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JOIN OUR MAILING LISTCreate your own Mother's Day Afternoon Tea
Creating your own Afternoon tea is so much fun and actually quite easy to do. There are many sweet and savoury treats to add from cakes to biscuits, desserts and finger sandwiches, but they all start with good tea. Everyday teas are great on the go when you’re pressed for time, but a lacklustre brew simply won’t do when it comes to afternoon tea. With Mother’s Day just around the corner, why not treat your mum to an exceptional afternoon created just for her?
We’ve lined up five of the best teas for afternoon tea, and tasty treat recommendations to accompany them. You could include all of them, or pick a selection that piques your interest. Mix and match, add little extras like fizz or nibbles, but most importantly, make it fun!
Starting with teaware, accessories and the setting, you can go wild with decorations such as bunting and flowers or keep things cosy and simple. Dust off your cake stand or trawl charity shops for quaint china teacups and mish-mashed tea and cake plates. We’d advise sourcing (borrowing or buying) extra teapots and tea strainers to keep you away from the sink, and preparing sugar, milk, honey, lemon slices in advance.
For us, any celebration involving tea has to start with the tea itself, so we've compiled a selection of our favourites to help you create an unforgettable DIY Afternoon Tea.
Afternoon Tea - TEAS
All high and afternoon teas should start with high-quality black tea. Our favourite is Darjeeling Margaret’s Hope, which is a lovely soft Darjeeling with a strong body and fruity aromatic muscatel notes. This black tea comes from a well-known tea garden in North Valley in the heart of Darjeeling. The slow growth of the shrubs at the cool higher altitudes of this Himalayan plantation produces a harvest of the finest quality. With subtle hints of sweetness and spice, our Margaret’s Hope is a highly aromatic tea that can be drunk solo, with a hint of sugar or with a splash of milk.
Serve this Darjeeling with a savoury snack such as mini sandwiches or rolls filled with your favourite fillings. We love a good mature cheddar and cress, and classic egg mayo, but smoked salmon or even prawns with Marie Rose sauce would work a treat.
Here are a few sarnie ideas to inspire you.
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/afternoon-tea-sandwiches
Flavoured Black Tea - Special Earl Grey
No Afternoon Tea is complete without a flavoured, highly aromatic tea. Our Special Earl Grey is perfect for the occasion and has an intense flavour full of body and citrus notes. Bergamot is the crucial ingredient to all Earl Greys and offers a delightful flavour unique to this tea.
It can be drunk on its own, matched with cake or biscuits or savoury snacks but you can also incorporate it into recipes. Read our Ultimate Guide to Earl Grey and try our Indulgent Earl Grey Milkshake, Earl Grey Gin or Earl Grey Cake recipes!
Our Sencha is a typical, slightly grassy green tea from Japan. It’s elegant, widely popular and tastes delicious when properly brewed. Green tea is an excellent alternative to black tea, offering more antioxidants per cup, and works incredibly well with food. We’d recommend enjoying this tea with savoury Afternoon Tea treats like sandwiches or mini pies, but also with cheese and sesame twists, or crackers.
Green Tea Top Tip:
Make sure that you pour only boiled water after it has cooled slightly to 80-85 Celsius to ensure the tea tips do not burn when brewing.
Here’s how to make the perfect green tea!
• Boil filtered cold water
• Place the tea leaves in a tea strainer or filter basket
• Pour over the hot (80 degrees) water
• Steep the tea for the appropriate amount of time (2-3 minutes)
• Strain the tea
• Sweeten with sugar lumps or honey the tea to taste (we don’t recommend adding milk!)
• Sit back and enjoy
Fruit teas are our recommended dessert teas for an Afternoon Tea. Ideal if you’re not in the mood for any more caffeine and fabulous with sweet treats. Our Rhubarb Cream tea is delightfully luscious and creamy and works well with fresh buttery pastries or anything containing custard or vanilla.
Our Rhubarb Cream tea contains pure fruit and herbs, including apple, hibiscus, rosehip, pineapple, papaya, marigold blossoms, mango and rhubarb pieces. It’s a fruity and fresh infusion rounded off with the delicate sweetness of genuine bourbon vanilla. For more fruit tea ideas, and how to make cold fruit tea brews check out our blog!
End the perfect afternoon with a classic herbal mint tea. An ideal digestif, our Peppermint tea soothes and refreshes the palate naturally. Our organic mint tea contains pure aromatic Spearmint containing natural essential oils. Beautiful in a teacup and on the nose, it's the ideal cleanser. We'd recommend enjoying this tea with a mango or pear sorbet to lift and wake the senses.
https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/mango-sorbet-recipe
Happy Afternoon Tea!
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Posted by cup of tea admin
4th March 2020
