Afternoon Tea at the Celtic Manor (Spring Menu)

Back in May, me and the girls decided to catch up over afternoon at The Celtic Manor. I was so happy that we were just in time to try the Spring Menu before they switched to the Summer menu. I've already tried the afternoon tea at the resort in summer 2013 and it was one of the best ones i've had in Wales, so I was hoping this years Spring menu would be just as good if not better.

You get a choice of teas from their speciality tea selection or freshly brewed coffee. I went for a jasmine tea.

First the finger sandwiches. Some lovely light fillings, cucumber with lemon creamcheese, honey roast ham, chicken with basil pesto mayonnaise, smoked salmon.

I love bagels so this was definitely my favourite.

Cakes and desserts next. As some of you might know, I love my cake and these were so impressive! A mini orange and ginger cupcake. A red berry white chocolate truffle on top of a shortbread, very creamy inside.

This banoffee fudge cake with chocolate ganache was delicious! The sponge was so soft and fluffy and not too sweet, I could have done with a bigger piece hehe!

Honey spiced madeleine, a little pot of apple dessert and the cappuccino pecan layer cake was also lovely, a little sweet even for my liking but loved the flavour.

As soon as we finished the cakes, the waiter came over and asked if we were ready for our scones and we told him if we could wait at least half before they bring them over as we were all so full at this point. The scones were warm when they arrived at the table but just like last year, I found them a little over baked.

Over all another lovely afternoon tea here at the Celtic Manor. I was especially impressed with the cakes! Definitely worth a visit if your in Wales. I'm looking forward to next week to try the Summer menu, I know its going to be just as good!

Afternoon Tea At Caldonian Hotel, Edinburgh

Sorry once again for my late blog posts! I should have blogged about this afternoon tea a couple of months ago oops! December last year, I made a little trip up to Scotland to attend my lovely aunts surprise 50th birthday celebration, so this was a lovely chance to try a afternoon tea in Edinburgh town centre. My cousin have already tried the Caldonian Hotel and she did say it was lovely and that she really didn't mind paying another visit with me.

Afternoon tea is served at stylish Peacock Alley at the heart of the hotel.

 

The hotel have also be awarded The Tea guild Special Award of Excellence 2013!

Starting off with my favourite, scones! Freshly baked fruit and plain scones served with clotted cream and preserves. Still warm when they arrived, lovely and soft.

Finger sandwiches includes, honey roasted ham with onion chutney, egg and black pepper mayonnaise, cucumber with sea salt cream cheese and Scottish smoked salmon with lemon dill. Loved all the fillings especially the roasted ham with chutney, perfect size too.

Moving onto the cakes and desserts. Such a lovely selection which includes, a Orange Lavender cake, Creamed Raspberry Financier, both cakes were soft, light and moist,. A Hazelnut & Mocha macaroon which actually tasted like a rich brownie to me but still very yummy. A Strawberry tart with a lovely creme patissiere filling. The one I was most intrigued by was the Earl Grey Shortbread Trifle, my cousin tried  one spoonful and she was not impressed, she couldn't wait for me to try it and see what I thought of it! But surprisingly, I really enjoyed it! The Earl Grey jelly wasn't too strong and having each spoon with the layers of custard and cream I thought it was quite unusual.

A perfectly made Choux Pastry Swan. Pastry was crisp, will definitely have to attempt making theses one day.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon tea. The hotel itself is absolutely stunning and sophisticated, atmosphere was warm and welcoming and the food was beautiful. I do recommend this place if your taking a trip to Edinburgh.

 

The Caledonian Hotel is definitely one of the finest hotels in Scotland.

Afternoon tea at the Celtic Manor Resort

A few weeks ago it was afternoon tea again for me, this time at the Cetlic Manor, a 5* Resort in Newport, Wales. A lovely friend said that the afternoon tea here at the resort is great, so I thought i'll take my cousin along for a belated birthday treat. 

The resort afternoon tea is served at The Olive Tree & Garden Room. As we entered, we were welcomed by friendly polite staff who sat us down to our table to a window seat. The room was beautiful and bright and it put a extra big smile on my face that day as the sun decided to make an appearance so we manage to enjoyed the beautiful sunny view outside towards the golf course. 

With our drinks, we got to choose from a few selection of fresh teas or freshly brewed coffee. Food came on a three tier stand, everything looked very appetising and it is quite a lot of food for afternoon tea but I always skip lunch if i'm having afternoon tea and because our table was booked for 2.30pm I was particularly hungry by this time and I knew I wouldn't have a problem demolishing the whole lot, especially when it comes to bread and cake!

So we started off with the bottom tier with the sandwiches. There was a wide range of sandwiches, i've not had afternoon tea with so many varieties before. We had seven pieces each, which includes, egg mayonnaise, chicken coriander and lime, cucumber and mint creme fraiche, honey roast ham with cherry tomatoe and apple chutney, mini bagel with smoked salmon and lemon and chive cream cheese. Sandwiches were all fresh, fillings were just right, not too much or too less. My favourites was the honey roast ham with apple chutney and the mini bagel, the salmon was lovely and fresh and tasted beautiful with the cream cheese.

