The Second Festive Tea 2017 – Sunday 17th December 2017
The Villa Levens, Brettagh Holt, Cumbria £19.95 for Festive Afternoon Tea
Another festive Tea – hurrah! And hot on the heels of the last, again a place I’ve visited previously but was keen to try out their Christmassy fare.
This time is a bit of a departure from recent attendees as I was with family, and generally I’ve not often done one of those. This time I was with my sister K and my nephews wife, P, who in typical family fashion loves to refer to us as her aged aunts. She is older than me. As is my sister.
Also in a break from tradition someone else drove. I usually do, not sure if that is because I am a bit (lot) of a control freak in regards to my Afternoon Teas. Not only do I insist on the correct order to eat things (sorry P I know it’s a foible) but I often insist on driving too. Mind you with K in the driving seat I am never sure we will end up where we are supposed to be going, direction isn’t one of her strong points. And the horrible fog and rain made it more difficult than usual to navigate around. That and the frankly inadequate aircon system in her car – we all had to stop breathing for a while to ensure we could see through the windscreen.
But having left in plenty of time ensured that we were there with time to spare, giving us time to admire the festive decorations, sweeping staircase and Afternoon Tea menu. The staff were warm, helpful and solicitous, my favourite kind, and helped us choose the most Christmassy of teas complete with mulled wine for me and P and an elderflower spritz for K. Pots of tea were ordered too and arrived promptly followed rapidly by our other drinks, and not long after by our food. An impressive start.
Two stands were put on our table, one for the meat eaters and one for me without meat. I felt quite special. Four finger sandwiches occupied the bottom layer and I dived straight in. The cheese and pickle had a nice balance of flavours, not too vinegary, and the egg mayo had plenty of butter and was not too eggy. I went next for what I thought was smoked salmon but turned out to be a flavourful tomato and cream cheese, and so I arrived at the actual smoked salmon sandwich which had a lovely subtle flavour and was layered with cucumber.
After defending and insisting upon my theory of cake strategy (ie scone last you heathens) I started on the beautiful, if hobbit sized, cranberry and apple battenburg. It was sweet with a powerful apple punch and a lovely moist cake centre. I couldn’t resist the macaron next, the texture was spot on and the Christmas pudding flavour shone through. It was half dipped in chocolate which added an extra festive touch. Next up was a mince pie that had the right balance of crumbly pastry and a deep sweet filling.
Before I could tackle the pretty looking chocolate and passion fruit bauble there was a kerfuffle. Peering through the dining window were two deer, one with a good set of antlers on display. They were foraging on the lawn and almost close enough to touch. Much scraping of chairs and snapping of photos through the windows to capture the moment ensued. Reluctantly I turned back to the table and set about the bauble, which was rich and chocolatey but was missing the passion fruit flavour.
So the scone was left. A crisp outside covered a soft, still warm, inside and plentiful jam and clotted cream made for fat scones all round. It wasn’t overly buttery and there was no butter on the side but it was still a nice scone.
By this time it was starting to turn suspiciously dark and the weather had not improved much, so we decided to head off, not before we had pressed the staff into service to take a festive group shot in front of the impressive Christmas tree though. I don’t think they found us too loud and demanding. Not for all of the time we were there anyway.
Overall marks (out of 5 stars)
Service: ***1/2 Helpful and friendly
Amount of Food: ***1/2 Enough for no left overs, battenburg a bit small though
Quality of Food: ***1/2 A good all round tea
Value for money: ***1/2 Another festive treat
Comments: ‘well made macaron’ ‘ wish there was more battenburg’
The website is here https://www.thevillalevens.co.uk/ they are on Trip Advisor here https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g2516248-d8680380-Reviews-The_Villa_Levens-Levens_Lake_District_Cumbria_England.html
They are also on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram
And my suggested track for today’s tea is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VfYKmJkxl0
helenwedgwood 