Afternoon Tea: The Langham Hotel

Another Sunday…another afternoon tea! It may be a tiny bit extravagant but my excuse is that it’s all in the name of research!! So today’s tea was at the Langham Hotel which is on Regent’s Street. It certainly is an opulent setting…very art deco. Expectations were high for this tea as it was awarded the Tea Guild’s Top London Afternoon Tea 2010, the Oscars of the tea world! So what did we eat, well we enjoyed the Festive Tea with the following patisseries: 

• Mini mince pies
• Festive eggnog cream
• Christmas chocolate log cake
• Mini gingerbread house
• Spicy mandarin orange
• Cranberry and morello cherry macaroon 

The spicy mandarin orange was particularly tasty, along with the macaroon! We also had a selection of cakes from the special Bijoux Tea which are based on the designs of jeweller Stephen Webster. These included:

• Crystal Clear Diamond - Lightly perfumed Guinness macaroon with blackcurrant jelly
• Poison Apple - Red peppercorn and dark chocolate shortbread
• Razor Ribbon Ring - Silver needle jasmine mousse with apricot
• Armadillo Ring - Roasted green pistachio Chantilly with airy meringue sponge
• Dagger Done - Valrhona white chocolate creme with strawberry and white balsamic

All these delights were washed down with champagne and a special festive blend tea. As you can see all the cakes looked spectacular and they were very tasty... however, I think I must be an old fashioned girl at heart as they were all a little too fussy for me... as were the sandwiches!! The scones however, get top marks...they were the best I've had in a long time... and I've had a few!! ;-)

So was it better than Fortnum and Mason last Sunday... in a word 'no'. At Fortnums you can while away the hours and enjoy some smart but tasty favourites. At the Langham hotel we were rushed out for the next sitting!!

However, I would recommend it as the patisseries looked fabulous...little works of art and they did have this amazing gingerbread house in the entrance which gets extra bonus points!