Tea.Love.Cake ~ An afternoon tea experience..

Yesterday afternoon during our 'food shopping marathon'...lol we were pootling along after picking up some lovely items from our health food shop Grain..and saw that a new little cafe had opened up opposite it. At first glance it looked like many others until we read the cafe name...Tea.Love.Cake...now we were intrigued. 

Tea.Love.Cake

My Love is a tea addict...I am a tea cup addict...and we both love an afternoon tea but could it really be true that such a place had opened up in this little nook of the city?? We found ourselves being drawn over to it's entrance like a Mothership was drawing us home..lol. We poked our heads through the door and were greeted by the lovely fresh smell a tea shop should have...not frying bacon and eggs like some I have visited have had. Yuck! So over the step we went...the tea shop was spacious and they had solid wooden tables and chairs and on each table was a small vase of fresh flowers and each table had a different tea service laid out. I thought I had died and gone to tea cup heaven!! 

The Cake Station

On the walls were 'knick knacks' of bygone days but not overly so that it was cluttered...just the right amount. There was also a large poster giving valid reasons for consuming tea...like My Love needed more reasons..lol. There was a side board displaying the cakes and 'sweet treats' they had on sale that day and behind the till was the wall of tea on offer. And it was so nice to see a healthy equal selection of black tea, herbal tea and fruit teas. 

It's not clear but this is the poster giving My Love more reasons to drink tea...Urgh! lol

The menu was simple but offered alot of choice and the prices were reasonable. There were hot offerings of scrambled eggs and other breakfast type options...a sandwich menu...hot toastie menu...jacket potato menu...all with plenty of choice but this wasn't what drew us in. They offered an afternoon tea that consisted of a sandwich, salad, scone, jam, cream and 'sweet treats'. So that is what we ordered and of course that was after my utter indecision about which table we should sit at because I loved all the tea services...lol. 

Choices choices choices...there were many...lol

So we finally sat at our chosen table and the polite and friendly waitress took our order and within minutes we had our pots of tea to enjoy. I chose Chamomile & Spearmint tea..one of my all time favourite teas and My Love chose Rooibos with Strawberry and Vanilla tea...smelt lovely but I am not a rooibos fan. 

Chamomile & Spearmint Tea in a lovely cup and saucer!

We waited 20 minutes for our afternoon tea to be delivered but that just gave us plenty of time to take photos lol. We were stunned when she finally brought the stand over. It was presented with so much care and attention it was worth the wait. On the bottom layer were the perfectly made tea sandwiches...My Loves Cream Cheese and Cucumber and mine were just Cucumber with little bowls of coleslaw on there. A separate plate was brought with the salad of baby romaine leaves, tomatoes and cucumber slices. The next level was the fruit scones that came with a pot of butter, jam and clotted cream. Obviously I had the scone with just the jam and it was delicious. The final and top layer was the 'sweet things' layer. This included a slice of Orange & Chocolate Marble cake, two bitesize slices of different chocolate cakes, a bitesize slice of fruit cake and small bowl that had a bunch of grapes, slices of kiwi and some strawberries. 

Our afternoon tea for two

OK so I couldn't eat some of the offerings...but the bits I could..I enjoyed greatly and My Love said it was "Splendid and very Brief Encounter!" lol. (My Love is quite the romantic! lol)

"I appear to have a piece of grit in my eye!" Or words to that effect! lol

Would we go back again...you betcha. For that hour we were lifted out of our daily existence and transported to a lovely light moment from the past when things were all things tea cup and dainty portions...lol. Thank you to Tea.Love.Cake for a wonderful experience.

Now I must go and ready myself for today as we have all the little lovelies coming for baking and ice cream making and lunch. Busy busy....lol