There’s nothing quite like that feeling of delight when you find a kindred spirit. I knew I’d found a whole room of them at the #LDNBloggersTea when our delicious afternoon tea was served and, instead of diving straight in, we all whipped out our cameras and phones and began snapping away!
Twenty bloggers converged on the Royal Horseguards Guoman Hotel in Embankment on a beautifully sunny Sunday afternoon for the second #LDNBloggersTea organised by the lovely Selena of Oh, The Places We Will Go! I couldn’t make the last one so I was so happy to be able to meet a whole lot of wonderful new blogger friends, and spend time with some equally wonderful ladies I’d met before.
And then there was the afternoon tea. The fantastic Chef Ben had been tweeting all week – if you don’t follow him already, definitely do! – so anticipation was high as we walked into our private terrace room. Being greeted with a chilled glass of champagne is a great way to kick things off, and the delights kept coming when we took our seats and the gorgeous stands of goodies were brought out.
Instagram time!
The sandwiches were delicious but let’s be honest, they aren’t generally the make-or-break of an afternoon tea. That honour falls to the sweet plates and, my goodness, did Chef Ben and his team deliver. These were easily the best dairy-free scones I’ve ever had – light and fluffy, I wolfed them down. This led to the catastrophic situation of being nearly too full for my own personal plate of dairy-free sweets, but in the interests of research I tasted a bit of each, in between swapping blogging and life stories with the fabulous Jess, Ngaire, Melanie, Geraldine and Jaklien whom I was seated with.
I didn’t join in the great cream-or-jam-first debate of 2014 – but I was still happy!
Chef Ben had us in the palms of his hands… his delicious-pastry producing hands! He explained to us how Royal Horseguards keeps their afternoon teas seasonal and also plays with flavours – so the Persian Pomegranate tea, a favourite with many, was echoed in the sweet treats. Such a great idea!
I get to eat MORE?!
A whole lotta love for this delicious afternoon tea!
As a final flourish, Royal Horseguards provided us with goodie boxes to take home the many leftovers, and a bag of truffles each – except lucky me, who got my own bag of the passionfruit and raspberry meringues, and a bag of truffles for the grateful flatmates!
For more by the other bloggers who attended, including some of the many, many great photos taken during the afternoon, check out Selena’s link-up here. A massive thanks to Selena for organising, and Chef Ben and the Royal Horseguards for hosting a lovely afternoon. Also a big thanks to London for putting on this beautiful day – it was so nice to see some sunshine!
Please note, this was not a complimentary tea. All effusiveness in the post is generated purely from how awesome the afternoon was!
