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Traditional Afternoon Tea Experience At Fortnum & Mason, London

December 20, 2018

Fortnum & Mason is an institution in London. This iconic department store was established way back in 1707 by William Fortnum and Hugh Mason who had connections with the royal family and over the years, this store has become a London landmark. It also helps that the store sells some of the finest goods in the city or perhaps even the country but what is truly iconic about Fortnum & Mason is their Afternoon Tea. 

Fortnum & Mason Afternoon Tea

Fortnum & Mason Afternoon Tea

Fortnums Afternoon Tea again has a long history. It was started in 1926 at the elegant Tea Salon now named the Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon in honour of the Queen’s visit in 2012, when she formally opened the room, in the company of the Duchess of Cornwall and the Duchess of Cambridge.

The thing with the Afternoon Tea is that it is so popular you need to book way in advance to secure a table. I tried going there once in summer with my friend on a weekend and we were politely refused because we did not have a reservation but most importantly, they did not have any place for the next one month. Yes, it is that busy. Also, you cannot sit there forever. There is a time limit of 1.5 hours which means that for 90 minutes that start from the time you are seated, you can order as much food and refills as you want to from your choice of the menu. If you want to go there, you better go with an empty tummy. 

Fortnum & Mason Afternoon Tea

There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea

— Henry James

So what is about Fortnums Afternoon Tea that makes it so popular? Well, firstly, the location is really fancy so you feel rather fancy yourself. The Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon is an extremely elegant and refined setting for the tea. As soon as the elevator door opens to the salon, it becomes clear that you are in for a delightful experience. Because of the festive season, the salon is now decorated beautifully. There is a big Christmas tree in the waiting area and a pianist playing a grand piano. 

Fortnum & Mason Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon

Fortnum & Mason Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon

There are two areas where you can be seated – the Drawing Room, lined with hand-painted silk wallpaper or the North and South Salons oozing charm and sophistication. The colours of Fortnum, pale green and white are everywhere, from the decor to the china and cutlery.  

Fortnum & Mason Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon

Fortnum & Mason Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon

The Afternoon Tea is not just limited to the afternoon. It is available the entire day from 11.30 a.m to 7.30 p.m on weekdays and 11.00 a.m to 7.00 pm on Saturdays and you can choose from four options – Afternoon Tea, Savoury Afternoon Tea, High Tea and Vegetarian Afternoon Tea. 

We were a group of four who went for the Tea experience at 11 a.m on a Saturday morning and after much deliberation, two of us decided to go for the Afternoon Tea and the remaining two went for the Savoury Tea. In my opinion, go for the regular Afternoon Tea instead of the Savoury version because you get a good mix of both sweet and savoury items in the former. My friend I think regretted his choice a bit because he was constantly eating out of our share and asking me to order for more. This is perfectly acceptable because you can order as much as you want to for a duration of 1.5 hours. 

Fortnum & Mason Afternoon Tea Menu

What is in the menu? You get a selection of finger sandwiches, scones with clotted cream (savoury scones in the Savoury Tea menu), strawberry preserve and lemon curd and a selection of tea cakes and cakes from the cake carriage (tea savouries in the Savoury version) along with your choice of tea. For an extra £13 per glass, you can also order champagne. 

Fortnum & Mason Afternoon Tea

Fortnum & Mason Afternoon Tea

Afternoon tea has always been a rather elaborate affair in England and I got to know that there are rules associated with it. I’ve never been one to care for rules but these are rather fascinating. For starters, milk is always supposed to be added last to the tea, the correct way to hold the fine china is by making your thumb and index finger meet in the handle, tea should be stirred only with a back and forth motion, finger sandwiches must always be eaten with the hands, not cutlery, scones are pronounced as ‘skon’ and never ‘skone’, scones are always broken, not cut and they are never to be sandwiched back together . I might not have followed all these rules to the T at Fortnums but who really cares? Right? 🙂

Fortnum & Mason Afternoon Tea

Fortnum & Mason Afternoon Tea

Coming back to the menu, the star for me was definitely the sandwiches especially the Smoked Salmon with Tartare dressing and the Suffolf Ham with English Mustard. Incredibly soft and light, these were heavenly. The scones were undoubtedly the best I’ve ever had. I am not particularly fond of lemon curd but I do love my scones with clotted cream and strawberry preserve and I might have had one too many. The good thing is that you can even take back the jars of preserve and lemon curd if you are unable to finish at the table. In fact you can take back anything from the menu that you are not able to finish. The servers will gladly pack the leftovers in a fancy F&M box and hand it over before you leave. 

