Tina

Honestly no-one is being mean. There has been useful advice and many of the posts are by the English reminiscing over the afternoon teas of their childhood, which are in stark contrast to the tea offered by hotels, for which, I admit, the Americans are getting teased.

Frankly forking out £30 for tea and cakes is in no way shape or form an English tradition.

No offence was meant or taken regarding high tea. To explain

Cream Tea=Tea and cream cakes taken pretty much anytime in the afternoon, generally in a tea room. This is authentic.

Afternon Tea=Around 4, tea, toast, sandwiches and cakes. Authentic if taken at home. Very unusual to go out for afternoon tea which I am pleased you experienced in its natural habitat.

High Tea=Around six, more likely to be sausage and eggs and bacon with bread and butter etc. Again eaten at home,

It isn't code, its how we speak, and if you don't understand, ask and no-one will mock you.

Cindy--I don't think you and your family would be disappointed in having tea at Harrod's--less in cost than hotels and the food is very good. With the piano music you will enjoy a certain ambience. Personally I can't imagine having tea wo the sandwiches and you will be served a nice assortment arranged on the three tiered tray. Pastries and scones will not disappoint. The Orangery was a huge disappointment IMO because it was very noisy and not served as a proper afternoon tea. The Lanesborough was very nice with lovely china and atmosphere but with champagne and strawberries it came to about $150/2persons. Good luck with your decision but defintely have afternoon tea. Your children will not forget it.

$150 a head?

I give up.

Me too.

*whoosh - right overhead*

waring,

Thanks for the explanation. I do understand now that tea was more of an intimate family or friend affair. I also think warning travelers about the ridiculous cost of some pastry and tea is valid. I definately felt robbed after afternoon tea, but then again sort of knew what I was getting into. The tea we had at someone's home was so nice. I wish every person could have such a nice experience. Thanks again for your explanation, very helpful. Tina

I hate to see tourists getting fleeced for something we DON'T do, under the guise of 'being British'. But then, I expect Im getting fleeced in foreign lands for the same kind of things too!!! But when you KNOW its hard not to get frustrated about the ££££ spent over the top.

Cream tea is a very good idea, as Ive said above :-)

"You really are completely missing the point, tea is served at home, and can be cobbled together in no time for next to nothing. Do it yourself!"

They aren't going to be "at home", they are on vacation (on holiday to you), and evidently want to do something special. We're quite capable of "cobbling" together tea at home, but it isn't the same as having a lovely, special day out in London, and stopping for afternoon tea in a beautiful place.

Have you ever traveled to the US? Brits still continue to flock to to visit JR's house from the set of Dallas. It's not something most Americans are going to do. We also do not all wear cowboy hats, although I see a lot of them leaving the US in special carry-on boxes via British Airways. A special little gift that can cost several hundreds of dollars.
Not to mention the tour buses that bring loads of Brits to Justin Boots for a pair of the finest ostrich boots money can buy. (Most of us don't wear those either).

So, let's just say that we all do frivolous things when we are on vacation or holiday....knowing that we probably won't do it a second time.

And....we do have kettles. We drink tea just like you all do. We boil our water, and use teabags and all. I prefer lemon in my tea, instead of milk. And we serve it with cookies, or cakes.

Tinabina has opened a 'new thread' about being fleeced at Harrods. I think that re-iterates my point.

But a lot of us ARE 'being fleeced' at some point when abroad, as Ive already said. So I agree with you, and we are suggesting alternatives for the OP who was fearful of her budget :-)

Tina and (if you've not been repelled by Audere's reminiscing about his chlidhood), Cindy.

There is actually a fourth category of tea, but it's rare in London these days (though the Maids of Honour at Kew usually do it)

That's Tearoom Tea. At Huffkins in Burford and Witney, the Kardomah all over Merseyside once upon a time (but alas no more, trhough I hear good things about Darcy's Tea Rooms in Southport),and all sorts of other places there was once just Tea. Cream cakes, a few sandwiches, a pot of tea, nothing that looked like it was auditioning for a remake of "Gosford Park" and a modest price. Sadly, the grandma of them all (Betty's in Harrogate) now charges £15, though it gets below a tenner if you miss the sandwiches.

But you can still find them. If Tina walks along the parade of shops opposite West Kirby station, or along Market St in Hoylake, there must be one: I used to take my mum (RIP) to one in West Kirby as a treat only five years or so back.

