Fortnum & Mason Afternoon Tea

One of the best experiences in London is Afternoon Tea. You can find it all over town, ranging from neighborhood places to High Tea. We chose High Tea at Fortnum & Mason, an upmarket department store founded in 1707.

Fortunum & Mason is the official department store of the Queen.

The windows were already decorated for Christmas.

The store is elegant and beautifully decorated.

Tea was served in the Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon, named in honor of the Queen's visit in 2012, when she formally opened the room.

A pianist played a grand piano in the reception area.

Gentlemen were in suits. You probably wouldn't be turned away if you didn't have a suit or tie but do dress sharply.

You get your choice of loose leaf tea and I chose Jasmine Silver Needle. It's a white tea flavored with jasmine blossoms and it was so fragrant.

There were 4 of us and our server recommended that we get 2 Traditional Afternoon Tea and 2 Savory Tea--each £60/person plus 12% service charge. You can get more of whatever you want so it made sense to try different things.

The Traditional Afternoon Tea included a variety of sandwiches (Norfolk Cured Ham with English Mustard, Cucumber with Mint Cream Cheese, Rare Breed Hen's Egg Mayonnaise with Cress, Fortnum's Smoked Salmon with Tartare Sauce and Coronation Chicken). My favorites were the smoked salmon and coronation chicken, which had Indian flavors.

There were fruit and plain scones (rhymes with gone rather than stone). These were delicious--so moist and absolutely delicious with clotted cream and strawberry preserve as well as lemon curd.

The patisseries included what came on the tower but also checkerboard cake and chocolate cake, sliced from a central station.

The Savory Tea included the same sandwiches, savory scones (Shropshire Blue Cheese Scone with Cranberry Jelly and Courgette and Thyme Scone with Red Onion Marmalade) and a top tier of savory treats. These included Oeuf Drumkilbo, Cashel Blue Parfait with Port Jelly, Duck Mousse & Pistachio Paris-Brest, Smoked Trout on Crackerbread and Glenarm Beef Terrine with Horseradish.

The Oeuf Drumkilbo was the best. It was whipped eggs with lobster--sooo good! It was my favorite and I must say I prefer the savory tea over the traditional tea.

Tea was a 2-hour affair and we were stuffed. We couldn't finish the desserts and took them back to the hotel. Our server also gave us jars of the lemon curd to take home. I think it was because we were generous with additional gratuity.

After tea, we shopped and found these salted caramel biscuits. They make great souvenirs.

This was an adorable lunch tote and a great souvenir--£4.95.

2019 11 18