Cost – £36 for two (Sept 2013)
Background – This is a review of our second visit to Blenheim Palace as I didn’t write a review of our original visit which was the start of our love affair with Afternoon Teas. On this occasion there were four of us as we were joined by my sister and her partner as well.
Blenhiem Palace is a wonderful place to visit and I would recommend allowing plenty of time to visit the house as well if you decide to try their Afternoon Tea. This tea needs to be booked well in advance.
The Indian Room is accessible from off the main café. It is a lovely room, decorated in Indian designs, overlooking the fountains and gardens outside. The room is kept quite dark to protect the decoration.
Contents – 9 finger sandwiches between two people (three each of egg and cress, smoked salmon, ham with mustard), medium sized scone, jam and clotted cream, earl grey tea loaf, small lavender-infused meringue, fruit tart, chocolate brownie, a choice of loose leaf teas in individual teapot (refillable).
Comments – We were given a table in the centre of the room near a fireplace.
The teas arrived well presented on two three tired cake stands between the four of us with pretty round white plates.
The sandwiches were freshly made and tasty but why three of each filling between two people? Especially as this leaves an odd number of sandwiches to fight over!
The plain scone was fresh and of a reasonable size. There was only an adequate amount of jam but a good quantity of clotted cream.
All of the cakes were fresh and tasty. We particularly liked the tea loaf and the chocolate Brownie. The meringue did not taste too strongly of lavender, there was just a hint of it.
We were offered a choice of loose leaf teas. But when the teapots arrived we were given tea infuser baskets instead of tea strainers as they had run out! This made it quite difficult to pour the tea as the infusers are quite large. The Tea was rather too strong for all of us. Refills were available but the waitresses were not always easy to find. The setting was beautiful.
| Sandwiches | 1.5 |
| Scone | 2.0 |
| Jam | 1.0 |
| Cream | 2.0 |
| Cake (variety) | 2.0 |
| Cake (quality) | 2.0 |
| Tea | 1.0 |
| Presentation | 2.0 |
| Service | 1.5 |
| Value | 1.5 |
| Total | 16.5 |
Sarnies Scones and Cakes 