Last week, The Queen took the Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, for high tea on their visit to London department store Fortnum and Mason, a tradition that dates back to 1865 when the Duchess of Bedford called for a selection of snacks halfway between lunch and supper.
But this eccentric and quintessentially British experience is not just enjoying a revival with Duchesses. Afternoon tea so neatly services Britain’s new home-baking obsession, the vogue for exotic teas and the compulsion to find ever-more-exciting ways of celebrating baby showers and hen parties that tearooms through London are bursting at the seams. And there’s plenty of hot competition for those famous hotels churning out costly teas in two-hour slots from morning until night.
At five-star deluxe Dukes, an award-winning boutique hotel gem tucked down a backstreet of the upmarket St James area, demand from their clients is such that head chef Nigel Mendham has created The Ultimate Afternoon Tea. Served up in a nook of the intimate salon of this country house in the city, or privately in the sumptuous green and pink Perrier-Jouet lounge, this mini banquet marries heirloom tomatoes to Iberico bellota, Royal Beluski Caviar to smoked salmon sandwiches, alba white truffle to Dry aged beef, gold leaf to macaroons and Tahitian vanilla to scones, and then to a flute of Perrier-Jouët Belle Epoque champagne for the princely sum of £195 per head (dukeshotel.com).
It’s just one of the new twists on the traditional formula of three tiers of treats – finger sandwiches, cakes, scones with jam and clotted cream – presented on a cake stand and washed down with a pot of Earl Grey or a flute of champagne.
At haven The Halkin a new chocolate-themed tea has been introduced, to celebrate the hotel’s 20th anniversary. Conceived by award-winning chocolatier, William Curley, the ‘Couture Chocolate Tea’ adds Chocolate Financier with Passion fruit Curd, Orange and Chocolate Sacher, Sea Salt Caramel and Raspberry Tart to its selection of sweets (halkin.como.bz).
There are activities too; new King’s Cross concept-café Drink Shop & Do where everything on show can be eaten, bought or made, perfectly combines current crazes for tea, cake and crafting. So as well as enjoying a pleasingly affordable afternoon tea served on vintage tea sets (that they can buy), diners can learn to create a retro-style fascinator or cross-stitch a pair of panties. (drinkshopdo.com)
Meanwhile, afternoon tea in the Lobby Lounge of the new Corinthia hotel, between the glittering Baccarat chandelier and a marble floor so shiny you could do your make up in it, is all about the ‘tea fancies’ created by top patissiere Claire Clark: an exquisite Violet Éclair, Rose and raspberry Pavlovla, White chocolate brownie box and Lemon and pistachio fondant fancy. For a more wallet-and-waistline-friendly tea, exquisite versions of classic British cakes – pink and white Battenburg, jam-filled Bakewell tart and moist Victoria Sandwich sponge – are sold by the slice and are alluringly presented beneath glass domes on a central table (corinthia.com)
And while sipping Darjeeling tea and nibbling at cucumber sandwiches has conventionally been seen as a predominantly female activity, there are now more macho teas. There’s the metrosexual men’s tea with whisky and steak sandwiches at The Mandeville Hotel but now The Swan gastropub next to the historic Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre ditches the girlie cakestand altogether for a ‘Gentleman’s High Tea’ that includes Fish finger sandwich, Macaroni cheese with smoked bacon and fancy sausages and a bottle of London Pride ale (loveswan.co.uk).
Top 3 classic afternoon teas
For fashionistas: The Caramel Room – The Berkeley Hotel
This stylish and fun afternoon tea is inspired by the hottest catwalk trends – diners can expect biscuits, cakes and other sweet treats based on the current fashion season’s looks, served up on Paul Smith-designed china. On-trend treats for Autumn/Winter 2011 include a sparkling Miu Miu shoe biscuit, Stella McCartney polka dot sponge cake, Lanvin bavarois dress and Burberry trench biscuit. The tea-room buzzes with lady shoppers, and the savoury canapés including cool soup-shots and sushi rolls are suitably abstemious.
www.the-berkeley.co.uk
For people-watching: The Wolseley
Set in a former showroom for Wolseley cars, this grand café offers a refined afternoon tea with beautifully-presented patisseries and finger sandwiches with the crusts correctly cut off. The service is superlative with perfectly-brewed specialist teas poured perfectly from silver teapots through elegant silver tea-strainers into delicate tea cups. This elegant and lively restaurant is a place to see and be seen – it hums from breakfast service until closing time with the great and the glamorous, from ladies who lunch to newsreaders and music and movie stars.
www.thewolseley.com
For a classic experience: Browns Hotel
Settling down for the afternoon within the smart, wood-panelled cocoon of the English tea-room in this London institution is a treat. It offers what afternoon tea should – an excuse to retreat for the afternoon. There are two tea sommeliers on hand to guide diners through the menu of 17 different teas, and the afternoon tea offers unlimited replenishment of the sandwiches, pastries and scones on offer, so diners can potentially graze all day. Also offers a special low-cal ‘Tea-tox’ tea too, for dieters.
www.brownshotel.com
Top or bottom?
Clotted cream or jam first on your half scone? There are two schools of though on this from the counties most famous for producing the thick cream. There’s no right or wrong, just the Devon method, where the cream is spread first so it can soak into the scone, then followed by jam, and the Cornwall, where jam is spread before cream.