Cindy ought to check out Paul in Covent Garden (no idea how much it costs) or almost anywhere anywhere outside Central London: every elderly provincial hotel still does it, and if your plans take you out of the ripoff zone, come back and ask. Sadly, though - Kew and Highgate excepted - I don't think any of London's gentrified suburbs have them.

But they're still ubiquitous outsde London. So if you're planning to be in Abergavenny or Chester, tell us and we'll suggest somewhere affordable.

Jewela

I have been to the States, many times and and while I can't speak for the Brits going to JRs house my abiding memories are B&Bs and family run restaurants and horse-riding in the desert.

Please DO go for a cream tea in a guest house which will cost you 15$, DON'T go for afternoon tea at $100 a head anywhere. You are being fleeced and its fake.

Nothing wrong with a good pair of boots :)

Flanner, have you got any suggestions a bit closer in in Merseyside? We will be there in a couple of months. I think we'll get as far as New Brighton, but not to Hoylake or West Kirby.

Well, I once had just one fantastic suggestion for tea in New Brighton: my mum's Sandwich Spread butties on the beach outside Harrison Drive baths with a flask of tea topped up from one of those "Hot water for the shore" vans.

Sadly, now gone the way of all flesh. As have the cheapo sit-down places in beautiful downtown New Brighton, as well as the myriads of more chintzy tearooms all round the peninsula - like the Cottage Loaf at Thurstaston, now turned into a boozer.

But I'm spending the weekend with Mrs F in law, whose quest for tea in the area (she insists it's Cheshire, and has no truck with this modern "Merseyside" nonsense) still goes on. I'll report back

When I was four [46 years ago !] my parents paid what was then considered huge sums of money to have a drink in St Marks Square Venice. I can remember that sunlit day, and how special we all felt, and how happy and fun it was. Expensive at the time but cheap at the price when you consider the decades of memories provided for.

I would take issue with the statement "Brits never do tea". Yes we do - we do it the same as the yanks, when we are tourists.

I've done it several times at various coastal resorts and in the grand hotels of Cathedral Cities and market towns. I like doing it for an occasional treat.

It is also de rigueur for entertaining a certain type of aunt (think Bertie Wooster's Aunt Agatha - I've got a passell of these to entertain periodically).

Mind you I wouldn't pay more than about £15 a pop.

I'm surprised your kids want to go to tea. That was the last thing on my kids' minds in London. However, my older girls have attended several nice teas stateside and pretty much got that out of their systems. In fact the annual tea for one of our charity groups is a dreaded occasion. I guess my only advice would be to press them a little bit to see if the experience is all that important to them...suggest taking half out of their souvenir allowance or offer an alternative. My kids wanted to see "We Will Rock You" but we're big Queen fans and you can't see that musical in the States. A good time was had by all and I don't think we paid much more per person for some very good seats. You may not be Queen fans, but there are plenty of other options.

Heres the Cheapskate's way to do it!
Go to Marks & Spencer's foodhall and buy sandwiches and cream filled scones, take them back to your hotel room, make tea,unwrap the goodies and serve to the kids!
The money you have left over will pay for a night at the theatre.

flanneruk

If you don't mind my asking, what is "Cottage Loaf" ??

1. A tearoom in Thurstaston, now converted into a boozer
2. A distinctive shape for a white loaf of bread
3. Almost certainly Cockney rhyming slang for "oaf". But it's bit early in the morning for the Mockney experts to have their brains switched on, though they might confirm this in six hours or so.

"loaf" in cockney means head (loaf of bread - eg "use your loaf" means apply some intelligence) so it would be confusing.

A cottage loaf could describe a lazy homosexual practise....

I haven't read the thread but if this is high tea it will be a meal, as I understand it--and an experience you can have nowhere else. And you can probably have it for less than that.

<Author: audere_est_facere
Date: 08/01/2007, 02:18 pm

Jaffa cakes - they don't contain jaffas and they aren't cakes. 'nuff said.>

You've obviously forgotten the great Jaffa cake/VAT Liability debate of 1991!

