Tea for you and me

Join me on my epic quest to find the best tea ever

Tag Archives: cake


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The Lowry Hotel

50 Dearmans Place, Chapel Wharf, Manchester, M3 5LH   (View on map)


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This was a special afternoon tea tasting trip with the usual suspects of H, E and N. H and E had organised this visit and N and I had chosen not to be told where we were going, but instead it was going to be a surprise. This suited me fine (once I’d checked the dress code and the price) as I like surprises. Perhaps because I didn’t know beforehand, or just because it’s a very stylish hotel, I got a bit snap happy and took lots of photos.

Before heading to The Lowry Hotel we had looked round the craft and design gallery of the Manchester Art Gallery. This had dozens of beautiful teapots as well as other beautiful yet useful things. I appreciated the design care The Lowry Hotel had put into their afternoon tea surroundings and food all the more after seeing the gallery.

Stylish as it was, the lack of carpet and liking for chrome meant the room was very noisy and this meant we couldn’t hear each other properly at times, but never mind. The Ritz‘s love of plush upholstery and thick carpet is justified. And they had sugar cubes – The Lowry only had sugar packets.

The menu was already on the table when we sat down and our first thought was ‘this is not enough tea’. The menu gave of a choice of about seven types of tea and only three of those were black tea. The choices were Earl Grey, Breakfast blend and an Afternoon blend (described as 50% Assam, 50% Darjeeling). H prefers a lighter tea and would usually have a Darjeeling. She ordered the Afternoon blend and found it too strong.

We sometimes have trouble with an equal amount of sandwiches as H and N are vegetarians, E will eat fish but not meat and I eat everything. The Lowry coped without any trouble and presented us with ham, salmon, cream cheese and cucumber, Lancashire cheese and tomato and egg – all to the correct people. I think H and N also had a hummus sandwich.

Scones were small and lovely with enough jam and cream to go round. The cake course had a raspberry and white chocolate cake, a passion fruit tart and a pistachio and chocolate mousse. They were all delicious, my only grumble was that the spoon we were given to eat the mousse with was too big to get all of the mousse out of the glass it was served in. A variety of methods were employed to try and get this last bit of extremely good mousse out and the favoured technique was turning the spoon upside down and using the handle. It’s not good table manners, but when there’s chocolate at stake…

All in all a reasonably good afternoon tea and the restaurant was decorated in my favourite colours so I was happy.

Teapot? Yes, but the three of us drinking the afternoon blend had to share a teapot that looked like a coffee pot. And we had to ask for hot water.
Leaf tea? Yes.
Milk jug? Yes, but only one between four so we had to ask for a refill.
Price? £19.95 each, but with service charge automatically added so it brought it to just under £22 each.
Cake? Yes.
Go again? Yes.


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The Petersham Hotel and Restaurant

Nightingale Lane, Richmond, Surrey, TW10 6UZ   (View on map)

The view from our table at The Petersham

I had never been to The Petersham before, but my Mum had and she recommended it as somewhere to go for my Dad’s birthday. S, R, Mum, Dad and I all met at The Petersham in order to have some afternoon tea. The hotel was hotel-like with squishy carpets and a big piano and grand staircase in the entrance hall.

We were squashed on two small tables put next to each other, in a corner, in fact everyone who was there for afternoon tea was in a corner area of the restaurant, with diners finishing off their Sunday lunches in the main section of the restaurant. We ordered our afternoon tea and chose the tea we wanted. The tea came about ten minutes later and then we waited another 35 minutes for the afternoon tea food to arrive. As we had specifically booked for afternoon tea and had eaten lunch a long time ago in order to fit the afternoon tea in, we were not that impressed.

The fake snow at The Petersham

The tea was Twinings teabags but I still thought mine tasted a bit odd. R had three teabags and the rest of us had one, or rather, R had three teabag strings and tags hanging out of his pot and the rest of us only had one. Later we discovered that we all had three, but only R had had the strings and tags taken out of the pot for all three teabags – the rest of us had the string and tag still wrapped round two of our three teabags. By the time we realised what had happened the cardboard tags were disintigrating and bits were floating around in our tea – so no wonder it tasted odd. We didn’t complain as we couldn’t get anyone’s attention in order to complain, so just gave up.

