Monday 8 September 2014

Alice Vs Charlie

I'm a HUGE fan of afternoon tea, when i say huge i mean I'm obese from the amount of times I've been recently! I literally love everything to do with it, it's such a great British tradition.. I have now experienced two amazing themed afternoon tea's in London and wanted to review them both. Even though i went a while ago, i really wanted to do a blog post on these!

Tumble down the rabbit hole..

For my birthday last year, my loveliest friend treated me to the Alice In Wonderland afternoon tea at the Sanderson Hotel, which is a short walk from the Oxford Circus tube station. If you read my blog or your my buddy, you would of realised by now that Disney is one of my favourite things... and Afternoon tea is an obvious second..so this was the perfect birthday present!

The menu was hidden inside a vintage book which was presented by the well dressed waiters. We first had to have the hard choice of choosing between 4 different teas! I went for the Strawberries and Creme, which as you can imagine was as delicious as it sounds! It had real chunks of fruit which came out whilst pouring!


You are then presented with your afternoon tea, stacked high of gorgeous cakes, sandwiches and  even a 'drink me' potion. It's safe to say we didn't shrink.. but maybe grew in size slightly from all the yummy goodies!


The cake stand included rolled sandwiches filled with ham and mustard on sun dried tomato bread, cucumber and chive cream cheese on spinach bread, cold smoked salmon and lemon butter on dark rye break and also egg mayonnaise with watercress and smoked sea salt on lemon bread... i feel like I'm going to say delicious a lot in the post, but they really did taste delicious! So deal with it..  The sweet section was my favourite, starting from the top they had tiny meringue carrots hidden within the bed of pea shoot.. this was so much fun because you had to look through the pea shoots to find the carrots hiding! Homemade strawberries and cream mushrooms, the traditional tick tock Victoria sponge (which was my fave!) melting mango cheesecake (which exploded once you hit the middle layer!) a tiny tea cup made of chocolate which fitted them the extremely well filled with yummy green tea mousse! And then obviously the standard scones with fruit preserves and clotted cream! Pheewwww.. that was a long list! Sorry to bore!
Overall i would say it was a great experience except.. we did feel slightly rushed and also they kept forgetting to bring us stuff that we had asked for! For a 5* hotel they hadn't kept recorded that i was allergic to fish and i had to tell them again. which was a little disappointing! But non the less, it was a great day and enjoyed by both of us.. This afternoon tea is £38.00 per person or with a glass of bubbly £48.00! 



This year as it was her birthday i decided to return the favour, we went to the Charlie and The Chocolate Factory themed afternoon tea at the One Aldwych which is near Covent Garden. It's the same sort of set up.. Choose your tea and then your cake stand is presented, however this time we decided to go for the smoking Charlie cocktail! This was whisky mixed with cherry liquor, grapefruit juice, chocolate bitters and topped with champagne! At first we thought rank as i hate whisky, however we went for it.. It was incredible, it smoked the entire duration of our tea and really just added to the experience! If your going, i wouldn't be put of by the whisky! It tasted incredible and you got a fair few glasses out of it.


Dalmore whisky mixed with Grand Marnier Cherry, chocolate bitters, grapefruit juice and cherry syrup. Topped with Champagne. - See more at: http://www.onealdwych.com/food-drink/afternoon-tea/afternoon-tea-menu/afternoon-tea-menu#sthash.s5wvJ1J3.dpuf
Dalmore whisky mixed with Grand Marnier Cherry, chocolate bitters, grapefruit juice and cherry syrup. Topped with Champagne. - See more at: http://www.onealdwych.com/food-drink/afternoon-tea/afternoon-tea-menu/afternoon-tea-menu#sthash.s5wvJ1J3.dpuf
The sandwiches and quiches were actually presented first, then the sweet section second. I kind of preferred it this way as you could take your time and not get too over whelmed with what was on your plate! These included - smoked salmon and herb sandwiches, egg mayonnaise and watercress, roast beef and mustard, tomato tart and leek and Stilton quiche! They where very similar to the Alice tea and just as delicious! Then the sweet section came.. 


This included... homemade candyfloss which has the most amazing flavour however i don't want to give it away because it was such a great surprise! Golden eggs filled with vanilla cheesecake and mango, Eton mess, lime, coconut and white chocolate pops, blueberry brioche, cocoa bean financier (which was one of my favourite bits of the whole things, they where tiny warm gooey chocolate cakes in the shape of cocoa beans!) and warm scones with jam and cream!

It all tasted amazing, the service was great and they even wrote happy birthday on a desert plate for my friend.. this was £34.50 per person or £45.00 including the smoking cocktail! 


Have you been for a themed tea? Let me know what you thought and any recommendations!

Jess x
Golden chocolate egg filled with vanilla cheesecake and mango
Chocolate caramel milk
Eton mess
Homemade candyfloss
Lime, coconut and white chocolate pops
Blueberry brioche
Cocoa bean financier
Warm scones served with summer berry jam, apple and meadowsweet compote, Devonshire clotted cream - See more at: http://www.onealdwych.com/food-drink/afternoon-tea/afternoon-tea-menu/afternoon-tea-menu#sthash.qidpLqPY.dpuf
Golden chocolate egg filled with vanilla cheesecake and mango
Chocolate caramel milk
Eton mess
Homemade candyfloss
Lime, coconut and white chocolate pops
Blueberry brioche
Cocoa bean financier
Warm scones served with summer berry jam, apple and meadowsweet compote, Devonshire clotted cream - See more at: http://www.onealdwych.com/food-drink/afternoon-tea/afternoon-tea-menu/afternoon-tea-menu#sthash.qidpLqPY.dpuf
Smoked salmon and herb crème fraîche
Egg mayonnaise with watercress
Roast beef and grain mustard mayonnaise
Heritage tomato tart
Leek and Stilton quiche - See more at: http://www.onealdwych.com/food-drink/afternoon-tea/afternoon-tea-menu/afternoon-tea-menu#sthash.qidpLqPY.dpuf
Smoked salmon and herb crème fraîche
Egg mayonnaise with watercress
Roast beef and grain mustard mayonnaise
Heritage tomato tart
Leek and Stilton quiche - See more at: http://www.onealdwych.com/food-drink/afternoon-tea/afternoon-tea-menu/afternoon-tea-menu#sthash.qidpLqPY.dpuf
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2 comments

  1. I love afternoon tea too! Both of these sound such fun, I've never been to a themed one but will definitely keep them in mind from now on! :)

    Style Sunrise☀

    :)
    x

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    Replies
    1. It was so great! I saw on a Zoella video her and Louise went on a London bus for afternoon tea which looked like so much fun! xx

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