2teaornot2tea: Superb science themed afternoon tea - Ampersand Hotel

Wednesday 14th October

I went to the Science themed afternoon tea at the Ampersand Hotel as a post Birthday treat from my mum which was so lovely in every way.

I booked it via afternoontea.co.uk as they were doing special half price offer Tuesday to Thursdays up to end of October. It was priced at £22.25 each and worth every penny of that !!!!!

SCIENCE AFTERNOON TEA

Savouries
Smoked salmon & avocado buckwheat blinis
Brioche with roast beef, watercress, cornichons
Chicken with sundried tomato & lemon mayonnaise bun
Seasonal quiche

Homemade white chocolate and cranberry & plain scones
Served with Cornish clotted cream and homemade strawberry preserve
Passion fruit curd in a squeeze tube
Toppings: freeze dried raspberry, freeze dried pineapple, crunchy caramel

Pastries
Pear, ginger & mixed berries jelly in a petri dish
Dark chocolate & caramel planet mousse
Chocolate spaceman
Plum & lime macaron
Coconut & orange half-moon cake
Mini dinosaur biscuit & milk chocolate fossil hidden within chocolate "soil"

It was served in The Drawing room which was small and cosy with lovely velvet and patterned fabric armchairs and sofas. It was a bright and modern decorated room. The tables were nicely laid out with China plates from Villeroy and Boch. My mum always likes to look at the bottom of the plates to see what brand they are.

Once seated the waiter handed us the menu and checked for any allergies. They seemed very accommodating and offered us alternative sandwiches and also made my mums without mayonnaise. We both ordered a cappuccino and glass of tap water. I noticed that there was only one other table in use......so not busy at all. This is surprising as it is such a good deal at half price!!

The waiter brought out a little kidney dish with glass jugs and syringes ... He gave as a little card with instructions on how to make our own lemonade. It was a bit confusing but we managed to make a little jug each with the fruit flavours..... It did not taste that nice but was fun to do. I think if you had children with you they would love making it

After about 15 minutes the afternoon tea stand arrived and we got a whole stand each. I think this was only because we had different sandwiches each as I noticed the other table only got one stand between the two of them.

The waiter explained what was on the stands and then poured water onto a China dish on the top stand to create smoke from dry ice...... Great effect

Once the smoke had stopped we tucked into the sandwiches. I had two chicken ones , a mini quiche and a little brioche beef roll which was lovely . My Mum enjoyed her sandwich choices too . We both thought the quiche was a bit bland however the pastry was nice. I think it would of been nicer if it was warm. We were surprised to be offered more sandwiches which we turned down as wanted to save room for the scones and cakes.

The scones were still slightly warm and we got a white chocolate and cranberry one each plus a plain one. There was a small pot of jam , plenty of clotted cream and a tube of mango puree, This looked like a toothpaste tube and it even had the silver foil seal which you had to piece with the top of the lid.

As if that does not sound nice enough we also got 3 glass test tubes which contained dried raspberry , dried pineapple and salted caramel balls . We sprinkled these on top of the cream and jam on our scones, it gave them a lovely crunch and extra flavour....Delicious and such a good idea !!!!!!!

The white chocolate and cranberry scone was so nice I asked the waiter if we could have another one. He said yes but we had to wait about 15 minutes as they had to bake them fresh for us. It was well worth waiting for and we got some more cream and jam to go with them.

We were now feeling rather full but this did not stop us tucking into the cakes....

First we had the coconut orange moon cake which was nice and had a crumbly texture . The green spaceman was made out of white chocolate. Then we had the jelly in the Petra dish which was OK and went well with the science theme. The macaroon looked and tasted amazing. I loved the little pipette of lemon syrup which you squeezed onto it ...this changed the flavour and went well with the plum and lime flavour . Lastly we had the chocolate ball which looked like a planet with the chocolate ring around it. I thought it was just a hollow ball on a circle of cake but was i wrong......it was a soft creamy chocolate mouse which was really nice.

Once the cakes were gone the waiter placed a small wooden box on our table and informed us that we needed to use the paintbrush to dig inside to find a surprise....

This was a lovely end to a great afternoon tea

We were both very impressed with this afternoon tea . The food was excellent as was the service