I’m making it my mission in life to taste every afternoon tea in London. One hotel I’ve always loved is the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel London, so when my mum visited last, we decided to book The Hansom, as we both adore the romantic Gothic architecture of the hotel’s building.
Until the end of March, The Hansom is serving winter afternoon tea with LK Bennett. Yes, the fashion brand and I have to be honest, I was more than a little intrigued by how the contemporary feel of the brand with its intricate prints and embellished detailing would translate onto cakes. All I can say is in style. The Hansom’s pastry team have done an amazing job – this afternoon tea certainly wins on the fashion fancies front.
The Hansom afternoon tea – the cakes
Naturally, all afternoon teas start with the sandwiches, and I will get to them, as they were also incredible, but let’s talk about these fashion fancies. The showstopper had to be the Winter Rose, soft white chocolate fashioned into the shape of a rose to capture one of LK Bennett’s signature floral prints decorated delicately with white pearl touches.
Then there was the LKB Choux, a classic crème caramel choux, which was 5 stars, I just loved how they captured LK Bennetts’s love of gold tones, and The Velvet Dream was the most exquisite rich and velvety cheesecake.
After the rose, my other favourite had to be the Berry Stylish, not only does it look incredible, the taste was out of this world, a smooth raspberry mousse sandwiched between a shortbread biscuit, served with a raspberry-print garnish and a chocolate disc. Incredible.
The Hansom – vegetarian afternoon tea
As my mum and I always request vegetarian sandwiches, sometimes we can be a little disappointed. There is normally a repeater sandwich in there, and they are generally not as imaginative as the meat or fish sandwiches on the main offering. The Hansom gets a lot of respect for thinking a little differently. Just look at the rainbow of colour on our sandwiches.
From left to right: we had beetroot, then butternut squash, an inspired sandwich filling that I will definitely be trying at home, followed by the traditional cucumber with whipped salted butter, coronation tofu, and then egg and truffle mayonnaise with chives on spinach bread. I can’t fault any of them – so delicious – and the bread was also amazing.
If you opt for the traditional afternoon tea menu, you can expect the same egg and truffle mayonnaise and cucumber, along with smoked salmon, coronation chicken and roast beef.
IIt wouldn’t be an afternoon tea without scones, and The Hansom provided both plain and fruit, which were lovely and warm and had a crumbly texture. They went perfectly with the clotted cream and strawberry jam.
You can also have as many tea refills as you want. So, we tried a few different blends, including the St Pancras afternoon tea, which I need to buy as it was lovely. We also swapped our pots of tea for the sparkling Rose Petals tea, mainly as we were intrigued to know what it was. It is a chilled tea that is served in glass flutes and was very refreshing.
Overall, I couldn’t fault this afternoon tea, it was delicious, well presented, and the staff were attentive to refills – plus the location is pretty spectacular.
The Hansom Winter LK Bennett Afternoon Tea is priced at £46 per person or £56 including a glass of Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label Brut Champagne.
