So, on Friday I left the office at 1:00pm, skipping out blissfully at the thought of half a day, to only be confronted by the most horrendous rain I have ever seen. Beaut.
But luckily the rain had stopped by the time I got off the tube at Oxford Circus. My friend from Essex had come up to meet me and we were going to the Sanderson Hotel for the infamous Mad Hatter's Afternoon Tea.
I'd heard and read such amazing reviews of the Sanderson, and after coming across this amazing deal on Book-a-Table (which is still running, so getting booking girls!! CLICK ME)
You are seated in the courtyard, but don't fear!! It's basically a glorified gazeebo with plastic sides to block out the wind on colder days and over table heaters too.
The tables are quite small, in my opinion, there was still enough room for the two of us to sit comfortably, but we did have to have a shuffle around with plates/saucers to make enough room for everything.
Your menu is presented to you hidden in an old classic book, like Charles Dickens.
You probably can't see in that much detail what we had, but I will type it out for you as we go along to save your eyesight, which if it is faltering anything like the rate of mine, you will be grateful!
As we'd booked on a deal, we were each brought a cocktail which I think was called the Sanderson. So I'm assuming that it was the hotel's signature cocktail. It was really nice, not too sickly sweet as some brightly coloured cocktails are! It tastes like passion fruit, and had a dried piece of passion fruit pegged (by the most adorable little peg!!) to the sugar encrusted rim of the glass!
To start with, your waiter will bring over these adorable little vials containing your tea selections.
The selections were:
White Rabbit: China white silver needles infused with white grapefruit, vanilla and almond white chrysanthemum.
Queen of Hearts: Red rose congu infused with red rose petals. Hint of vanilla and chocolate.Alice: China black tea infused with hints of blackcurrent, vanilla, caramel, citrus, bergamot, blue cornflowers and blue mallow flowers.
Mad Hatter: Green tea infused with passion fruit, guava and mango.
I went for the 'White Rabbit' which was amazing. You could really taste all of the different notes in the tea, but yet it wasn't overpowering at all.
If you prefer to have your tea a bit sweeter, the sugar cubes were hidden in a music box, complete with twirling sugar plum fairy, which was a nice hidden touch.
Next to come out after your tea had been poured (in King or Queen teapots with paper hat crowns!!) then the savoury selection was brought out. As I don't have a massive sweet tooth, this was my favourite part of the tea. The sandwiches were honestly so delicious that I could have eaten them all day.
The items on the savoury selection included a Scottish smoked salmon, quail egg and caviar scotch egg. This was amazing, although I have to admit I did take the egg out. But the salmon was really flavourful and it was my first ever taste of caviar! Definitely feel like a swanky biaaatch now.
A Whiltshire ham and smoked applewood croque-monsieur. Now, honestly, who doesn't love a toasty? Especially a posh cheese and ham one. Exxxactly. The applewood gave this sandwhich a really nice smokey taste aswell.
Cornish crab and herb eclair. This was an unusual one, it was tasty but I couldn't quite get my head around the pastry-ness. Which was exactly the same as a normal eclair. I really enjoyed it but I wouldn't rush off to find the recipe to make myself you know? I just think that eclairs are one of those things which should remain sweet and not take the savoury path... a bit like pancakes, which should definitely not be eaten with cheese or mushrooms or anything else other than honey and fruit. Period.
Cucumber and cream cheese sandwich on fresh lime bread. Don't be fooled by the green colour of the bread, these little beauties were my favourite out of the lot. The bread had only the subtlest hint of lime to it but it complimented the cream cheese amazingly. And the cucumber was nice and thin, not those horrible dinner plate size slices that make your bread go all soggy. Ew.
Then came the sweet stuff. The presentation was amazing on this 3(and a quarter) tier stand. I say quarter because hidden in the teacup full of grass (do not eat this, I repeat, the grass is for decoration purposes only!) two tiny little treats are hidden for you, in the form of orange meringue 'curious carrots'!
The first tier contains the 'blue caterpillar' (chocolatey fudgey heaven) and 'wonderland's magic marhsmallow mushrooms'.
The second tier contained even more sweet treats, in the forms of my ever first macaroon!! This was in the shape of a pocket watch and was an intensely strong coffee flavour. Luckily I love coffee, but a word of warning for you coffee detesters - approach with caution!
'Red velvet Ladybird' these were adorable little red velvet cupcakes which a layer of cream running through them. The decoration was done with marzipan and added that amaretto-ish flavour to them.
'Banana bread and butterfly' these were pretty self explanatory, yummy banana bread topped with edible sugar paper butterflies. And finally on that tier was the 'Queen of Hearts oreo cookie soldier' these little bad boys were basically like a massive bourbon biscuit with a red chocolate filling. Amazing.
The third and final tier contained freshly baked (and I mean so fresh they were still warm - bliss) scones, a pot of creamy butter and then another of strawberry jam. Which of course started the big debate.. Scones or scones?
Nestled next to the scones were two tiny 'drink me' bottles. These were so effing amazing, I only wish that they were bigger. Sob. Inside the bottles were three carefully layered flavours. Passion fruit, coconut and mango. They were so sharply fruity that they would be a heartburn suffers nightmare, but for me and my burn free heart they were the highlight of the tea.
After the plates had all been cleared and the bill had been requested, we were surprised with one final treat. A tiny plant pot of passion fruit ice cream, covered with chocolate 'dirt' and sprinkled with crunchy honeycomb pieces. The ice cream was really fresh and a nice palette cleaner after such a sweet meal.
So that was my first, and hopefully not last, afternoon tea. I would highly recommend going with a group of girlfriends, your mumma, your grandmumma, your auntie.. basically any female would adore this.. I suppose you could go with a man, but if your boyfriends anything like mine, if the afternoon tea wasn't burgers and beer I probably couldn't get him to leave the house!
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