I’ll warn you now, this is going to be a very image heavy post! Anyway, as I previously mentioned, at the beginning of this month Faye turned 21 and to celebrate we trotted off to The Sanderson Hotel for The Mad Hatter’s High Tea. It totally exceeded all my expectations and we had the best afternoon. There were so many lovely little touches that made it really special.
The menu was hidden inside a vintage book and the sugar cubes in those little jewellery/music boxes with the twirling ballerina that I’m sure we all used to have as kids.
All of the crockery came from the rather fabulous Luna and Curious, which is based in Shoreditch. I was so in love with all of it. Especially the King and Queen of Hearts tea pots that come with their very own crowns!
The Sanderson has four special teas that have been made exclusively for their Mad Hatter’s Tea Party; mint choc chip, strawberries and cream, rhubarb and custard and apple pie! They all smell so delicious and after having a little taste of them all I can tell you the rhubarb and custard was the best of the bunch. It tasted exactly like those red and yellow boiled sweets I used to have as a kid!
When the food was delivered to our table it doesn’t seem like much. Well, it does and then you remember that these little sandwiches are between four of you and the cake towers between three but we were all so stuffed by the end of it we could barely move!
I tried to sensible and ate the savoury treats first. The sandwiches were divine, the savoury scone and herb butter was delicious but my absolute favourite was the teeny tiny sweet potato tart. You can see it just on the bottom tier on the photo above. It was amazing.
This was swiftly followed by the sweet scone with clotted cream and jam and the carrot meringues which are nestled on a bed of pea shoots in the top of the cake stand. Everything was really tasty and those little stripy fellas have a mango middle that bursts out if you’re not careful!
These little chocolate tea cups were filled with white chocolate and matcha green tea mousse. They were pretty special but after eating everything else in sight the mousse ended up being a little too much for me and I had to spoon most of it out.
One of the most exciting things though, was the drink me potion. That’s all it is called in the menu and the little brown medicine bottle gives nothing away.
I was excited to try it. The best way I can describe it is that it tasted like a Solero, but better! (And I really like Soleros.)
The afternoon was rounded off by a surprise cake for Faye and a rousing rendition of happy birthday at the top of our lungs.
I’d highly recommend The Mad Hatter’s Afternoon Tea at The Sanderson to anyone for a special afternoon. At £35 a head it’s a similar price to other high-end hotels but this one has that extra special something .
Have you been? Do you have any recommendations for afternoon tea anywhere else?
Kisses,
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