Afternoon Tea at Claridge's

I was very lucky to be invited along to afternoon tea at Claridge's by Eppie this week.

My friend Emily and I have always said we'd treat ourselves to a night at Claridge's one day and I loved the 'Inside Claridge's' documentary that was aired on BBC a few years back. So safe to say I was excited.

We entered the building through the rotating doors and headed into the 1930's art deco themed foyer where afternoon tea takes place.

We chose the comfy seats in the corner, perfect for people watching as we drank our champagne.

After consulting the long list of tea available in the menu, Eppie went for an earl grey while I opted for the single estate afternoon tea.

I have to say, I really enjoyed reading how elaborate the description of each tea was.

Before long our sandwiches arrived, accompanied by the "chef's seasonal savoury" of two miniature cheese scones topped with a really nice apple puree, which may have been my favourite thing from the plate.

After finishing the sandwiches, we sat back and waited in anticipation for the scones to arrive.

Two scones each arrived at our table, one plan and one fruit. Although Eppie and I were slightly disappointed that our "fruit" scones only contained 2 raisins.  These were accompanied by Cornish clotted cream and Marco Polo jelly. The jelly was so tasty I think I'll let them off for the lack of raisins.

In fact, we enjoyed them so much we ordered extras.

Finally were the pastries. These change week by week, so you never know what you're going to get.

Our selection consisted of a passion fruit tart, which was topped with what seemed to be a sort of passion fruit flavoured melted marshmallow, topped with lime zest for extra freshness.

Second was the chocolate offering. A kind of chocolate entremet, consisting of chocolate cake, a crisp chocolatey base, smooth chocolate spheres, topped with a snap of chocolate and gold leaf.

This was the point where we admitted defeat. Claridge's is the kind of establishment where you want to exit with some form of grace, rather than being rolled out groaning by the staff, unable to move from the size of your food baby.

Alas, no cake can be wasted around Bethan and Eppie. We were kindly given a box for us to take away our strawberry and apricot delights and were also treated to a packet of Hope and Greenwood sweets, specially made for Claridge's.

I really enjoyed my day, thank you once again Eppie for inviting me along!

If anyone has a special event coming up, I'd definitely recommend this experience for a lovely afternoon out with friends and family.