I’m definitely not the only one that is excited about the much anticipated remake of the Mary Poppins movie. London is coming together with carpet bags, floating umbrellas and a whimsical of fantastic Mary Poppins themed experiences to get us in the spirit. You will need to bring your carpet bag on this occasion, because the afternoon tea at the Taj 51 Buckingham Gate is so good, you will want to pack it up and take it home. Don’t forget your levitating umbrella either, you’ll have to get home some how after all that indulgence. Mary Poppins thinks of everything, doesn’t she?!
Arriving into the 5-star Taj hotel, we were seated at our perfectly decorated table, with all things Mary Poppins related. How pretty is this layout?!
Our lovely waitress came and took our tea order first. With over 20 different types of teas it was hard to choose, except when you spot ‘Masala Chai’ on the menu and your inner Indian comes out. My sister and I both couldn’t hold back from enjoying a well-made, classic masala chai. Credits to the Taj for having it on their menu.
As we waited for your tea, we were brought over a ‘drink on wheels’ which was made with creamy mango lassi, topped with marbled brownies, a chocolate baton, vanilla cream and macaron lollies. It was so well presented, all the other guests around us turned to our table and had the same ‘WOW!’ expression as we did. It did look pretty phenomenal but it tasted even better. This just set the afternoon tea bar quite high, but was the rest of it just as magical? I guess you will find out soon.
Our piping hot tea arrived and it was just perfect, lightly spiced with cardamom, ginger, clove, black pepper, star anise and cinnamon with lashing of milk, it just needed a cube or two of sugar and we were well on our way to a ‘karak’ chai.
We were served up a selection of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious pastries and sandwiches to enjoy. Starting with an open face pie with roasted chicken mousse & kalamata olives, roast beef and horseradish cream cheese on brioche with English mustard, thyme grilled vegetables & tomato chutney on carrot bread, Cornish yarg cheese with cucumber & red currant jelly on tomato bread and ratatouille on rye bread to replace our salmon sandwich. Each of the savouries were delicious, but we had to pace ourselves, for the scones and sweet treats to come.
The large serving of six scones arrived with a mixture of plain infused with orange and ones that were filled with chocolate chips, served with Devonshire clotted cream & homemade fig preserve. I’m a huge fan of figs, so the sweet fig preserve was the perfect accompaniment to the soft, warm scones. I also like the fact the scones weren’t traditional, with so many afternoon teas in London, it’s nice to have a twist on what everyone else serves. Therefore, I throughly enjoyed both the orange and the chocolate chip scones – another big tick for Taj 51 Buckingham Gate.
Another ‘WOW!’ moment was when the carousel of sweet treats came out. It was brimming with much more than just a spoonful of sugar, that’s for sure.
On one side of the carousel there was the ‘The Magic Umbrella’ made with banana and passion fruit compote on chocolate sphere, ’17 Cherry Lane’ made with pistachio & fraise des bois tower with strawberry flavoured meringue, ‘Spoonful of sugar’ made from mini strawberry & rose flavoured fromage gateaux on decorative mock-chocolate spoon and ‘Carousal’ made from crunchy coconut dacquoise on mango & coconut bavarois.
On the other side, there was the ‘Jacket & Bow’ made with pineapple, red currant & raspberry mousse on striped almond sponge and ‘Mary’s Hat’ made salted caramel ganache with crumble hazelnut genoise.
Each of the pastries were hand-crafted and were made to perfection. All of the little details made it practically perfect in every way.
If you haven’t been to the Taj 51 Buckingham Gate yet, you must. Their afternoon teas are to die for and you will be leaving singing and dancing I can assure you.
Until next time…
