Davies and Howell Food Events

Cost – £17.50 per person, plus delivery (June 2020)

Parking and Access – This tea was taken in the inside area of the venue. There is one small step up to enter the venue. The toilets are inside and up a flight of stairs with no alternative access. There is on-street parking available in front of the venue.

Background – This Afternoon Tea is delivered by a local company to your door. It is available in Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire, Hertfordshire and Essex. Delivery costs from £5 upwards.

I found Davies and Howell through a Google search for companies delivering Afternoon Tea in my area. Their website is very slick looking and professional, so I thought we should give them a try.

Their normal business is catering for events. However, with the pandemic, the company has branched out to do Afternoon Teas, which they deliver to your door.

Contents per person – Four large rectangular sandwiches each (smoked salmon and dill mayonnaise, ham and sundried tomato, cucumber and cream cheese and egg mayonnaise with chives). One small/medium plain scone, one small/medium fruit scone, a mini jar of Tiptree strawberry jam and a small tub of Rodda’s clotted cream. A large slice of lemon and lime drizzle loaf cake and a square of chocolate brownie.

Options available – There were no options to add to this hamper.

Comments – I ordered the Afternoon Tea by email and got very quick, helpful responses to my questions. I was told to expect my Tea to arrive between midday and three o’clock on the day I ordered it for. It arrived at 12:45 in a shallow white cardboard box

with the companies logo on it.

Inside the box, all the food was neatly packed in greaseproof paper or in boxes, with the jam and cream loose. It also contained a scroll of paper tied with a blue ribbon.

This was the menu. A nice touch. There was also a business card enclosed in the box.

To serve our Tea we chose plain white crockery with a blue line around the edge. The teapot we chose had a picture of a cat on it. The milk jug matched the plates. There were no tea bags provided in the package, so we used our own. I have scored the tea as ‘two’ in line with other Teas we have received that did not include any tea.

We served the Afternoon Tea on our round two-tiered cake stand with slate plates. We also had a Tarte au Mirabelle from a local French bakery – Maison Clement. However, in the end we did not eat this with the Tea as we did not have enough room! It was super delicious when we ate it at a later date though!

The sandwiches were packed in two brown boxes tied with blue and white string.

They were reasonably large and were on a mix of white brown and granary breads. They were very fresh and were all well filled.

We were pleased with the fillings, which were all very tasty. There were some small differences from the usual offerings, such as the sun-dried tomato in the ham sandwich.

The scones were wrapped together in greaseproof paper.

They were slightly on the small side of medium. However, there were two each – one plain and one fruit. We warmed them up in the oven before eating. The fruit scones contained enough fruit and both scones were reasonably fresh and were tasty.

The jam and clotted cream were both as we would expect from Tiptree and Rodda’s. Both are good companies offering a good standard of product. There was barely enough of jam for two scones each. However, there was enough clotted cream for both scones.

Finally, there was only two items in the cake part of the Tea. However, both were a good size and it was plenty enough along with the two scones. The lemon and lime drizzle cake piece was quite a thick slice from a loaf cake. It was fresh and very tasty. However, in my humble opinion, a drizzle type cake should have a good amount of sugary drizzle on the top of it. And, hopefully, soaked into the cake as well. Sadly, whilst it was still delicious, this drizzle cake was lacking that drizzle layer. The chocolate brownie was absolutely wonderful. I had to peel it from the paper it was wrapped in, which was a good sign! It was moist and really chocolatey. Definitely yummy! As usual, I could have happily eaten more.

I have based my presentation score on the way the Afternoon Tea was presented on arrival. This Tea was particularly well presented and attractive looking.

Finally, I have based my service score on the service we received from the company, which again, was very good.

 

 

Savoury	1.5
Scone	1.5
Jam	1.5
Cream	2.0
Cake (variety)	1.5
Cake (quality)	1.5
Tea	2.0
Presentation	2.0
Service	2.0
Value	1.5
Total	17.0

 

All opinions expressed in this review are my own. The photographs are all my own.

I remain completely anonymous and always pay for my Afternoon Teas. They are never gifted to me by the businesses.