The jam came in tiny pots and the service was very slow; on the plus side there was a fake snow flurry just outside the window at one point (to keep with the festive theme) and the food was good. My Mum has been during the week and says it was much better then, but overall we were disappointed with The Petersham.

Afternoon tea at The Petersham - note the tiny jam pots and differing numbers of teabag tags.

Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? No, Twinings teabags that hadn’t been unwound properly. Not nice.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £19.50 each.
Cake? Yes, pastries and cake and scones.
Go again? No.


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The Tea Kiosk

Caversham Court, Church Road, Caversham, Reading.  Please note the tea kiosk is only open Thursday-Sunday (and Bank Holidays), April – October.

The view of the first section of Caversham Court, with the 'footprint' of the old house.

The Tea Kiosk is a tea kiosk in Caversham Court. Caversham Court is a bit of Caversham owned by the council – the gardens were redeveloped with lottery funding in 2008 and opened to the public in 2009. The kiosk is in the gardens and run by different charities with the profits going to those charities. A nice example of community partnership working and tea. There is also a Friends group and more info about the gardens can be found on their website.

Mug of tea and custard Danish (my favourite kind of Danish pastry) at The Tea Kiosk in Caversham Court Gardens.

I’ve gone a bit photo happy here as the gardens are beautiful. They lead down to the river and are well worth a visit. There are toilets in the gardens and this, along with the tea kiosk, makes it a great place to visit.

There were a selection of drinks available the day I went, including tea, coffee, hot chocolate and squash. Also a selection of homemade cakes and some Danish pastries. Yum. Very cheap too – everything was £1. As the kiosk is run by different charities on different days, I’m not sure if these prices stay the same every day, but I’m sure there won’t be too much difference.

View of the Thames from my table.

Teapot? No.
Leaf tea? No.
Milk jug? Milk added by the lovely kiosk ladies.
Price? £1 for tea, £1 for any bit of cake.
Cake? Yes – and all homemade.
Go again? Yes, but it’s only open Thurs-Sun (and Bank Holidays), April-October so I probably won’t be heading down here until 2011 now.

View of the kiosk (far left) from another bit of the garden.


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Picnic

5 Butter Market, Reading, Berkshire, RG1 2DP

Tea and a big macaroon at the super duper Picnic

Having reported that Picnic won the ‘Independent Store of the Year’ Reading Retail Awards 2010 prize I thought I’d better head down there quick smart and do a proper review on it.

Picnic is my favourite cafe in central Reading and I go there all the time. They have brightly coloured seats and tables and lots of amazingly tasty and fresh food. It’s tiny but they manage to pack in salads and sandwiches and picnic boxes and coffee and cake and fruit salads and crisps and macaroons and tea and friendly staff and two different types of ginger beer. It’s a warm and welcoming place to be even when packed full of the lunchtime rush. The photo here doesn’t really do justice to it, take a look at their photo gallery for a proper idea.

The only downside to Picnic is that tea doesn’t come in a pot, but the cup it does come in is of a generous size and the tea bags are Clipper (my favourite). Today I had an Earl Grey with milk (and they offered me milk, I didn’t have to ask) and a very nice chunky macaroon.

People who know coffee tell me that the coffee is very good too. I like it so much that I feel treacherous saying that it’s not the best place in Reading to go for tea, but no pot is no pot. However, if you want food with your tea or tea in a great atmosphere then this is the place for you.

Teapot? No.
Leaf tea? No, but Clipper tea bags.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £1.65 for a big cup of tea, £1 for a giant macaroon.
Cake? Yes and lots lots more!
Go again? Yes, and you should too.