Savoury Afternoon Tea

Savoury Afternoon Tea

Fortnum & Mason Afternoon Tea

Fortnum & Mason Afternoon Tea

From the tea cake selection, my favourite was definitely the Black Forest cake and a light as air cake with sugar rose petals on top. I was told that it is the Queen’s favourite as well. Not wanting to miss out on anything despite struggling to eat another morsel, I tried the Victorian Sponge cake, Battenberg cake and the Chocolate cake from the Cake Carriage. The Battenberg cake has been served with the Afternoon Tea since 1926 and is said to be created to celebrate the marriage of Princess Victoria to Prince Louis of Battenberg in 1884. This colourful cake with iced marzipan was a bit too sweet for my taste but everyone else loved it. Throughout my 1.5 hrs, I made sure to try as many varieties of tea as I could and ended up drinking chocolate violet, peach, vanilla and strawberry with the latter being the best of them all.

Fortnum & Mason Battenberg Cake

Fortnum & Mason Battenberg Cake

Fortnum & Mason Rose Cake

Fortnum & Mason Rose Cake

Fortnum & Mason Victoria Sponge Cake

Fortnum & Mason Victoria Sponge Cake

Overall, I loved the experience and I cannot thank the person who invited me there enough. Savouring the famous Fortnum & Mason Afternoon Tea was on my wish list for a long time and it certainly did not disappoint. The service was impeccable, the food was beyond amazing and the staff, super friendly and helpful. I will certainly go back if I am in London again and I will click much better photographs 🙂

Fortnum’s Afternoon Tea

Served with your choice of Fortnum’s Famous Blends £52.50
Served with your choice of Rare Tea £56.50

 

Have you been to Fortnum & Mason? What did you think of the Afternoon Tea?

 

Filed Under: Lifestyle Tagged With: afternoon tea london, fortnum & mason, fortnum and mason, fortnum and mason afternoon tea, fortnum and mason afternoon tea refill, fortnum and mason london, fortnum and mason tea review, fortnum's afternoon tea, fortnum's afternoon tea experience, Indian Travel Blog, Kolkata Blog, Kolkata Blogger, Travel, Travel Blog

Fabelle As You Name It – Create Your Own Chocolate Cup & Name It After Yourself

August 7, 2017

The title of the post says it all right? For chocoholics, this is a great opportunity to be part of Fabelle’s chocolate journey in India. The Fabelle As You Name It campaign is a one of a kind offering from the brand to engage us, the chocolate lovers. 

Fabelle-As-You-Name-It

Fabelle As You Name It

 

Continue Reading . . .

 

Filed Under: Lifestyle Tagged With: Buy Fabelle Chocolates, Fabelle, fabelle as you name it, Fabelle Chocolate Boutique, fabelle chocolate boutique kolkata, fabelle chocolate boutique mumbai, fabelle chocolate online, fabelle chocolate price, fabelle chocolates, fabelle chocolates online, fabelle chocolates website, fabelle elements, fabelle itc sonar, fabelle kolkata, fabelle price, Food Blog, itc fabelle, Kolkata, Kolkata Blog, Kolkata Blogger, Price of Fabelle Chocolates

Make Raksha Bandhan Special This Year With My Fabelle Box

August 1, 2017

When I was nine years old, my dad went to Canada. Before leaving, he asked me what I wanted him to get for me and my answer was very simple. I said “Get me a lot of chocolate”. When he returned, apart from a lot of other things, he got a big duffle bag full of chocolate. And I finished each and every one of them. Yes, that is how much I love chocolate and everyone in my family knows that. On Raksha Bandhan, a box of chocolate is a standard gift amongst other things from my brother and I know it is the same for many of you with siblings. This year, why not make Raksha Bandhan even more special for that “one enemy we can’t live without”? Fabelle Chocolates from ITC has come out with “My Fabelle Box”, conceptualized only for the occasion of Raksha Bandhan.

My Fabelle Box

Fabelle Elements

Continue Reading . . .

