A spot of Afternoon Tea

Last month my very good friend Caroline and myself went to London for a 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' themed Afternoon Tea. I had booked this as a treat for Caroline's birthday and we'd both been looking forward to it for quite some time. 

The tea was booked for 2pm so we'd both starved ourselves all day to ensure enough room to try everything. 

Upon arrival at One Aldwych we were shown to our very comfortable seats in the lounge area of the hotel. As it was a special treat we both selected the Champagne Cocktail Charlie menu. The staff at the hotel were second to none, polite and interactive with all their customers.
When booking the table I'd mentioned that I had a nut allergy - a lot of restaurants don't give this a second thought - but this hotel was an exception. They had a note of the allergy and checked in with me about the details. The chef had arranged for an alternative to the only item on the menu containing nuts which was really thoughtful. 

Our cocktails arrived to our surprise in a in a smoking tea pot, this was then poured into mini Martini glasses with plenty more of the cocktail left in the pot for a few more glasses each!! Neither of us had seen anything like this before so it really did start the experience in a fantastic way. 

After a short while our savoury items where brought out to us on a small platter, we had a variety of sandwiches to try and warm quiches/pastries which were all divine. Our waitress offered to bring us more of our favourites but we both wanted to save room for the cakes and chocolate treats - we were glad we did.

Next up was an amazing array of warm scones with homemade jams, brioche, candy floss, mango cheesecake, chocolate milk and as you can see from the photo lots more sweet treats. The chef had prepared me some fruit skewers instead of the truffle chocolate that Caroline enjoyed. 

Every element of the tea was cooked to perfection and had so much thought into it. 

Throughout the tea we enjoyed some freshly brewed flavoured teas which were also delicious - although it took a while for both of us to get the hang of straining the tea leaves! 

We were again offered more of our favourites but by this time we were both full and couldn't eat another bite. We were at the hotel for around 2 hours which for an afternoon tea is quite good. 

Both of us had such a wonderful afternoon and would definitely go back. In fact, we're already talking about our next afternoon tea adventure!