Afternoon Tea Party

When you are living in England, it’s a given that at some point you are going to drink tea…whether you like it or not.

If you stop over at someone’s house, you’re offered a cuppa and probably a handful of biscuits.

As an avid coffee drinker, it took me awhile to embrace English tea culture. But a great way to get into the spirit and fully immerse yourself is by booking into a luxurious spot of afternoon tea.

Sure you’ll get your selection of black tea, green tea, and more exotic teas, but did you know food is a part of this phenomenon? And the occassional champagne? Now I know I’ve caught your attention.

Last week I had the absolute pleasure of attending the London Bloggers Tea organized by fellow expat Melanie of Sunny in London. I met up with one of my new and amazing blogger friends Aftab (Fresh and Fearless) beforehand and we journeyed over together. While I don’t mind attending events solo and meeting people there, it’s always nice to arrive with a friend.

Enter the Lancaster London Hotel.

The hotel is directly right across from Hyde Park, offering up gorgeous views of the gardens and greenery. We were greeted in the lobby and told where to go. The hotel is pretty large, so if you visit, please know that you could easily get lost wandering around.

We spotted Melanie at the front of one of the Lancaster’s side rooms (by side room, I mean very large entertaining room). By her side there were servers holding silver trays decorated with bubbling glasses of champagne. Naturally, I took a glass. I’m not known to turn down champagne.

Upon entering the room there was a massive table right in the center. Perfect for the plethora of goodies and treats that we’d soon be feasting on…

The Lancaster did a lovely job setting the scene and the room was bursting with Christmas spirit.

I am a little bit obsessed with Christmas trees and decoratioms, so I was overjoyed spotting this one in our tea room.

I really couldn’t get over how lovely the setup was along with the great views of Hyde Park. Go ahead, tell me you really wouldn’t want to go there.

Even though we’d be dining at the massive entertaining table, the Lancaster set up little tables for two overlooking the park for us to get a better feeling of the atmosphere created. I think it would definitely be the right spot to go to celebrate.

See? Look how fun it can be!

We then strolled about to the champagne tasting and food pairing area where you could try different foods with champagne. Much like what you hear about with food and wine, champange paired with different foods will have very different results for your taste buds.

We tried the dried strawberries with the rosé which resulted in bringing out more sweetness in the flavoring. The champagne mixed with strawberries simply enhances your tastebud experience. They had samples as well to see what doesn’t work well, which I thought was clever. You don’t know what doesn’t work until you try it!

We also took time to look at the teas. There is so much sensory involvement with food and drink that tends to be forgotten along the way. Look, touch, taste, scent… I know I’m often guilty of overlooking the beauty in its natural state, especially when I’m exceptionally hungry!

Aftab also snapped up this photo, blogger on the go!

Alright, I’ve led you on long enough. Let’s get to the afternoon tea festivities!

Cleverly, our afternoon tea was titled #letsgetsconed.

They brought out choices of tea, classic black, green and another herbal tea. I went with the black tea as I was also sipping on champagne, which was bursting with flavor.

Aftab is an avid green tea drinker and he said it was delicious.

With our teacups filled, it was time to bring out the sweet and savory.

The gorgeous Melanie of Sunny in London gave a lovely introduction to Chef Ben (he was an absolute all star throughout the day) who talked us through what we were about to nibble on. Apparently not many chefs are willing to mingle and answer questions. Chef Ben went above and beyond for our bloggers tea, so if you’re in the Lancaster London you know you’re going to be treated well.

It was truly perfect company to be in the presence of other bloggers. We all had our cameras and phones out to capture the perfect shot. Unfortunately most of mine turned out quite yellow! Sorry about that.

Our first course kicked off with plated sandwhiches: Smoked salmon, egg and wild cress, cucumber as well as a mushroom, chicken and tarragon tartlet and roast beef Yorkshire pudding.

The good? The smoked salmon and the cucumber. The okay? The egg and wild cress, the mushroom and chicken. The not so much? The roast beef.

While I’m not a vegetarian, I don’t often eat meat (at least not on sandwiches). So I’m not the best judge on this one. But the point of afternoon tea is to get a taster of everything and I love that concept. I’m always willing to try new things, you never know it could end up being your favorite.

Next we moved onto the scones.

We had a selection of plain, raisin and we also were the first testers of their Christmas pudding scone.

The Christmas pudding scone was paired alongside the Lancaster London’s marmalade. It was a bit sweet with a hint of spice to it. This was my favorite scone/jam combination of the bunch. I think I could have eaten those all day.

And last but certainly not least…. ALL of the sweets.

White chocolate and raspberry lollipops, passion fruit and raspberry macaroons, carmel and hazelnut tranche, apple and honey cupcake and a lemon fruit tart. At this point, I was already full. But in the name of research…

These were my favorite. The lollipops were coated in pop rocks! You know, the candy that kind of pops and crackles in your mouth? It was such a surprise and a definite fun treat.

I also really enjoyed the lemon fruit tart, which was extremely tart. It was a refreshing switch and stood out from all the sweetness.

I think we were all a little bit knackered after drinking and dining the afternoon away. Then Chef Ben offered up kitchen tours. As if you could stop me. I didn’t grab any great shots of the kitchen, but it’s amazing how much food they can serve up in such a small space. He told us they are looking into expansion and having a huge open plan kitchen space soon! Hopefully I’ll be able to go back and see it!

Overall, it was a great day at the Lancaster London hotel. A huge thank you to Melanie for organizing everything. It was such a nice time and it was great to be able to meet with more bloggers in person. Also, eating and drinking all day with friends is never going to be a bad thing!

I’d definitely recommend heading here during the holiday season. So get going lovelies!

Kelly xox