I have loved tea for a long while, but in the UK I truly found a passion. Tea everywhere! Tea every day! Tea every hour! It became a bit of an addiction actually. I found a good way to channel that with two things. The first was that tea/coffee is the best way to catch up with friends and there are about 10 different cafes in the three-street little town we lived in in which we could meet up. So lots of cups of tea were had over gossipy chats and late night study sessions. The second instance was discovering afternoon teas! It is a very British experience to have, a must in my (and my friends’) opinion! Also, I’m always in to taste some dainty little finger food. Finally, because afternoon tea is a cool experience! It’s fun, it’s light and it’s all about the company and the tea. For all those reasons, I thought I would do a little series on afternoon tea!
My first afternoon tea experience was in Edinburgh. I was visiting the Edinburgh Castle with family friends who came to visit all the way from Quebec. We spent a few hours there and at some point, while near Crown Square, we got hungry and wanted to grab a bite. There it was, the Tea Rooms, the perfect little cosy place to have a bite. After a quick look at the menu we all decided to get a classic afternoon tea, which includes, sandwiches, scones, cakes, and of course plenty of delicious tea! The great thing about afternoon teas as well is that you can usually choose from a large variety of teas. Some people go for traditional, but you can also decide to try out things you never heard of or have always been intrigued by.
-The decor was lovely and comfortable.
-The scones were delicious! (I love me some scones!)
-I just loved their strawberry jam, and who doesn’t like clotted cream?!
-The sandwiches were also delicious. I personally try to not eat any meat so it is a bit unpleasant not to be able to choose the sandwiches, but I simply exchanged by ham sandwich for someone’s cucumber sandwich and all was perfect! On that note, the cucumber sandwich changed my life! As a kid, I have had phases of wanting to be ‘cool’ and try things, and I once asked my parents to make me cucumber sandwiches, which apparently didn’t go down so well. But oh my! was this cucumber sandwich delicious. The secret? the amazing combination it makes with cream cheese and their dill and lemon bread.
-I wasn’t particularly impressed with the cakes but they were still very flavourful.
I would give the overall experience a 7/10. In my opinion, it was a bit expensive for what it was (certainly paying more for the location than the food) but nonetheless I would recommend it! It’s a nice way to break the Castle visit.