 

Filed Under: Lifestyle Tagged With: Buy Fabelle Chocolates, Fabelle, Fabelle Chocolate Boutique, fabelle chocolate boutique kolkata, fabelle chocolate boutique mumbai, fabelle chocolate online, fabelle chocolate price, fabelle chocolates, fabelle chocolates menu. my fabelle box, fabelle chocolates online, fabelle chocolates website, fabelle elements, fabelle itc sonar, fabelle kolkata, fabelle price, fabelle raksha bandhan offer, Food Blog, itc fabelle, Kolkata, Kolkata Blog, Kolkata Blogger, Price of Fabelle Chocolates

The Beer Mrkt Comes To Monkey Bar Kolkata

July 13, 2017

Make way for beer cocktails, draught friendly fries, chicken wings and beer bellies. Monkey Bar Kolkata has got the Beer Mrkt in town and it is here to stay till September.

Beer Mrkt Cocktails

Beer Mrkt Cocktails

Beer Mrkt Cocktails

The words ‘beer’ and ‘cocktail’ together makes most people wince and that is exactly what Monkey Bar wants to change. They want to show that beer is a great drink not only on its own but also when mixed with other ingredients. They have come up with seven concoctions that include the popular ‘Shandy’ (beer and lemonade) and other cocktails with fun names like ‘Beer Bong’ (beer and dark rum), ‘Bloody Roman’ (the beer version of Bloody Mary) , ‘Monkey Mule’ (beer, vodka, ginger ale, lime and mint) etc. I tried two from the menu – Beergarita which is beer, tequila and lime juice. The other cocktail is more mild and a perfect brunch drink – Beermosa with beer, orange juice and sparking wine. All of these cocktails are priced really well and are within the Rs 250-Rs 300 range. 

Beer Mrket Cocktails

Beer Mrkt Cocktails

Beer Mrkt Food

With beer, you definitely need meat and something fried to munch on. The Beer Mrkt menu has five types of fries and chicken wings flavoured in six types of sauce. The fries are topped with cheese and other good stuff like mushroom, baked beans etc for the vegetarians and chicken and ham for the carnivores. For the chicken wings fans, you get to choose from hot sauce, bbq sauce, Caribbean jerk sauce,  sticky Korean sauce, hot n’sour sauce and honey mustard. Hard to pick a favourite because all of them compliment the wings so well. The fries are in the Rs 180-Rs 220 price range. The wings are priced at Rs 280 each. 

Beer Mkt Food

Beer Mkt Food

Hot and Sour Wings

Honey Mustard chicken wings

There’s nothing like a glass of chilled beer on a hot summer day. There’s nothing like a refreshing beer cocktail on a hot day either. And if it is raining outside, add some fries, chicken wings and go hic hic hurray!! 🙂

 

I was invited by the Management to dine at the restaurant for review purpose.

Chicken Wings pic source – Monkey Bar Kolkata

 

Filed Under: Food Tagged With: beer cocktails, beer market monkey bar, fort knox kolkata, Kolkata Blog, Kolkata Blogger, Kolkata Food Blog, Kolkata Food Blogger, Kolkata Lifestyle Blog, Kolkata Restaurant, Monkey Bar, monkey bar beer market, Monkey Bar Kolkata, monkey bar kolkata beer market, monkey bar kolkata happy hours, Monkey Bar Kolkata Menu, monkey bar kolkata zomato, monkey bar menu

Geelee Mitti – Pure Essential Oils For Beauty & Wellness

July 10, 2017

Recently I got introduced to the brand Geelee Mitti started by an entrepreneur from Kolkata, Sonia Kapur. I met Sonia last month and we got talking about beauty and wellness, her inspiration to start Geelee Mitti and of course her products. Sonia is a firm believer in the properties of essential oils and the fact that natural ingredients work best on the skin and hair. This led her to experiment with various herbs and flowers and come up with a collection of pure, therapeutic essential oils. 

Geelee Mitti Essential Oils

Geelee Mitti Essential Oils

About Geelee Mitti

Our products target specific skin concerns and are beneficial for physical and emotional well-being too. The products are not tested on animals, are chemical free, made with ingredients sourced from organic farms and do not have artificial fragrance. 

To know more about the brand, check out their Facebook page. 

Continue Reading . . .

 

Filed Under: Beauty, Skincare Tagged With: Beauty, Beauty Blog, Beauty Blogger, essential oils, essential oils for beauty, essential oils for hair, essential oils for skin, essential oils for skincare, essential oils for wellness, geelee mitti, geelee mitti essential oils, geelee mitti kolkata, Kolkata Beauty Blog, Kolkata Beauty Blogger, Kolkata Blog

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Hello there, I am Dolon and this is my blog about beauty, food, travel and lifestyle. I hope you like what you see here :)

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