Cost – £20.50 (Dec 2016)
Background – This was the third time we had been to Waddesden Manor for their Festive Afternoon Tea. This year’s theme was ‘magical materials’. The house was beautifully decorated to this theme. there was a Christmas market and there was a light display in the gardens. It was all very enjoyable.
Waddesden Manor is a large stately home in Buckinghamshire, owned by The National Trust. There is a restaurant in part of the house, which is where the Festive Afternoon Tea is served. The Festive Tea needs to be booked a long way in advance but Afternoon Tea is available all year as well which can be booked much nearer to visiting.
Contents – One finger sandwich each (egg mayonnaise), five other small savouries (brie and cranberry tart, smoked haddock rarebit, smoked salmon with cream cheese on rye crispbread, Roquefort toast with plum jelly, turkey with stuffing roulade) served with some mixed leaves. One small plain scone, a very small pot of strawberry jam and a very small pot of clotted cream. Four ‘dainty desserts’ (lemon posset in a mini cup with a ginger biscuit, a mini chocolate yule log, a horn of plenty with winter berry cream and a Viennese pandoro bun). The tea was made with tea bags from a choice of teas.
Comments – This special Afternoon Tea has to booked several months ahead.
The savoury part of the Tea arrived first on a rectangular white china plate. They were all quite small but very well presented. The smoked salmon was rather salty. The Brie was quite nice and the turkey and rarebit were very good. The egg sandwich was the largest item!
We were then brought a three-tier cake-stand with round white china plates. This contained all of the remaining items of the tea.
The scone was rather small but even so there was not enough jam. There was also barely enough cream. Butter was provided for our cream hater when requested.
The rest of the sweet section was described as ‘dainty desserts’. There were four small items. The horn of plenty was crisp and good, the Pomdoro was tasty with dried fruit in it and the Yule log was very light. However, the real star was the lemon posset (always a big favourite for me!). It was beautifully tangy and really tasty. It also had a little ginger biscuit in it.
The tea was of a good strength for us and we were able to obtain a refill of the water in the teapot.
The service was reasonably good but we did have to ask twice for the butter before it came.
| Sandwiches | 2.0 |
| Scone | 1.0 |
| Jam | 1.0 |
| Cream | 1.0 |
| Cake (variety) | 1.5 |
| Cake (quality) | 2.0 |
| Tea | 1.5 |
| Presentation | 1.5 |
| Service | 1.5 |
| Value | 1.5 |
| Total | 14.5 |
Sarnies Scones and Cakes 