Winter Tea at The Goring

This week I was invited to join The Goring’s centenary celebrations and sample their brand new Winter Tea.

Tucked away in prestigious Belgravia, The Goring is London’s oldest privately owned hotel, now run by Jeremy Goring, the fourth Goring at the helm of The Queen Mother’s favourite hotel.

Perfecting the quintessential English afternoon tea for 100 years, The Goring has been the proud bearer of the Tea Guild’s Award of Excellence for two years running.  So of course, expectations were high!

The new Winter Tea is served in the Lounge and Terrace, a club-style lounge with warming log fire adjoining a classic yellow-hued salon overlooking the hotel’s private gardens.

We started by choosing a tea from The Goring’s extensive tea menu including a fragrant Earl Grey and delicate floral tea such as Jasmine or Rosebud tea.

I absolutely adored The Goring’s sunshine yellow and gold china and noticed that you can actually buy the dinner service in the reception.

Then came a large glass of The Goring’s special centenary Ayala champagne – a crisp, soft and rounded champagne that complemented the tea.

The tiered plates of treats began with a generous selection of finger sandwiches – egg mayonnaise with watercress, smoked salmon, coronation chicken, guinea fowl and wild mushroom.

The sandwiches are classic but with an interesting seasonal game addition of guinea fowl and wild mushroom.

These were followed by delicious, freshly baked fruit scones and plain scones served with clotted cream, strawberry and raspberry jam.

The real excitement came with the top tier of decadent pastries.  My favourite was the bubblegum meringue – a delicate pastel pink meringue that cracked to reveal oozing vanilla pastry cream and really did taste just like bubblegum.

The peanut and chocolate caramel slice was creamy and delicious and the plum and almond tart showed off the talents of the pastry chefs.

Other scrumptious cakes included a home-made Jaffa Cake, hazelnut and jam sandwich and a festive mulled wine and pear jelly with cinnamon cream.

The Goring’s charm lies in maintaining its proud heritage matched with a warm family atmosphere, unpretentious but attentive service and a passion for high quality, seasonal food.

The Winter Tea at The Goring is the perfect balance between lavish teas at the palace hotels and the more contemporary fashion or themed teas – classic with an interesting twist.

The Goring’s Winter Tea is served from 3-5pm daily and is priced at £34 per person (£45 with a glass of Ayala).

The Winter Tea is available from November 2010 – February 2011 at The Goring, Beeston Place, London SW1W 0JW.  To book a table, contact (020) 7396 9000.

* Chérie City was a guest of The Goring.