This was not my first visit to the Corinthia Hotel (near Embankment Station) for afternoon tea. I had previously visited to try their Festive Afternoon Tea and their Halloween Afternoon Tea, but I wanted to try their Easter Afternoon tea. Each Easter Afternoon Tea purchased during the Easter weekend receives a golden chocolate egg, and some of these contain gifts. (I thought all of them contained a gift in past years, but that's not the case this year.)
When we arrived at Corinthia Hotel, the lobby was decorated with beautiful multi-coloured pastel flower vases. The Lobby Lounge, where the afternoon teas are served, also had a large spring arrangement with beautiful flowers, stuffed chicks and hens, and plastic eggs to celebrate spring.
The centrepiece for The Lobby Loungue is a beautiful and enormous light, and this fills the dome. The beautiful flower arrangements are underneath this.
We got straight to business. I ordered the Rose Pouchong tea, which is a rose-flavoured tea with a strong rose taste. This was good, but I was a little tired of the flavour of rose after I finished the teapot and opted to try the Prince Alexander Blend. This Chinese black tea is inflused with chocolate and caramel to celebrate England winning rugby over New Zealand in 1936, and it's considered to be one of the great teas. I found it a little too bitter for my taste. The thid teapot I had was the Bert Firman 1921, which I remember ordering previously and enjoying. This Kenyan tea is infused with mandarin and cornflower.
Just a note that we did not have the champagne option, but there weren't any prices for the standard no-champagne option. I assumed it came with it, but it did not; the menu was not clear. The standard option without champagne is £50.00 each, and service charge is added at the end. With the champagne, the tea is £55.00 each. This is on the expensive end for afternoon tea in London, although you get asked if you'd like more sandwiches or pastries, but there's so much food already that I'm sure many do not take up this offer.
Next, we had our sandwiches. The selection included the following: dry cured ham with tomato and English mustard, prawns in Marie Rose sauce, organic egg and mustard, cheddar cheese and pickle, roast Cumbrian beef and horseradish, Wye smoked salmon and cream cheese. All of these were served on different flavours of bread. My favourite was the egg.
We were then broguht the remainder of the afternoon tea - the pastries and the scones. We had scones first. We had two fruit and two plain, and these came with clotted cream or a choice of raspberry or strawberry jam.
We received eight separate pastries, and each of these were inspired by spring and/or Easter. The first (above) is "Beautiful Blooms", which is dark chocolate, raspberry mousse, and pistachio. I love pistachio, dark chocolate, and raspberry, so this one was a winner. The other items are included below with a description, starting from top left.
"Green Gardens" - These are miniature profiteroles with pistachio and a green 'sprout'
"Spring Showers" - Mascarpone, coffee, and chocolate are the ingredients of this piece presented with a chocolate and caramel egg and two edible daisies.
"Easter Basket" - This is a coffee, banana, and mango eclair. I'm not a fan of coffee, so fortunately, it didn't taste like coffee.
"Babies Bonnet" - This oddly-shaped pastry, which I thought looked like a butt, is actually meant to be an easter bonnet. I don't see it, but anyway, it's a mango panna cotta and passionfruit lime glaze.
"Peter Rabbit" - This chocolate mousse, carrot cake, and candied apricot looked like it would be nice, and I do enjoy carrot cake. However, this was my least favourite. The cake was too dry, and the 'chocolate mousse' (which did not taste like chocolate) was too rich. It did not really work for me.
"White Lily" - This is a white chocolate with vanilla cream cheese, and cassis pastry.
"Chick Egg" - This is a lemon and Yuzu Tart, and I enjoyed this one.
At the end, we cracked open our golden chocolate egg to reveal -- absolutely nothing. We did not win a prize. The chocolate tasted pretty nice, though, but it was very quick to melt. Touching it was enough to cause it to start to melt, so it was messy.
Before we left, we enjoyed the beautiful spring flowers. Happy Easter and Happy Spring to all of my readers.
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