Tuesday Cuppa Tea...Tea At Harrods...Georgian Restaurant Afternoon Tea

Hello and welcome to Tuesday Cuppa Tea! So glad you could join me for another time to share about tea, tea parties, teacups and the lovely experience to taking tea!

This week's tea was an impromptu tea to share a gift from a dear friend...always an occasion...a new teapot! This is a contemporary one she got in California where she lives...with all sorts of fun images and phrases about tea parties. So I paired it with a Royal Albert Old Country Roses teacup, a Salisbury teacups with roses and our favorite Hob Nob biscuits for a quick tea in the sunroom, breaking from the last of my labors on my new website...more about that later....

As you can see, I am using my usual tea table and antique table cover from my grandmother.  By the side, is my art nouveau quarter sawn oak platform rocker that belonged to my paternal grgreat grandmother and dates to the 1880s....with just a glimpse of our stained glass window in the back...

And here is my fun new tea party teapot! It says Tea For Two, Tea Time and Let's Chat with a polka dot lid. So cute!  I miss my friend...we used to have tea together often and...well, just spend a lot of time chatting!

The first of the 2 teacups is by Salisbury, England and was made between 1961-1972. Salisbury was taken over in 1961 by Thomas Poole but they closed and demolished the pottery in 1972. I love the pretty and delicate she of the teacup, the hand applied brushed or sponged gold trim and the ruffled rim of this teacup, pattern number 3547 with dog roses.

My other teacup is one everyone recognizes....Royal Albert Old Country Roses, but this one is a newer production and was probably made in Indonesia. There is a subtle but noticeable difference in feel, and the trim is not brushed like the English product, but still such a pretty pattern.

You can't see it well, but my tea is a favorite Harrod's Heritage Blend...Empire Breakfast No. 34, that I always brought a large tin home from each visit....

For 20+ years, we spent a month every year in England visiting different places in England, visiting relatives and buying for our business until about 2 years ago when my husband could no longer handle the cross country flight from the west coast to the east coast to and from catching ships to the UK. So I am sharing some from our trips...and reminiscing as I do! 

As I explained last week HERE we always spent a week in London for the various weekly antiques markets, and  and while there bought goodies and had quick teas at Harrods Food Hall. And most years, we also had tea upstairs at least once in that week at the nicer Georgian Tea Room or Restaurant upstairs....

While the Food Hall is in the basement/lower level, the Georgian Tea Room is on the 2nd floor...third to Americans...and accessible by elevator or escalator....

The ceiling is fabulous and is an iconic survival from the Edwardian design...I love it!

This is a menu from my first ever visit with my Aunt when we spent a month in the UK in 1964...

The tea tower...I must say, I didn't find too many of my tea photos from Harrods, but many are not digital...and taking photos of food just wasn't done...I recently got a computer device to make digitals of slides and photos, but have been so bogged down with my website transfer, I haven't gotten to that yet....

But I did find this one, and the next of my niece behind the scones....

I also found this on their website...the Georgian Afternoon Tea menu which is pretty much what I remember....

The Georgian Afternoon Tea

A selection of finger sandwiches

A selection of freshly prepared tea pastries from the patisserie

Warm, traditionally baked scones served with warm clotted cream, strawberry jam, rose-petal jelly and homemade lemon curd

A Harrods Trifle

Your choice of Harrods' fine tea

£39 per person

~

Champagne Afternoon Tea

An amuse-bouche

A selection of finger sandwiches

A selection of freshly prepared tea pastries from the patisserie

Warm, traditionally baked scones served with warm clotted cream, strawberry jam, rose-petal jelly and homemade lemon curd

Fresh strawberries served with cream or Pimm's syrup

A Harrods Trifle

Your choice of Harrods' fine tea and a flute of Rose Champagne

£49.50 per person

The Champagne Afternoon Tea.

The tea offers guests a refreshing glass of Harrods Rosé Champagne and features a selection of dainty sandwiches and savouries, a colourful array of freshly prepared tea pastries as well as traditional baked scones served with clotted cream, strawberry jam and homemade lemon curd with the added luxury of fresh strawberries served with a Pimm's syrup. A High Tea menu is also available including a variety of dishes such as a smoked haddock and Somerset brie tart, a lobster club sandwich, scrambled eggs with spinach and caviar in puff pastry and a Rosper roasted steak sandwich.

I also found a recipe for Harrod's Scones in a recipe file that I noted I got from a Victoria magazine, but I didn't record which issue. From the looks of the spatters, it was probably in one of the early 1990s England issues, but I didn't get a chance to look it up.

image from Google Images

Harrods Scones

3 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
2 T. baking powder
6 T. cold butter, cut into small pieces
6 T. sugar
1/2 c. golden raisins
1 c. milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a medium bowl, stir the flour and baking powder together until well blended. Using a pastry cutter, 2 knives, or your fingers, cut or rub the butter in until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the sugar and raisins and mix well. Quickly stir in the milk to make a firm dough. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and knead lightly until smooth. Roll out to a 3/8-in. thickness and cut into 2-in. rounds with a pastry cutter. Place the scones 1 inch apart on a parchment-lined or greased baking sheet, brush with a little milk, and bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, or until lightly golden. Let cool slightly on a wire rack. Serve warm. Makes about 12 scones.

So there we have my tour of the Georgian Tea Room at Harrods...a wonderful place for tea...if a bit pricey. But, an experience! Thanks for joining me again for Tuesday Cuppa Tea!

I mentioned before that Google had a major requirement for all websites to be mobile friendly by April 21, 2015...called "Mobilegeddon" in the business community. I have my own hosted website, but my host wanted to charge me $6499.00 to change mine to what was required...as a sole proprietor and VERY small business, there was no way I could do that. But I found a webhost for my website MUCH cheaper...but I had to transfer 1200+ items myself...which I have now basically done!  Hooray!  I'd love you to come by and visit it! Whew! Glad THAT'S over!!!!  http://www.antiquesandteacups.com

And Happy Victoria Day to all mu Canadian friends!

Below is the list of some of the blog parties I will be part of and there is the linky for your tea related posts...please remember that it is SSSLLLOOOOOOWWWW but if you are patient...it's there! And I love to read your comments, and can find you to visit!

Mosaic Monday with Judith
 Tea Time Tuesday with Sandi 

A Return to Loveliness
 Tea Cup Tuesday 
 Friends Sharing Tea
 Share Your Cup Thursday

Roses Of Inspiration

An InLinkz Link-up