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Maison Blanc, Henley on Thames

1 – 3 Duke Street, Henley on Thames, Oxfordshire, RG9 1UR

Peppermint tea and Earl Grey tea at Maison Blanc

Maison Blanc is a relatively new addition to Henley and we hadn’t tried it yet so we headed there after lunch for some tea. I’d unfortunately had too much for lunch so decided to have peppermint tea (to aid digestion, don’t you know) and R had Earl Grey. They had the most amazing cakes and gateaux and it looked delicious but I was too full to try any and R isn’t that bothered about cake. I can’t understand how anyone can not be bothered about cake, but each to their own.

The tea was very nice and came in a teapot so we were happy. I’ll definitely be going back sometime soon to try some of the cake. There’s a good yarn shop a few doors down as well, if knitting’s your thing.

Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? No, but Clipper tea bags which are my favourite.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £1.85 per pot.
Cake? Yes, and main meals.
Go again? Yes, I really want to try the cake.


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Capture the castle

46 High Street, Rochester, Kent, ME1 1LD

Rochester Castle

I was driving and needed a cup of tea but didn’t know where I could find one. I saw a brown sign on the road saying that Rochester was a historic town and so I headed for Rochester. Brown signs tend to mean tea, they’re a good bet if you’re somewhere you don’t know.

Rochester is a lovely town that is apparently the inspiration for many of the settings in Charles Dickens’s novels. There are many shops with themed names relating to Dickens but the credit crunch has bitten here and there were lots of empty shops. Capture the castle is a shop selling ‘shabby chic’ and other fashionable items but also had three or four tables and sold tea and cake. There were some lovely Christmas candles and other items but I was feeling broke so didn’t purchase anything.

Cake at Capture the castle

I sat at the only spare table and ordered cake and tea. The shop and the cafe area are beautifully well presented with very helpful and considerate staff. A lovely cafe that I would recommend for light refreshments, they didn’t have many main meal items.

Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? No.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £4.75 (?) for tea and cake.
Cake? Yes.
Go again? Yes.

Tea and cake at Capture the castle


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Patisserie Valerie

11-13 Acorn Walk, The Centre MK, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, MK9 3AD

Tea and ice cream at Patisserie Valerie

Milton Keynes is a strange place. I hate to say it as I so wanted it to be otherwise, but it is a strange place. I’d never been before and was looking forward to disproving all the stereotypes about concrete and roundabouts and coming to the conclusion that it wasn’t so bad after all. I was half right. The roundabouts I didn’t mind, I quite like driving round roundabouts and I had a sat nav so I wasn’t confused. The concrete also didn’t bother me, the wide streets made me think of Sweden and I liked the space.

The strangest thing about Milton Keynes is that there is no town centre. I headed towards the middle of the town and found a shopping centre. I walked through it and out the other side and found a dual carriageway. I tried a different exit and found another dual carriageway. This carried on for a while. I walked round the whole shopping centre and tried to find somewhere that resembled a normal town centre where I would find a cafe I could blog about. I couldn’t find anywhere. I tried the theatre area and the park and no luck. The centre of Milton Keynes is a shopping centre called ‘The Centre MK’. I found the ceiling low and being inside all day when I wanted to be outside very oppressive. I didn’t like it. In the end I ended up back where I started and went to the cafe I had first seen.

Patisserie Valerie is a chain of cafes that has patisserie style gateaux and pastries. I was hot from all my exploring so I had ice cream instead. It was very good and the tea was loose leaf.

Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? Yes.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £2 for tea and £1.75 for ice cream, between £2-£4 for macaroons and cake.
Cake? Yes.
Go again? Yes, seems like the best cafe in the centre of Milton Keynes.


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Cafe Mei

205 Upper Richmond Road, London, SW15 6SQ     020 8789 9988

Tea at Cafe Mei

This doesn’t look like much from the outside but inside it’s small but perfectly formed and smells divine. The owner is a patisserie chef by trade and all the cakes, pastries and cookies are made by her. This is an up and coming road with many posh shops selling not quite useful things but this cafe does excellent tea with a homemade biscuit for only £1. A treat.

