Today marks a very special day for Ramblings of a Devoted Tea Drinker; today I had my last A’level exam, yippee! So now I can finally
dedicate more of my time to eating, preparing and writing about afternoon tea J To mark the occasion I
thought I would share a very special afternoon tea with you. A few weeks ago (before
I entered the revision cave) I took a trip to London to try the classic
afternoon tea cruise on the River Thames on board the Harmony Vessel.
The cruise is operated by Bateaux London, who offer various
different types of dining cruise experiences along the River Thames. The
classic afternoon tea cruise that we selected costs £32 per person. The
experience lasts for about 1 hour 15 minutes and allows you to soak up some of
the famous sights in London such as the Big Ben and the London Eye. We even got
to see the ITV This Morning Studio J
All whilst enjoying a delicious afternoon tea spread!
The experience on board the Harmony was really enjoyable;
there was a live pianist on board and the staff, were all very attentive and
helpful and in my opinion provided a truly 5-star service. I have to say that there
is just something very leisurely and luxurious about dining while sailing down
a river J
The afternoon tea menu included a selection of fresh
sandwiches, on white and brown bread. They were really tasty and we managed to
polish them off pretty quickly between us!
So I was pleased when the waiter came over to offer us refills and to my
delight not only did he come back with 1 or 2 extra sandwiches, but refilled
the entire plate for us!
On the next tier were of course the scones with clotted
cream and strawberry jam – the heart of any afternoon tea. There were two fruit
scones- no refills or plain scones were offered, but to be honest they were
pretty big and filling so I don’t think I could have eaten another one anyway.
The sweet selection included a Fruit meringue tart, a coffee
flavoured Macaroon, a Lemon drizzle cake, a Jam filled Beignet and a chocolate éclair. The portion sizes
were very generous and it was a struggle to finish the plate but I persevered J All the cakes and
pastries were delicious but if I had to pick one I would say the fruit meringue
tart was my favourite.
Finally, the tea selection consisted of Darjeeling, Earl
Grey, English Breakfast and Assam teas. I was slightly disappointed that there
wasn’t a wider selection of herbal and fruit teas to choose from…
Overall though, this was a lovely afternoon tea experience –
great ambience and service combined with tasty food and a wonderful view.
See you next time for more of my ramblings!
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The experience on board the Harmony was really enjoyable;
there was a live pianist on board and the staff, were all very attentive and
helpful and in my opinion provided a truly 5-star service. I have to say that there
is just something very leisurely and luxurious about dining while sailing down
a river J
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