Our UK Family Holiday Part 3 - Afternoon Tea

Hey there!

How was your weekend? I hope you had a fun one. Happy Father's Day to all the men out there who are touching lives and leading by example! We celebrated my dad, brother-in-law and Cakes by taking them out to brunch. How did you celebrate?

Today I'm continuing with our UK holiday, and this time I'm sharing photos from our fun-filled day at Afternoon Tea. If you haven't been following, check out Part 1 - Trafalgar Square, and Part 2 - Marble Arch. As usual, I'll share some stories in between and a little bit of history and fun anecdotes. Let's get started shall we?

I had looked forward to this outing pretty much since we started planning the holiday. We made sure to wake up early on the day of, but ended up having to wait for my sister's husband who arrived from Atlanta that morning. At least we were all dressed and looking sharp!

This outing was planned and sponsored by one of my mum's best friends. They've been friends since forever and she's my youngest sister's godmother. Whenever my mum visits her, they go to all kinds of fancy places, and they've traveled together lots of times. I wanna be like them when I grow up!

As usual, we walked to our local station and headed to the very fancy Bentley Hotel in Kensington.

The Bentley Hotel is a boutique hotel and has garnered Trip Advisor's Certificate of Excellence every year since 2010. Fashi, it would have been nice to stay here, even if it was just for one night. My aunt had to reserve our table for Afternoon Tea way ahead of time. I wanted to take photos of the tea room but there were these prim and proper looking ladies, and I couldn't hide to get a nice shot. Let me find a nice photo if I can.

Source

Trivia question: What's the difference between High Tea and Afternoon Tea? If you read my Lovely Links, you just might remember.

Afternoon Tea started around the 1830s and 1840s, and is a very fancy-schmancy affair. Rumor has it that a certain duchess was the originator of this trend. Back then, lunch was served at noon, and dinner was served from 7:30pm or later. Duchess Anna Maria Russell, during one of these long breaks between meals, requested tea and snacks to manage her hunger. It became a habit, and her friends began having tea with her and the trend spread among aristocratic circles.

Afternoon tea typically includes finger sandwiches, scones, macarons, as well as other treats.

The Bentley Hotel had lovely nibbles, tea and champagne. Unfortunately, I was too busy taking photos, I forgot to finish my champagne :(

The scones were so yummy! I miss them :(

I had Jasmine Tea :)

Afternoon Tea etiquette says you shouldn't devour the food in front of you, so you don't seem beastly. *straight face* Abeg, if you're hungry, you're hungry. 

Anyways, we had a marvelous time. The kids didn't care about fancy-schmancy and walked and played around like it was their house. 

So did we...

I didn't forget to tell you about High Tea! High tea was started by the lower classes. They had day jobs and typically didn't have lunch breaks. So right after work, they would have something to eat... High Tea! This differs from Afternoon Tea in the servings as well - High Tea consisted of pies, meats and cheeses. It was also called High Tea because it was served on proper dining tables, whereas Afternoon Tea was served in low armchairs.

I tried uploading the Snap Story from that day but the file is too large. I'll keep tweaking until I find a way around it.

Have a loverly week ahead!!!