Teapot? No.
Leaf tea? No.
Milk jug? No, milk put in with it.
Price? £1 for tea and biscuit.
Cake? Yes and many other lovely looking things.
Go again? Yes.


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The Walk

12 Bridlesmith Walk, Nottingham, NG1 2GR

The view from the doorway of The Walk - look at the cake!

The Walk was the second stop on our tea tour of Nottingham and we weren’t disappointed. It has restaurant opening hours and opens for lunch onwards, on the Saturday we went we turned up 15 minutes after opening time and there was a queue. This cheered us no end – tea that causes queues must be good.

We didn’t have to queue for long, though had we wanted to sit outside we could have jumped the queue but we decided against it as it was a bit nippy.

Afternoon tea was on the menu but even we were tempted by the other things on there. Everything on the menu sounded excellent and the food on other tables smelt wonderful. I’d love to go back and eat more some other time.

There was no tea menu on the menu but we asked for our favourites and got them. We ordered an afternoon tea each which took a long time to arrive. We asked the waitress and she said they were putting the finishing touches to it. When it did arrive we understood why it had taken so long. Everything was fresh and tasted heavenly. The only problem is a familiar one – there were a range of cakes and pastries and none were the same. How to decide who gets what? How to decide what to eat if we’re not even sure what they are? In the end we took the honourable way of splitting every item into quarters and tasting each one. They were all lovely. My only negative point would be that the service was very slow, even drinks took a long time to arrive. It was very busy but perhaps more staff on a Saturday would be wise.

Afternoon tea at The Walk

Later we discovered that they will be introducing a tea menu and had tea sample boxes with vials of each type of tea to smell and choose from. We also spotted that the customers outside in the garden had blankets provided to keep out the chill. A momentary worry that we chose the wrong option was dispelled when we reassured ourselves our tea would have got cold if we had gone outside. On cue, a waitress came past with a tray of teapots in hand knitted tea cosies. Oh well, next time.

Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? Yes.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £15.95 for afternoon tea.
Cake? Yes, so much of it!
Go again? Yes.


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Bergs Konditori

Hamngatan 9, 44030 Marstrand, Västra Götland, Sweden.

A view of the cake from inside the cafe

A view of the cake from inside the cafe

Marstrand is an island, one of the many islands that edge Sweden. It’s very near to the mainland but we still caught a ferry to get there. It’s beautiful. The coastline is very different from the UK as there is no craggy rocks, everything is smooth and round and looks like it should be soft.

Our hostess had talked about ‘Princess Cake’ which is a traditional Swedish cake. It has layers of cake, custard and cream with bright green marzipan on top. Not sure why it’s called Princess Cake but my Mum and I had to try some before we left Sweden. We were headed to Marstrand and our hostess told us that we could find Princess Cake at Bergs Konditori, which is why we sought it out. It was indeed there, though it had an unexpected layer of jam, which apparently a new trend and means it should be called something else which I’ve forgotten, not Princess Cake.

A view of the sea from outside the cafe

A view of the sea from outside the cafe

The cafe had outside seating but it was all full when we went in, so my first photo above is of the inside. I’ve put it on here so you can see the green-ness of the interior which I think reflects the cake well. After we ordered one of the tables became free so we moved outside. One of the trends in Sweden which I loved was that they loved sitting outside. The cold was not a problem, almost all of the cafes had piles of blankets by the door so you could wrap yourself up. My Mum and I sat on the bench looking at the view with fleece blankets over our knees.

The cake was superb, a bit like trifle in an odd way, but very light and creamy. We would call it a gateaux here. I ate mine and then felt sick, but it was so worth it. The tea was the worst I had while in Sweden. The tea was loose leaf and in an egg thing, but the water was in a coffee pot on a hob and wasn’t boiling. Was stewed and flat and ugh. Not good.

Teapot? No.
Leaf tea? Yes but horrid warm water.
Milk jug? No.
Price? 107 krona for 2 pieces of Princess cake, one tea and one coffee.
Cake? Yes, and buns and biscuits and anything else you can think of.
Go again? To the island but maybe not to this cafe.