Christmas Unwrapped at InterContinental London Park Lane

Seasonal fizz.

If there are two things that make us feel magical in this world, it’s afternoon tea and ‘The most wonderful time of the year’ … Christmas! Put them both together and you’ve got us set up for a pretty perfect December afternoon. We headed to London as an early festive gift (to us, love us) for the InterContinental London Park Lane’s Christmas Unwrapped afternoon tea. Here's what we thought ...

Taking place in the Wellington Lounge, the setting is both luxurious but relaxed enough to make you feel at home. To get us a feeling merry we began with a seasonal cocktail before proceeding to inhale around 10 cups of accompanying teas – more of that later.

Christmas Unwrapped menu.

Delicately modelled on the traditional Christmas fayre, the savoury tier has got all of your festive favourites lined up in miniature form. Starting with a stilton, chestnut and walnut vol-au-vent and honey roasted root vegetable, complete with gravy, this already felt like the real thing. Followed by a selection of open style sandwiches including turkey, sage and onion stuffing and smoked salmon, crayfish and prawns in Marie Rose sauce accompanied by everyone’s favourite Christmas trimming  - pigs in blankets. Each one was thoughtful and beautifully presented. We couldn’t help but ask for seconds!

A Christmas twist.

Each tier came out separately to keep everything nice and fresh which was particularly good news for the seasonal-scones, which arrived next. The warm Christmas spice and orange peel scones were festive but subtle and went well with the Devonshire Clotted Cream and orange-liquor curd.

Festive favourites.

Mini roasted root vegetable pie.

Of course we would be lying if we said the real selling point of this tea wasn’t the beautiful Christmas gift presentation of desserts that had our appetite’s whet from the first time we laid eyes on it back in October. The InterContinental Hotels are always at the top of their game for presentation – check out this Chelsea Flower Show themed tea we tried at the Intercontinental Westminster hotel – so we were pretty excited by this one. Arriving in a clear presentation box complete with red bow detail we each eagerly pulled at the ribbon to unwrap an enviable selection of themed desserts. Starting with a classic chocolate Yule log sprinkled with glitter we indulged in spiced apple pie (just delicious, by the way), miniature Christmas tree mousse with just adorable attention to detail and of course finally, no Christmas experience would be complete without it – mini Christmas cake.

Seasonal scones.

Now we’ve often pointed out in our various tea outings that despite it being in the name, the actual ‘tea’ is sometimes overlooked. However for this special menu, tea was truly at the heart with a carefully thought out selection of tea flavours that complimented each layer – special thank you to Luigi Vergura for his tea blending expertise!

Tea with thought.

To start we has the Smoky Ceylon made with Ceylon, Lapsang Souchong and Juniper berries which just had the most amazing cosy fireplace feel to it. Shortly followed by the signature Spicy No. 1 Park Lane fused with warming liquorice and cinnamon notes. A more subtle Ayurvedic Harmony blend with rose petal, fennel seeds, cinnamon and ginger, offered a more relaxing feel, perfect for winding down with dessert and then finally Xmas Red Berries with a twist of fresh orange peel. These teas flowed perfectly throughout the meal and made for a delectable experience that really brought all the senses to life and played with Christmas nostalgia.

Underneath the Christmas tree.

The perfect Christmas Gift? Yep.

Overall this was wonderful experience filled with great food, tea and atmosphere. The service at this hotel is fantastic and we were made to feel right at home with teacups topped up and offerings of seconds. If you’re looking to treat someone special this Christmas or New Year – even just yourself – this should be at the top of your Christmas list.

Where to start?

Christmas Unwrapped at InterContinental London Park Lane is available until 3^rd January 2016 and priced at £42pp. For more information and to book visit: www.wellington-lounge.co.uk

Afternoon tea was provided to us for review purposes, but as usual, all thoughts and opinions are our own. Prices correct as of December 2015. 

Tea Break: The Afternoon Tea Club Reviews teapigs Spiced Winter Red Tea

If you're feeling the post Christmas blues already - it's always over far too soon! - then get the winter warmer feeling back with a cup of teapigs Spiced Winter Red Tea.

teapigs in a festive mug - what else?!

teapigs has quickly become one of our fave stay-at-home tea brands so we were very excited to try their festive offering when we spotted it on the shelves this Christmas. 

Before the tea has hit a splash of water, the aroma already makes you feel warm and fuzzy. 

Let the tea brew for a good few minutes, add milk if you wish and just take in that wonderful spicy scent. 

Once sipped, one thing we did notice about this tea is that the flavour doesn't quite match the strong fragrance. It's actually quite a light tasting tea in comparison but this makes it all the more pleasant as it's not too overpowering.

teapigs spiced winter red tea

This blend is the perfect winter relaxer, caffeine free and boasts a gorgeous aroma that will make the festive period feel just that little bit longer.

For more info on teapigs visit: www.teapigs.co.uk 

Winter Warmers #1: Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte

It's that time of year again! Bring on the winter woolies, cosy coats and of course seasonal menus at our favourite high street coffee houses. With so many to choose from this year, we thought we would make things easy for you by giving them all a test run to see which blends get the ATC seal of approval. Oh we are good to you! 

First on our hit list was Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte. This autumnal treat has been around for some time now and is so popular it's racked up nearly 30,000 tweets since 2012 featuring its very own hashtag #pumpkinspice - impressive!

So to see what all of the fuss was about we headed to our favourite Starbucks shop and ordered ourselves a couple of these pumpkin themed delights. 

The latte is extremely frothy when taken with cream, so be careful not to spill - I think this was partly our fault due to spending so long taking photos!

The drink itself is really yummy. The pumpkin flavour is quite subtle but you can feel the spicy notes which warmed us up just nicely on what was a particularly cold Manchester evening. 

There's nutmeg and cinnamon in there too and for those of you with a sweet tooth the added cream will do just the trick, adding a sugary finish.

We can see why the drink has so many fans and would definitely recommend as a classic winter warmer this Christmas. 

The Pumpkin Spice Latte is available at Starbucks throughout Autumn for around £2.50.