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

The Friday Review - Steven Smith Teamaker

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends - it's Friday (again) and that means we're back with another tea. This time we have a really special treat for you as we are featuring a tea from America!

Some of you may remember the lovely Valarie from Portland who I met last summer when she visited the UK and we enjoyed a spot of afternoon tea at The Goring. Well, at Christmas Valarie sent me a rather lovely package which included some tea and some hot chocolate.

So today we are going to share with you two teas from Steven Smith Teamaker  - Brahmin and Bungalow, both are black teas which Lorna and I enjoyed without milk.

Steven Smith Teamakers have been involved in tea since 1949, and today we import their teas and botanicals directly from farmers at origin. Some of the farmers have been working with Steven Smith Teamakers for over 15 years. They blend their tea in small batches and package it in oversized sachets....

Lorna opted to try the Brahmin tea, which is blend of full-bodied Indian Assam teas paired with Ceylon teas. It's described as a Breakfast Tea.

The liquor was rich in colour, a lovely amber colour. Lorna enjoyed the taste, but when I tried it I found it very light and not exactly what I would call a breakfast blend. It was nice and perfect for anyone who prefers a really light flavour to their tea.

My tea was the Bungalow tea, which is a blend of first and second flush organic Darjeeling teas - the flavour is described by Steven Smith Teamakers as light but complex.

Again, this tea had a wonderful amber colour - but I found that it lacked flavour. It was pleasant enough and could be enjoyed in the afternoon as a light afternoon tea, but wouldn't be great for anyone who enjoys a robust cup of tea.

It's great to try teas from another country and we'd like to thank Valarie for sending us this tea! If you'd like to find out more about Steven Smith Teamakers, pop by their website.

I know we get lots of visitors from outside the UK - if anyone has a favourite tea they'd like to share with us please drop us a line!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

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

Time For......a sweet hot dog??

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends - we hope you are well today!

So, I'm pretty sure that most people who visit our afternoon tea blog has a bit of a sweet tooth, but I'm not sure how you're going to feel about our latest discovery.....the Daim Bar hot dog that will be available from K West Hotel & Spa in Shepherds Bush.

Yes, you read that correctly....a Daim Bar hot dog.....for those of you not sure what a Daim Bar is (they used to be called Dime Bars in the UK until 2005) it's basically a crunchy almond butter bar covered in milk chocolate.

K West has taken this humble chocolate bar and turned it into a hot dog shaped treat which is encased in a sweet brioche roll......

This hot dog even has it's own ketchup and mustard topping in the form of sweet mango and raspberry sauce!

If you fancy trying this really sweet treat it will be available at K West from 1st March, costing £5.50 each, or as part of the restaurant’s £22.50 Glam Rock Afternoon Tea. 

If you do enjoy one, we'd love to hear what you think about this sweet treat!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

Baking with Typhoo Tea...part 1!

Hello there,

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

Typhoo Tea are currently celebrating the uniqueness of the great British cuppa by encouraging us all to share our #TyphooMoments. They know that we all enjoy our tea slightly differently.....for example in my household I rarely add milk and never sugar whereas Joe enjoys his cuppa sweet and milky!

As you probably already know I also love a piece of cake with my cuppa - there is nothing better in my humble opinion! So when Typhoo asked me to celebrate my passion of tea and cake by creating a cake recipe or two featuring tea I thought that was a fab idea!

In this post I will share my first recipe - something quite simple, but rather tasty! I decided to take the humble cupcake and add a good splosh of tea!

Typhoo Tea Cupcakes

As you can see for this recipe I used the Typhoo Gold blend - which is a rich, full-bodied tea.

To make 12 of these scrummy cakes you will need:

200ml boiling water

2 teabags

85 grams dried fruit

115 grams butter

115 grams brown sugar

2 eggs

115 grams self raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

To start with make up a nice strong brew using the boiling water and teabags. I left the teabags in the water for quite a while, producing a dark liquor. I then removed the bags and added the fruit and left this sitting until the tea went cold. 

This is really important - do not be tempted (like me) to try and use the tea when it's still hot....this will ruin your cupcakes (a tough lesson when you want to eat cake!!).

Baking with Typhoo Tea

Next you need to make a normal cupcake batter - creaming the butter and sugar together first before beating the eggs in. Next fold the flour into the mixture and add the baking powder, making sure everything is combined well. 

Finally mix in the tea and all the fruit - this will leave you with quite a sloppy cake batter. Transfer the batter into twelve cupcake cases, filling three quarters of the way up the cases.

You then need to bake the cupcakes in a pre-heated oven (180 degrees) for 18 minutes.....and then I recommend letting them cool a little before devouring them!

Typhoo Tea cupcakes - Tea With Me and Friends

I didn't ice the finished cakes as I decided they didn't need any additional topping. Although a light lemon icing would probably be quite nice if you did want to ice the cakes to make them look a bit prettier.

The flavour at first is quite subtle, but develops into a lovely tea taste.....just like drinking a cup of tea! You also get a lovely burst of sweetness when you bite into a piece of the fruit.

Baking with Typhoo Tea - Tea Cupcakes

This is a really simple twist on a basic cupcake recipe, that anyone who enjoys a cup of tea will love. I'm now heading back into the kitchen with more Typhoo tea to try out another recipe - pop back soon to see what I come up with!

The tea used in this post was kindly donated by Typhoo Tea.

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel