In case you hadn’t heard, it’s National Afternoon Tea Week here in the UK and we’ve been celebrating in style with an afternoon tea with a difference! Covent Garden based BB Bakery recently bought an old Routemaster double decker bus and converted it into a rather fun venue for afternoon tea – a venue that moves!
As you enjoy your afternoon tea, the BB Bus tours some of London’s famous landmarks, making other commuters with their old-fashioned non-afternoon-tea transportation very jealous indeed!
Of course, eating and drinking in a moving vehicle does present challenges, so this is a little different from the average afternoon tea. Freshly squeezed orange juice comes in little bottles with lids and the tea itself is served in ceramic versions of takeaway coffee cups with rubber lids. The cups fit neatly into recessed cup holders in the tables and (mostly) keep everything quite secure. We did encounter one or two challenging “bumps” in the road, but that was really all part of the fun.
The food was very pleasant, with most of the meal laid out beforehand (being a waiter on a moving bus is another callenge!). There were little sandwiches, savouries and a nice selection of sweet treats to go with the tea, including this tempting little chocolate tart.
But of course, the best part of the experience is watching London go buy while you sit in comfort. There can’t be many afternoon teas where you get constantly changing views like this!
I had a fantastic time on the bus, but there were a few minor issues with it that I’m sure the BB team can resolve in time.
The biggest of those was with the tea. A selection of Tea Pigs teabags was available, which are Ok, but not the greatest teas in the world. A bigger problem was with the cups themselves. Drinking tea through a mug with a rubber lid isn’t a great experience and ends up just making the tea taste of rubber. Milk was presented in those little UHT cartons, so I opted to have mine black and risk drinking it without the lid.
I would have also liked to have had some form of commentary on the tour itself. I like the fact that we were mostly left in peace to eat and chat, but it would have been great to have a few landmarks pointed out.
That aside, the Afternoon Tea Bus Tour is a thoroughly enjoyable experience. By it’s nature, it’s not the most refined afternoon tea experience, but shared with a group it’s a whole lot of fun. The challenge of eating and drinking while moving becomes part of the entertainment.
The BB Bakery Afternoon Tea Bus Tour costs £45 per person. Thanks to AfternoonTea.co.uk for arranging this press trip and organising National Afternoon Tea Week!
I met Sarah Barber, Head Pastry Chef at ME London at a recent Valrhona event where her black forest Christmas bûche was a clear favourite. After the event, Sarah was kind enough to invite us to afternoon tea at ME London to try some more of her creations. Given that this Monday marks the start of National Afternoon Tea Week it was an offer we could hardly refuse!
You might not know it from the modest entrance on The Strand, but ME London is a modern and stylish five star hotel with a strong emphasis on design. The Marconi Lounge, located in the main lobby is a vision in black and white, with angular chrome poles making it a somewhat intense place to enjoy afternoon tea.
The hotel’s afternoon teas are themed around the season, with the current theme being “Strawberries & Cream”. However, even before we began, Sarah first treated us to a preview of some of the patisserie that will form autumn’s afternoon tea; a wonderful spiced Sacher cake with star anise and a wonderfully tangy black forest swiss roll with popping candy that evoked memories of the bûche she created with her team for the Valrhona event.
The Main Event
The chocolate cakes were delicious, but after ordering our teas and a glass of Champagne, it was time for the main event; the summer themed Strawberries & Cream tea. As you can see, it was quite spectacular!
Of course there was tea (I had a lovely Earl Grey) and there were sandwiches (the smoked salmon was rather nice) and some rather delicious plain and sultana scones, but we were there for the sweet stuff.
And so to the “cake” course. Clockwise from the top, we have:
Lemon mousse with vanilla yoghurt cream, fresh wild strawberries
A deliciously light and fresh lemon mousse with tiny wild strawberries and strawberry sauce is a pipette.
Strawberries & Cream macaron with strawberry crispies
A light and moist macaron with a strawberry and vanilla ganache made with Valrhona Opayls.
Lemon curd tartlet, wild strawberry mousse, strawberry glaze
Decorated with mini sugar flowers, micro mint and fraise de bois (wild strawberries).
Strawberry Choux bun with vanilla cremeux & Almond crumble
A deliciously soft (and bright red) choux bun with a creamy filling.
Despite the fact that I tend to prefer rich and chocolatey flavours to the sweetness of strawberry, I thoroughly enjoyed this afternoon tea. The sweetness of flavour was balanced perfectly by lightness of texture. The presentation, atmosphere and service were all spot on and it’s just £29 per person, it’s great value too.
Sarah was kind enough to give us a tour of the hotel’s three other restuarants, STK, Cucina Asellina and Radio with its panoramic views of London. Each space is unique and spectacular, and I was struck by the quantity and quality of work that Sarah and her team do. I can’t wait to go back.
ME London Hotel
336-337 The Strand
London WC2R 1HA
Tel: 0207 395 3400
Book through AfternoonTea.co.uk
If you read my recent post about Michel Roux Jr’s recent BBC Programme Chocolate Perfection, you’ll know that I wasn’t altogether happy with the way he completely dismissed British (and international) chocolate makers and chocolatiers, depicting French makers as the best in the world.
As part of the show, Roux visited Cacao Barry’s Or Noir lab, an impressive facility that allows chocolatiers to create unique chocolates that fit their own specific flavour requirements.
By combining cocoa mass samples from origins around the world, Or Noir can create a chocolate with practically any flavour profile. It’s an exciting idea and a place I would love to visit, but there is a part of me that thinks this is quite far away from the more natural process that modern bean-to-bar artisans use when they create chocolate.
I’m used to makers that will search the world for the best beans, treat them with care and coax the best possible flavours from a single origin. But I’m sure there is a place for both approaches and I was interested to try the chocolate Roux created.
Lucky for me, my friend Zoe was sent some samples and shared this small (13g) bar with me.
Roux was apparently going for a chocolate with a slight bitterness, a cocoa flavour and a hint of fruitiness with this chocolate. The skeptic in me thinks that he could have just grabbed a random supermarket brand off the shelf to fit that brief, but in actual fact, this 71% chocolate does match the description quite well.
The texture is smooth and slightly soft suggesting a high cocoa butter content, and has an initial bitterness that slowly gives way to more of a cocoa powder flavour. The fruitiness is very subtle, but is there. Overall, the flavour is pleasant, but this is certainly not a bar of chocolate I would go out and buy.
With those strong cocoa notes, I suspect it would make a great chocolate for baking, or even a couverture for filled chocolates – providing the fillings had interesting flavours of their own. Indeed on the show, Roux cooked with the chocolate rather than simply eating it in bar format.
While there’s nothing wrong with it as a chocolate, it’s just not very interesting. What I can’t say is if that’s down to Roux’s personal tastes or the Or Noir process. And I think the only real way to know that would be to visit Or Noir and make my own chocolate!
Here’s a little collection of filled chocolates by Blackburn based chocolatier Daniel Coletta. Fittingly, these chocolates are from Daniel’s “Afternoon Tea” collection, as next week is National Afternoon Tea Week. You’ll be hearing a lot more than that over the next few days, but what better way to prepare than with a selection of themed chocolates!
Tart Au Citron
A white chocolate sphere with a white chocolate and lemon filling. The filling also seems to contain small pieces of pastry, which give it an unusual texture and a slightly doughy flavour. It’s a little odd, but actually very nice – a little like licking cookie dough out of the bowl.
Toast & Marmalade
A milk chocolate sphere rolled in toasted breadcrumbs with a centre of pure marmalade. I was expecting some kind of marmalade ganache, mixed with chocolate here, so was somewhat surprised to have a mouthful of orange marmalade as the thin shell melted. It’s very nice marmalade, but it’s a little like eating a big spoonful straight out of the jar. I can’t help but think a nice dark chocolate & marmalade ganache would have worked better here both in terms of flavour and texture.
Port & Stilton
A dark chocolate sphere with a dark ganache made with stilton and a hint of port. This one is a little unusual! All the elements are there and can be tasted, but it’s just a little too cheesy for me. I have to confess, I’m not a big stilton fan, but equally, I know people who would love this. One of my favourite chocolatiers, Paul A Young is known for a port & stilton chocolate, and I’m not that keen on that one either!
Bakewell Tart
A simple milk chocolate cup with a Bakewell flavoured filling. This captures the flavour of an actual Bakewell tart quite accurately, but it’s a little sweet for my personal tastes.
Scottish Raspberry Caramel
A square chocolate with a gold finish and a raspberry caramel filling. The filling here is actually more of a thin raspberry jam than a caramel. There’s a good raspberry flavour, but again it’s a little sweet for me. I would have preferred a richer caramel with a just hint of raspberry.
Gin & Tonic
My favourite of the bunch. A simple dark chocolate ganache with subtle flavour. I probably wouldn’t have been able to identify the flavour as gin & tonic had I not been told, but it’s herbaceous and a little citrus and really quite enjoyable. If I had one issue with it it’s that there was quite a bit of air between the filling and the shell. That not only means that you get less, but I’m sure will also have an impact on shelf life.
Overall then, this is a pleasant little collection, but it does lack some of the attention to detail of the higher end artisan chocolates I’ve tried over the years. I didn’t get much of a sense of the actual chocolate used. Daniel is primarily using Belgian chocolate from Callebaut which is a good staple for chocolatiers, but often lacks more nuanced flavours that could be paired with the individual flavours.
I’m sure that with a little tweaking and refinement to the flavours and production process, they could be great. Then again, that would probably have an impact on price – something which can have a huge impact for a small chocolatier. At the moment, they’re the kind of chocolates I would happily consume and share, but they’re not quite at a level where I would buy them as a luxurious gift.
