Many of you will have experienced high tea; if not then I thoroughly recommend high tea at The Museum Hotel's Hippopotamus restaurant.
My Mum visited the weekend after Mother's Day so I decided that it would be lovely to go out and have high tea. I've had high tea previously at Hippopotamus - on that occasion it was with twenty other people for a birthday celebration. My youngest daughter was still quite little and I remember frantically breastfeeding, dashing into town then hurrying back home again afterwards to feed again! This time I really wanted to savour the experience. That was not really to be - my husband decided to go off on an unnecessary errand returning five minutes after the scheduled start of our session. I was not amused. We were very lucky that they held our booking.
The restaurant was full of (mainly) women enjoying quiet conversation and lovely views. The very charming, polite and omnipresent staff welcomed us and left us to decide which flavour tea we wished to drink. We also decided to have a non-alcoholic cocktail with the tea since we were celebrating. I am not a habitual tea drinker - but the fragrant and strongly flavoured rose-vanilla tea I selected could change this. I've often found that 'flavoured' teas disappoint - they are big on aroma but the taste rarely emerges from the drink. This was amazing. I wish I had thought to note the brand. The blackcurrant and lime spritzer was light, and, coincidentally, matched the dominant flavouring in the food provided.
The food was lovely, but then, it was always going to be. Beautiful little savouries, lovely pastries, chewy blackcurrant macarons and delicious tiramisu. Just gorgeous. My Mum nearly fell over though when they bought round more food - a couple of madelines for the road. We did our best to fit them in!
It was lovely just sitting back, listening to all the happy chatter in the room. I'm determined to make more of an effort to make and savour afternoon tea - instead of just putting a handful of crackers and some chopped fruit on the plate and giving it to the girls while I use the opportunity to tidy up!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
what a lovely treat, that sounds delicious! Know what you mean about herbal teas, they so often smell incredible but taste so insipid. I have just tried the Tea Total ones, really liked them, esp the Sweet Sunday one for a fruity sweet tea.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to try that range, thanks for the tip!
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