Traditional Afternoon Tea

I presume every one has heard of afternoon tea, but I doubt any one has done it.  Hot tea isn't much of a thing in the US, and definitely not a structured meal around it.

Here afternoon tea is set between 3 and 5 pm.  It's certainly not a daily occurrence for every one, it's sort of a treat.  One of my classmates is from Nottingham and has made it her personal mission to play tour guide of English culture, and one of the goals is to try different tea houses.  This week we went to Tiffin in West Bridgford just outside the city proper.

We actually browsed around West Bridgford a bit before heading to tea.  Since the holiday season is upon us we were able to pop into a little craft market.  We also stopped in a few boutiques on our walk through the town.

Tiffin is a quaint little spot tucked into a small row of shops.  It has a bicycle outside displaying it's sign and a basket full of greenery.  It's small when you walk in, but can accommodate a decent number of guests.  And it's totally what you would think of a tea room.  It has a flower patterned wall paper and white table cloths on the tables.  We settled into our table and browsed the menu.

We ordered the Traditional Afternoon Tea for 5 and decided on two pots of tea... English Breakfast and Earl Grey.  These are both traditional black teas.  I prefer Earl Grey to English Breakfast, to me it's a bit lighter in taste.  I don't like to put milk in my tea, just sugar and I find that English Breakfast is too bitter for me like that.  The tea comes first, in these lovely vintage pots.  Each pot and cup is unique, I doubt they have any two the same.

Then the tiers of food arrived!  The bottom tier is sandwiches - the one in the photo is all vegetarian sandwiches: cucumber and cream cheese, egg and cress, tomato and cream cheese, egg and pickle*.  The other tier had things like salmon and cream cheese and some kind of chicken salad type sandwich, and possibly a ham one also.  The second tier is cakes and the top tier is scones, jam and cream.  So you eat it in a certain order... sandwiches first, then scones, then cakes.  It's all small so it doesn't seem like a lot at first - but we were so stuffed by the end!!

*Pickle is not like American pickles.  It is still pickled vegetables, but it's a mixture of onions, cucumbers, sometimes beans or cauliflower.  And it still pickled in vinegar, but it's more of a spread used for sandwiches and it's brown.