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Afternoon Tea at The Corinthia
It was in 1840 that Anna, the seventh Duchess of Bedford, noticed she felt a ‘sinking feeling’ around mid-afternoon, but once served with a pot of Darjeeling tea, some bread, butter and biscuits, she felt decidedly better, and the Afternoon Tea was born! A century later, Lady Astor, the first British MP, who often crossed swords with Prime Minister Winston Churchill, once declared, ‘Sir, if you were my husband, I’d poison your tea’, and Churchill responded, ‘Madam, if you were my wife, I’d drink it!’.
Luckily for me, I took my friend of 35 years who I get on very well with to Afternoon Tea at The Corinthia, a luxury hotel and former British Government building, located on a triangular site between Trafalgar Square and the Thames Embankment, and there was no chat of poisoning each other, rather what champagne and flavour of tea we were going to choose, and whether or not we had a second round of the delicious sandwiches, which we did!
The Crystal Moon Lounge in which we enjoyed our Afternoon Tea is illuminated by a spectacular Baccarat chandelier and is adorned with exquisite flowers, and to make the atmosphere really special, a pianist was playing well known songs on a Steinway piano.
The staff and their service were second to none, being attentive but not over bearing, and offering us as much of the delicious delicacies on offer that we could consume.
We both started with a glass of champagne along with several finger sandwiches including cucumber, radish and cream cheese on white bread, truffle egg mayonnaise on malted granary bread, Severn and Wye smoked salmon and marmalade curd on brown bread, and tandoori chicken, green apple and raisin on white bread and these were so tasty we did, as previously mentioned, take up the offer of another round each! The sandwiches were served on their own as a first course which was nice, as some Afternoon Tea venues do bring the sandwiches along with the scones and cakes, but having them separately made the experience last longer which also meant we could enjoy an extra glass or two of champagne!
The scones that were served to us next were gorgeously warm and generous in portion size and tasted delicious, and the beautiful cakes were brought to us on a trolley so we were able to choose which of the amazing creations we would like, rather than just being served certain cakes where generally at least a couple or two aren’t to my personal liking. The seven cakes we could choose were lemon, blueberry and mint cheesecake; strawberry, coconut and timut pepper eclair; Manjari 64% chocolate and raspberry sable´ breton; apricot, vanilla and lavender honey chantilly verrine; strawberry and cream cake; canele´s, and interestingly, marshmallows - violet, elderflower and strawberry, and were all a treat to the eyes as well as the taste buds, and a thoroughly lovely afternoon in The Crystal Lounge was had by me and my friend.
Traditional Afternoon Tea at The Corinthia costs £55, or £65 with a glass of Laurent- Perrier La Cuve´e Brut Champagne , or £75 with a glass of Laurent-Perrier Rose´ Champagne, but which ever option you choose you are in for a very special treat.
