  this year, read all about it here.

For more information about all the afternoon teas on offer at the Ampersand please visit their website.

Have you enjoyed one of the themed afternoon teas at the Ampersand Hotel, if you have we'd love to hear about your experience!

Thank you  for popping by today,

Rachel

Time for Tea.....With lots of Audreys!

Hello there,

Welcome back to another afternoon tea post from Tea With Me and Friends - this time I would like to share with you a recent tea Lorna and I experienced with the lovely Secret Tea Society Ladies at Warren House.

Now if you are not sure who the Secret Tea Society are you should really take a peek at their website....led by our tea leader Claire, we are a group of like minded ladies who enjoy tea and a good gossip! We meet approximately once a month for afternoon tea at various locations - we're a very friendly bunch so if you fancy joining us take a peek!

This tea was a rather special one as it was a Breakfast at Tiffany's themed afternoon tea that was put on for us at Warren House in New Malden, Surrey. As well as a beautifully dressed room and themed games all the ladies were also asked to dress for the occasion....

An orderly queue of Audreys!

As you can see from the photo above, tea was served buffet style, which for this particular tea I rather enjoyed. All the food was on the buffet table, presented on stands and we could help ourselves. Tea was of the loose leaf variety and we were presented with a selection of Twinings leaves to pick from.

A selection of Twinings Teas to pick from

Afternoon Tea Stands - Warren House

We had a traditional selection of afternoon tea treats to indulge in:

Afternoon tea sandwiches

Scones with homemade jam and clotted cream

Various pastries and fresh fruit

The sandwiches were fresh and perfectly sized - not a crust in sight. The fillings were very traditional and included smoked salmon and cucumber, egg mayonnaise and ham.

Afternoon tea sandwiches - Warren House

Next we helped ourselves to scones and pastries.....

Sweet treats at Warren House!

From the lovely selection I decided to try the vanilla and strawberry panna cotta shot, the ginger spiced cupcake, the brownie and the tea bread.

I really enjoyed the panna cotta, which was rich and creamy and went beautifully with the strawberry compote on the top. I also loved the mini cupcake which was perfectly sized and full of flavour.

The scones were also a good size - not too big, not too small and were not claggy in texture. I particularly enjoyed the homemade strawberry jam as well, which had a really good flavour.

Afternoon tea sweets - Warren House

Our tea was served in wonderful, individual glass teapots. 

I loved the contemporary design....

Tea is served!

Finally I thought I should show you what Lorna and I decided to wear to this tea. We were all asked to dress in our best Breakfast at Tiffany's inspired outfits....and we decided to think outside the box a little....

Lorna opted for Audrey in her pink dress....and I went for "Moon River" Audrey, complete with guitar! 

All in all we had a wonderful afternoon, a big thank you to Claire for organising yet another wonderful afternoon tea and thank you also to Warren House for a lovely afternoon tea experience.

To find out more about afternoon tea at Warren House please visit their website.

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel

A Wonderful Scone....

Hello there,

Welcome back to another scone themed blog post from Tea With Me and Friends! After the last post when I shared with you a rather disappointing scone that I had over the summer...I thought I should now share a quite lovely scone experience.

Today I went for a wander in my local antique shop in Farnham - it's a huge place with lots of different rooms stuffed to the roof with treasures! In the middle of it all is the Mill Stream Tearooms, which I may frequent on a regular basis (as its only a five minute stroll from my front door!).

I decided today not to indulge in a full cream tea, but I did fancy a scone and some tea......

To be honest I was a little surprised that I was served two scones, but they weren't too large and so I tucked into both. One was plain and the other fruited and I enjoyed them with butter and strawberry jam. 

The tearoom really is in the middle of the antiques....here are some of the surroundings you can enjoy while tucking into your tea and scones.....

Now I said this was a wonderful scone experience and it's because the scones were so tasty! They were served warm and they were light and fluffy - not at all claggy. The fruited one was full of raisins, no scrimping here!

Best of all, this little lot cost lest than £4.00 and the scones were homemade!

A really lovely treat for a Saturday afternoon.

If you happen to be in the Farnham area in Surrey and fancied a scone I would highly recommend the Mill Stream Tearooms!

Thanks for popping by today,

Rachel