I tried the new musically inspired afternoon tea at the Middle Eight Hotel in Covent Garden – and it was a symphony of delicious treats and unusual teas.
Covent Garden based hotel Middle Eight launched its brand new musically themed afternoon tea in March this year.
The afternoon tea is a nod towards the hotel's popular “QT”, where you can listen to live music over food and drink.
The afternoon tea has been created by Head Pastry Chef and former Bake Off: The Professionals semi-finalist Clanny Rodrigues.
For £45 per person you can have the musically-inspired tea, which comes with a range of savouries, five sweet treats, two scones and a selection of teas to choose from.
For £55 you can upgrade to have a glass of fizz with your afternoon tea, perhaps for a special occasion.
Middle Eight is a short walk from Covent Garden, with its nearest tube station being Holborn and nearest rail station being Charing Cross.
The afternoon tea is hosted in the lounge area upstairs, which has a very modern, open and relaxed feel to enjoy your afternoon tea.
Our server introduced himself and began by pouring us a glass of fizz as we browsed through the many tea options on offer on the menu.
It was the first time I’ve ever had an afternoon tea experience where the teas are treated like fine wines.
Our knowledgeable server talked through some options that he would recommend to be paired with our savoury options and then with our sweets.
In the past when I’ve been for an afternoon tea I’ve always just opted for the classic English Breakfast or Earl Grey options.
However, I was feeling more adventurous and tried a few different tea options, and I can say I think I’m definitely a convert.
To accompany my savoury options I was recommended to try the Organic Abruzzo Olive Leaf tea which is made, not surprisingly, with olive leaves.
But I was very surprised, the warming blend of olive leaves really brought out the flavours in the savoury options.
To accompany my sweet treats I chose the Chelsea Rose tea, which had a delicate floral taste that really brought out the sweet flavours of my treats.
The savouries were a selection of sandwiches including classic options like salmon and cream cheese, coronation chicken and a grilled vegetables option.
We also had a sausage roll which was made using locally sourced meat and had very good, flaky pastry.
This was then accompanied by two warm scones, one vanilla and one fruit, served with jam and clotted cream.
The afternoon tea takes a very traditional route in this respect and doesn’t stray away too much from the classic options you would expect.
However, the sweet treats are where the experimental flair of the Head Chef really does show and it's where the show really starts.
Each person has five sweet treats on offer, with a mix of flavours including chocolate, citrus, vanilla and fruity.
Each sweet treat had some reference to a musical instrument to decorate them, I could see this afternoon tea being a great option for any music lover.
My personal favourite was the Blood Orange Opera, which was a citrus panna cotta with layers of blood orange jelly. It had great flavours and went really well with the creaminess of the pannacotta.
The Treble Clef Treat was a pistachio macaroon with a buttercream and roasted praline centre, which featured a design of a treble clef in chocolate.
The Hazelnut Harmony was a chocolate covered hazelnut éclair finished with a decorative piano keyboard made from icing.
The sweet treats also included some sharper tastes in the form of the To the Beat lemon meringue tart.
Finally, I finished off with the Strike a Chord cake, which was a small almond cake with a centre filled with raspberries and topped with gold leaf, and was topped off with a decoration of guitar shaped chocolate.
I tried every option and I can attest that each one had so much flavour, and I really loved the variety on offer.
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It had so much attention to detail, from the tea recommendations to the finishing touches on the sweet treats, and I really enjoyed the experience.
All in all, I would highly recommend this afternoon tea for anyone who enjoys trying out novelty and themed afternoon teas.
It was a symphony of tastes and it would be one I’d revisit again in the future.
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