Moving onto the second tier, mango and passion fruit chocolate pot and lemon meringue 

 

The chocolate pot was a little too sweet with the syrup on top but I always love the flavour combination of mango and passion fruit together, a little different as i've not had a dessert like this before. I don't eat lemon meringues that often as I do find the lemon filling too sweet with a meringue, although the tart was very sweet but it was also very light and fluffy too.

Third tier, cakes, my favourite!

All cakes were all lovely and soft, the buttercream with the velvet chocolate cupcake was so smooth and silky. The raspberry joconde, a cute little cake with a raspberry mousse filling and a praline buttercream pyramid which was a little sweet but the sponge was lovely and light. When we were close to finishing all our cakes the waitress came over and asked if we were ready for ours scones but we said if we could wait for a moment, as we needed time to rest before eating anymore food.

For me, afternoon tea is all about the scones, I am quite fussy when it come to scones, and I would have prefer if they were served at the start rather than at the end. The scones were warm when they arrived, I thought the outside was slightly over baked but the inside was lovely and light served with Roddas clotted cream and strawberry preserve.

Overall another lovely afternoon experience. Food was delicious, service was good and the atmosphere was relaxing with the beautiful surroundings.

I highly recommend the resort afternoon tea, with a unbeatable price of just £32 for two persons its worth a visit for a elegant and luxury treat! I'm looking forward to going back to try the Newbridge Cream Tea and the Christmas Afternoon Tea.

For more info on the Celtic Manor Afternoon Teas, click HERE 

Afternoon Tea at The InterContinetal Hotel, Hong Kong

One of the must do things when I went to Hong Kong this year was to have another high tea experience at one of the top hotels in Hong Kong, after really enjoying the one at the Ritz Carlton hotel last year (you can read about it here) I was hoping to try two places but things didn't go towards planned and I only manage to fit one in during my two weeks stay. This time I picked  the Intercontinetal Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui. 

  

Afternoon tea at the InterContinetal hotel is serve between 2pm-5pm at the lobby lounge and one thing I didn't like was that the hotel will not take advance reservations for afternoon tea. We had to make sure to get there early because we didn't know how busy it was going to be and I really wanted a window seat, I would have found it frustrating if I got there and all the window seats were taken and I had to queue, as afternoon tea should be a relaxing experience but luckily it wasn't many people there when we arrived at 1.45pm. 

So since we were one of the first ones there, we had the choice to where we would like to sit. We chose a very spacious table overlooking the harbour, just what I was hoping for!

Before I went to Hong Kong I did have a quick look online for reviews to see where was the best place for afternoon tea. There was two hotels I had in mind, the Peninsula Hotel which had quite good reviews or the InterContinental hotel. At the end I chose this hotel because there was one thing the Peninsula couldn't offer me and that's the breathtaking view outside! Just look at the impressive walls of windows, so beautiful!

So glad that we got there early, by 2.30pm the lounge was filled with people.

The hotel has three sets of afternoon teas to choose from, the Champagne Set, the InterContinental Afternoon set and the Chinese set. We went for InterContinental tea set which is the classic afternoon tea set (for two) which includes selection of savoury sandwiches, parisian style pastries and cake, warm scones and a choice of mariage freres teas or coffee.

I really needed caffeine that day, so I ordered a lovely latte. The coffee art was so beautiful, I didn't want to drink it.

We ate the scones first as they were still lovely and warm. We had two each, definitely the best scones i've ever had! They were very light and even more delicious with the jam, devonshire clotted cream and the earl grey jelly.

When the food came, it didn't seem a lot but by the time I finished my scones and savouries I was actually quite full and we didn't even have lunch that day! I enjoyed all the savouries especially the salmon sandwich, the salmon tasted fresh and the bread was so soft, just lovely!

                             

By the time we got onto the cakes, I was happy that there was only one piece of each and that we could share, otherwise I would have been so full and I wouldn't have enjoyed them as much. The sweet items includes a mousse filled chocolate egg, vanilla tart, chocolate cake, raspberry cheesecake and a matcha cake. My favourite is definitely this vanilla tart. The pastry was very light and the creme patissiere filling was smooth and silky, it just melts in your mouth.

By the time we nearly finished, it was a lovely surprise when the waitress brought over these complimentary panecotta desserts over to our table. They were very light and smooth and had a lovely citrous taste, a perfect finish to our afternoon tea.

We spent about two and a half hours at the hotel. Definitely another lovely high tea experience! However service could have been better for a five-star hotel but still I couldn't ask for anything more. Food was great, comfortable seating, beautiful and relaxing views while enjoying my food and half way into our afternoon tea there was even a live band playing!

Photo taken outside. A spectacular view of Hong Kong Island. Hopefully it won't be too long before I go back :)