Coffee Break: Mad Hatters Tea Room, Chester

When you find yourself stuck on a rainy ‘summer’ Sunday afternoon, you’ve got two choices. You can either stay home and wait for the clouds to pass or you can go out and brave the storm for a slice of cake. And you know any option with cake is the right one.

That's exactly what we did last month on a day out in Chester when we came across the super-cute Mad Hatters Tea Room. Located on the The Rows, this tea room's cosy setting and colourful display of cupcakes made it the ideal place to get out of the drizzle and indulge.

On this occasion we opted for Harry's hot chocolate - with marshmallows and cream obviously - and a couple of rainbow sprinkled vanilla cupcakes. Absolutely amazing, the best cupcakes we've had in a long time and you can even buy some of your own hot chocolate to try at home. 

As the name may suggest, there are plenty of Alice-themed accents throughout for any Wonderland fans out there from the special Afternoon Tea names to the rustic menus - we will definitely be back soon to try The Red Queen's Afternoon Tea (priced at £20pp). 

The Mad Hatters Tea Room is open 7 days a week. For more info and to check out menus visit their website.

http://www.madhatterstearooms.co.uk/

National Chocolate Week with Whittard

Tis the season to eat chocolate! Before you write us off for being prematurely excited about the arrival of, dare we say it, Christmas, we are of course referring to the one week of the year where we're actively encouraged to eat chocolate and indulge to our hearts' desire - Chocolate Week! 

To celebrate, the beautiful people at Whittard sent us the most glorious selection of chocolate treats to ensure we did Chocolate Week in style. But we're not just talking any old hot chocolate, Whittard have gotten very creative and delivered a selection of chocolate beverages that are to leave you with the most worthwhile guilty conscious you've ever had. 

From the collection we tried; 70% Cocoa, Rocky Road, Caramel, White Chocolate and we kid you not - white chocolate tea. Yes this exists. 

To start we went with the Classic Cocoa - so so chocolately, it tastes like pure luxury. Next was the Caramel - this one is very sweet so if you're used to a nice dollop of caramel syrup in your coffee, this is the one to try. Then Rocky Road - again so full of flavour and topped off with some mini marshmallows you definitely get that textured, rocky experience. 

Now we're giving White Chocolate its own little paragraph because it needs it. Oh. Dear. Lord. This was actually heaven in a cup. Yeah sure we've had white hot choc before but imagine a Milky Bar, melted and served to you as a drink. This is it. It's so smooth and not at all heavy. Just A-mazing. 

Now for those of you who would rather a cuppa over a hot chocolate, the White Chocolate tea offers an alternative that lets you have the best of both worlds. Let it brew for just a few minutes and serve as it is. It is quite sweet and a very unusual taste but very drinkable. You'll notice a sort of shiny lining appear at the top which, as we learned at Paul Young's Afternoon Tea event earlier this month, is actually the coco nib. You probably couldn't drink this every day but it's a very unique blend and definitely one we would recommend giving a try.

Overall this was a delectable mix of chocolate treats and we can't wait for the weather to get a little frostier so we can wrap up in wooly jumpers and try them all again. If you're a chocolate lover or maybe just want to partake in the Chocolate Week festivities with a bit of luxury, look no further. 

For more info visit www.whittard.co.uk and if you've got any chocolately recommendations this #ChocolateWeek tweet us at @TeacupReview. 

Cake Break: Il Cappuccio, Widnes

Searching for a good place for lunch after a busy morning atmy local newspaper, I hopped out of the rain into this lovely coffee shop, IlCappuccio. The café is a lovely mix of modern, traditional and Italian withleather interiors, cute tea sets and countless types of hot beverages.

To warm my rain soaked self, I ordered cream of tomato soupand a latte. I was pleasantly surprised with the extra effort that went withthis simple dish which was wonderfully presented with a sprinkling of herbs anda warm crusty roll. Delish!

My cake-less coffee shop lunch cost just under £5. IlCappuccio isn’t really about the cake – just good surroundings, good coffeeand yummy food.

(Laura)