In 1991 the matter went to a tribunal (number 6344 in case you were wondering) in which the VAT man argued that the Jaffa wasn’t a cake and so should not be exempt from VAT (VATA 1983 Sch 5 Group 1 excepted item 2), trotting out all the old arguments. McVities countered with all of the other old arguments plus a specially prepared 12 inch Jaffa Cake, which focused the tribunal’s attention on the sponge base. The tribunal concluded that, while the product also had characteristics of biscuits or confectionery which was not cake, it had sufficient characteristics of cakes to be a cake for the purposes of zero-rating. (The tribunal also determined that the product was not a biscuit.) The distinction between cakes and biscuits is simply that biscuits go soft when stale, whereas cakes go hard. It was demonstrated that Jaffa Cakes become hard when stale and McVitie's won the case

I was looking at Londontown.com and saw many tea offers that are rather less than 25-30 pounds per person. Take a look here:
http://tinyurl.com/2382e9

Someone mentioned Selfridges above. Can anyone enlighten me as to which of the Selfridges restaurants and cafes are actually the one that is referenced:
http://www.selfridges.com/index.cfm?page=1186

Chas,

How on earth did you know that? Even so far as to look it up?

I am seriously impressed.

<Author: waring
Date: 08/04/2007, 06:26 pm

Chas,

How on earth did you know that? Even so far as to look it up?

I am seriously impressed.>

Because I used to work for HM Customs and Excise (we've now been taken over by the dark side). This case is a legend. It sounds ridiculous that they went to this degree of detail and litigation but there was a huge amount of money at stake for McVities and other manufacturers

The mother of all Jaffa Cakes:

http://www.pimpthatsnack.com/project.php?projectID=332

Having had some run ins with the customs service myself little surprises me involving them.

As to going hard or soft, that is down to the water in a product. Over time a product reaches a level of moisture equal to the atmospheric humidity it is in. If it loses water, it becomes hard, if it gains water it becomes soft.

The Selfridges cafe that does the afternoon teas is the one in the basement, next to the 'The Lounge' (where they sell interiors stuff). Can't remember the name - sorry - but it's not that difficult to find.

Quite a modern looking cafe so I stress not the grand old hotel experience, but nonetheless very tasty food.

An alternative is the Athaeneum, which does a more trad afternnon tea with pink champagne etc. Th cost is about £28 BUT is combined with a free pass to Buckingham Palace, or a current art exhibition. (see Lastminute.com)

What you are paying for is not tea, but an experience. We had tea at the Ritz in London and will always remember it as a one-time special occasion. As such, it was worth every penny.

Clearly someone needs to reinvent the Lyons Corner House - complete with orchestra.

hi, cindy,

there used to be an ABC on the strand opposite the royal courts, which was bit like a Lyons corner house, but I suppose it's gone, now. great fry-ups and scones with cream [think rumpole].

if you are in a hotel, you should have a kettle and the makings of a cup of tea. take yourself off to the nearest supermarket, and buy some clotted cream [cornish for preference,] also some strawberry jam, and scones, or get those from a bakery. for all 4 of you, I defy you to spend more than a fiver.

don't get us started on how to pronounce "scone". some of us say it as in "bone, or "throne", others as in "mom", [with an "n" of course].

let's call the whole thing off.

regards, ann

No aficionado of Jaffa Cakes, or tea, can afford to miss out on the excitement of the website devoted to cake, tea, and biscuits:

http://www.nicecupofteaandasitdown.com/

well, now I've seen it all.

this one rivals the web-site devoted to swan/goblin teasmaids, which has led to at least one marriage!

it's quite cheered me up!

regards, ann

That website is genius!

I love the idea of 'mighty biscuit engines', and agree that 'Nice' are biscuit hell (as are Malted Milks, Garibaldi and Fig Rolls)

The mention of dearly departed 'Abbey Crunch' (RIP) nearly brought a tear to my eye though.

>>2. Note the use of the word kettle - yanks don't have kettles (this is a source of continuing wonderment to me - but they don't).<<

We have one - but Mr. Pickle's parents are Canadian, and their parents were English and Welsh, so that may explain it. :-)

Lee Ann

I do so have a kettle--an electric kettle at that! Couldn't manage without it.

Back to afternoon tea...try Selfridge's. Not fancy, but quite good.

I have an electric kettle - couldn't manage w/o it. But until I lived over there, I'd never even heard of an electric kettle.

The website says plain chocolate hobnobs have been discontinued! It can't be true! :(

It's the dark chocolate Hobnobs that have been discontinued. The milk chocolate ones are still available (I even know where to get them in Seattle).

Are you referring to electric kettles? If so, I think most US homes don't have one. But almost everyone I know has a kettle that goes on the stove top. Pots for brewing tea, too.

I always rue the day they discontinued 'Jaspers' - I can still taste the orange/lemon fresh baked taste and goodness now!!! :-(