Tea to a T - The Goring Hotel
With more visitors in town, we continued our quest to find the perfect tea in London. Each visitor we have this year will be sampling tea in a new locale for us; partly for their enjoyment, but mostly for ours. I enjoy trying out different specialties and teas at each place we visit, taking in the atmosphere each place offers and most of all, relaxing without distractions with family and friends .
As I've scheduled more tea times, I have come to find that I'm not the only one on this mission. There is a Tea Guild that sets out to pick the best tea places throughout the UK. Like secret shoppers, judges go to each establishment to rate them on things like decor, knowledge of tea, efficiency, and more.
And much to my delight, I found that we had booked a tea time at what was chosen by the Tea Guild as London's Top Afternoon Tea in 2013 - The Goring Hotel.
So, on the last day of the weekend, we found ourselves at the Goring for tea time.
The room itself was quite lovely - wooden panels, inviting chairs and couches, and a little sun room, with seats outside as well, which I can imagine are widely used during beautiful summer days.
Because it was my cousin's birthday, we decided to go for the Champagne Tea in celebration. In addition to the champagne, they brought out what was perhaps my favorite thing of the whole tea. We each had a plate full of sliced strawberries, drizzled in cream. They were the perfect complement to the champagne.
Finally, came the main attraction - the tea. I had the Goring's Afternoon Blend, while others sampled the Fortum & Mason Royal Blend and a Darjeeling tea. The food was the standard fare - egg salad sandwiches, chicken salad, although they did have a goat cheese and roasted pepper sandwich was new to me and very delicious. I stuffed myself so full of scones, I ALMOST skipped having any of the chocolatey goodness at the end, but I found a little bit of room for a macaroon and some type of chocolate cake.
So we sat, talked, followed the rules of no electronics (minus these pictures), replenished our scones and tea, and enjoyed the afternoon. While the service we experienced was not very attentive, especially compared to the service we had at The Brown Hotel, I can still see why it ranks up there among the top tea places in London. Now, only 20 more tea establishments to visit to make sure we've visited all the Award of Excellence Winners for London.
As I've scheduled more tea times, I have come to find that I'm not the only one on this mission. There is a Tea Guild that sets out to pick the best tea places throughout the UK. Like secret shoppers, judges go to each establishment to rate them on things like decor, knowledge of tea, efficiency, and more.
And much to my delight, I found that we had booked a tea time at what was chosen by the Tea Guild as London's Top Afternoon Tea in 2013 - The Goring Hotel.
So, on the last day of the weekend, we found ourselves at the Goring for tea time.
The room itself was quite lovely - wooden panels, inviting chairs and couches, and a little sun room, with seats outside as well, which I can imagine are widely used during beautiful summer days.
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| My grandmother getting ready for the tea and the beautiful place settings. Each tea saucer had the cameo of Goring under where the cut sits |
Because it was my cousin's birthday, we decided to go for the Champagne Tea in celebration. In addition to the champagne, they brought out what was perhaps my favorite thing of the whole tea. We each had a plate full of sliced strawberries, drizzled in cream. They were the perfect complement to the champagne.
 |
| The strawberry mountain, topped with a fresh drizzle of cream |
Finally, came the main attraction - the tea. I had the Goring's Afternoon Blend, while others sampled the Fortum & Mason Royal Blend and a Darjeeling tea. The food was the standard fare - egg salad sandwiches, chicken salad, although they did have a goat cheese and roasted pepper sandwich was new to me and very delicious. I stuffed myself so full of scones, I ALMOST skipped having any of the chocolatey goodness at the end, but I found a little bit of room for a macaroon and some type of chocolate cake.
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| Our eats - you get a great look at the clotted cream here. So soft, it looks like ice cream |
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| Our food tray again. We definitely got a second tray of scones once we finished the first |
So we sat, talked, followed the rules of no electronics (minus these pictures), replenished our scones and tea, and enjoyed the afternoon. While the service we experienced was not very attentive, especially compared to the service we had at The Brown Hotel, I can still see why it ranks up there among the top tea places in London. Now, only 20 more tea establishments to visit to make sure we've visited all the Award of Excellence Winners for London.
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