English Afternoon Tea

I've never really had the pleasure of enjoying a 'proper' English aternoon tea. I guess there's still something nostalgic about drinking tea from proper teacups and being served a selection of delicately prepared sandwiches and pastries from a three-tiered cake stand. I've seen many people queue outside Betty's in York, eagerly awaiting the novelty of experiencing something that is somewhat of a tradition of the past.

I finally got the chance to have an afternoon tea with my parents. Thanks to mum, and thanks to GroupOn. The three of us shared an afternoon tea for two at 2 o'clock in the afternoon.  The only twist is that it wasn't quite as British as you would have thought. Firstly, it was in a French cafe. 

My mum had tea:

But I had hot chocolate (it was way too cold outside):

The tradional stand was beautifully laden with delicious goodies...but may be not so tradional in the content:

We could choose three types of sandwiches from a choice of turkey, ham, tuna and cheese. We decided against the turkey; may be as Christmas is coming up and we'll already be having our fairshare of roasted turkey. These sandwiches came with the crusts and was cut into soldiers, as oposed to thin slices of crustless bread, cut into triangular segments. And with no sign of cucumber. However, they were still delicious in their own way!

 
There was no sign of any clotted cream or scone, but two types of crossiant; a savoury one and a sweet one. I wasn't entirely sure what was inside ether of them, but the savoury on was by far the best thing on the stand.

Finally, the creme de la creme, on the top were the tarts. Not the best things that I've tasted, but still ok! I think that I'm more of a savoury person these days than the sweet!

So, for those of you who haven't tried an English Afternoon Tea,...it's well worth it. Not just for the food, or experience, but for the company as well. 

Good times!