Yesterday I started to get into the Christmas spirit at last. We only returned from holiday on Wednesday night, and I was not feeling my best for the couple of days afterwards. Thankfully, I was feeling a bit better yesterday (even though I still feel like hibernating). I managed to write some Christmas cards and go out for my pre-booked Christmas afternoon tea at Emmeline's Lounge in Conrad St. James.
Emmeline's Lounge was decorated for the holidays with a large decorated tree as a centrepiece in the room. As we started to look at the afternoon tea menu, a small group of carollers entered the room and started to sing Christmas carols. We were sat next to the decorated tree. We sipped our unlimited champagne and listened to the carols.
The savouries were brought out to us onto three tiers. The top tier included brussel sprout salad, served in shot glasses. This was a puree with a cream cheese and brussel sprout taste, and it had quite a strong flavour. The plate also included turkey ballotine (turkey meat formed around stuffing) with cranberry on the side and venison parcels in pastry.
The next tier included the sandwiches: smoked salmon and lemon creme fraiche, beetroot and spinach, and gammon with mustard.
The third tier included four scones wrapped in a fabric napkin. The two scone flavours were orange and cranberry and Christmas spice. These were served with the traditional clotted cream and strawberry jams, but an additional preserve of blackberry curd was included. The scones tasted lovely and fresh.
I cannot forget to mention the tea. I had the Darjeeling tea, which is an easy-going black tea. This was served loose-leaf (the only way one should have tea, in my opinion), and came with a strainer.
After we had finished the savouries and got seconds of some of it, we were finally rewarded with our winter dessert scene. This was carried over to us in a frosted window display over a sheet of slate that contained the edible winterscape. I took quite a few photographs.
When the frosted 'window' was removed, we could take a glimpse at the edible cakes and pastries. They included meringue snowmen, winter berry Christmas tree, white forest yule logs, snowflake ginger macaroons, chocolate and orange battenberg presents, and Christmas postcard marshmallows.
The Christmas tree was my favourite. It was made of berry sorbet and had the richest chocolate 'brownie' base that I've had in a long time. This was delicious. The marshmallows and macaroons were lovely too. I almost forgot to mention this, but the snow that the pastries are sat in and around was also edible and formed of meringue and silver and gold chocolate pieces.
We had a lovely time at Emmeline's Lounge at Conrad St. James, and the Christmas carols and everything made us feel really special. This is one of the best afternoon tea experiences that I have had yet, and it put us in a Christmas mood.
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