A Sunday Afternoon Tea in London - Bea's of Bloomsbury

There are some quintessentially British traditions that you have to do in London. Indulging in afternoon tea is one of them. Also known as high tea, afternoon tea is usually served from 2 pm till 5 pm. I like to imagine that the Queen has afternoon tea every day and drinks Twinings.

In my case, afternoon tea is reserved for the weekend when you skip lunch and try not to feel too guilty about eating a lot of sweets.

Bea's of Bloomsbury recently opened a tearoom at One New Change opposite St Paul's Cathedral. The two-level eatery is bright with a warm atmosphere, the antique style chairs and unique interiors create an Alice in Wonderland feeling particularly with the hanging teapot lights and other small touches.

We ordered one afternoon tea set - which comes with savoury baguettes, a proper scone (plain), clotted cream and raspberry jam, a signature cupcakes, petit fours, a mini Valrhona brownie, a mini Belgian Blondie, and a mini meringue and a pot of Jing tea - White jasmine herbal for Chiara. Unfortunately they had run out of petit fours so we compensated with more brownies. 


Rather than being greedy and ordering another afternoon tea, though we did briefly consider this, we opted for the Jam Tea - two plain scones with clotted cream and jam and a pot of Darjeeling Jing tea.

This high tea lady has fallen victim to clotted cream

Rustic looking scones

We look awfully excited and hungry at the same time!

Tea

The Darjeeling was light and refreshing however the teapots were small and we ran out of tea before we finished our last brownie. We ordered a pot of Earl Grey which was just what we needed to cleanse our palette of sugar. The tiny little Jug of milk runs out pretty quickly.

Sweets

The scones were buttery and melted in your mouth with the heavenly clotted cream and runny raspberry jam. I liked the consistency of the jam as it spread easily. The little brownie needed a tad more chocolate in it. However the Belgian Blondie - a moist yellow cake - was divine. The jam-smeared meringue was just the right size and not overtly sweet.

We were a bit disappointed by the velvet cupcake as it had cream, not icing, on the top and in the middle was a giant hole when we sliced it open which was meant to be a layer of chocolate icing. I like solid cupcakes and it didn't taste like a normal red velvet. We ordered the double chocolate cupcake to test another - yet this was incredibly rich. A very wicked cupcake indeed.

Savouries

I've never had baguettes with high  tea as you're usually served finger sandwiches. This was a nice surprise although they weren't cut very evenly - or spread out on the bottom plate. As there were only 3 baguettes, it looked like something was missing on the empty side of the plate! The filling was made up of ham, pesto, salad and cream cheese. The bread was a bit tough but complimented the sweets well.

The verdict - 3.5 out of 5

Service was a bit slow to begin with and we had to flag the waitstaff a few times. For 15 pounds this afternoon tea price is on par with similar sets served at some of London's galleries though cheaper than most hotels. It is a decent serving size though I would've liked to have sampled some of the petit fours. On a second visit I would probably just stick to the tea and scones for 6 pounds. 

We have an agenda of trying out as many afternoon teas as possible in London...so stay tuned.