Fabulous Afternoon Tea

A few months ago I visited the Sanderson in London for my Nan’s birthday. We went there for the Alice in Wonderland themed Afternoon Tea! It was by far the best and quirkiest afternoon tea I’ve had.

The reason I am blogging about this now is because, one, I forgot to blog about it at the time, and two, it’s a great gift experience to buy for a friend or family member for Christmas.

The Sanderson

The Sanderson itself is an amazing hotel, with a long bar in the middle and multiple spots to take iconic photos. The swinging chair and the lips sofa were my favourite, and we took lots of shameless photos!

• 

• 

• 

• 

Tea

The first thing you’re offered when you sit down is a good ol’ cuppa tea! But you get offered 5 different flavours of tea, each themed from Alice in Wonderland. They give you little playing cards with descriptions of the tea on them, and small jars of the tea leaves so you can smell and make your choice.

I went for the Cheshire Cat tea which was infused with Orange (I think, it was quite a long time ago!) The tea comes presented in a cool teapot, and is unlimited, which is definitely good for us brits. The sugar was served in a little jewellery box with a dancing ballerina which definitely took me back to my childhood!

• 

• 

Sandwiches

The first part of the afternoon tea is a set of sandwiches. You get a mini cheese and ham toastie, a mini scotch egg with some caviar on it, a mini crab roll, and to add a “Mad Hatters” touch you also get a cream cheese and cucumber sandwich served on GREEN bread. Fascinating!

• 

• 

Cakes

It wouldn’t be afternoon tea if you didn’t get cakes! And this afternoon tea takes it completely overboard. On the bottom layer there were scones with butter and jam, and a little jar of layered juice, cream and mousse with a “Drink Me” label on – true Mad Hatters style.

On the second layer there was a range of goodies including Queen of Hearts Bourbon biscuits, red ladybird sponge cakes, and coffee cakes with edible butterfly toppings. Finally, the top layer had lots of little sugary mushrooms on it, with some macaroons places in the long grass in the tea cup.

• 

• 

• 

P.S. How cute does my mum look here adoring those cakes!

Dessert

Believe it or not, after eating all of that food, there was even more; dessert! They gave us little plant pots with ice cream/ sorbet, topped with chocolate cake crumbles, honey comb and a pretty little flower for decoration.

They also serve a range of after dinner cocktails that sounded amazing. Unfortunately, we didn’t try any of these (the cocktails beforehand at the bar were enough to get my mum drunk!).

• 

• 

Prices

Now, the price of this definitely isn’t cheap. It cost £45 per person, plus cocktails on top. But, considering the WOW factor and the amount of food we got, it didn’t seem like that much money. We also didn’t finish all our cakes, and got to take the remaining ones home in a cute little Alice in Wonderland themed box!

Would definitely recommend this as a Christmas gift for a friend/partner/family member for the ultimate afternoon tea experience that is just a little bit special!

Want more information about the Mad Hatters Tea Party? Visit the Sanderson website here.