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There’s something celebratory about high tea in a sumptuous hotel as if it’s your birthday when it isn’t, or as if something grand has happened when it hasn’t. Seeking escape from the inclement weather in Cape Town over many months, the FM has been on an extended exploration of some of the best hotel teas in the area. A colourful interlude in a beautiful place is the perfect way to offset the dreariness of the grey skies.

Grande Roche, Paarl

Nestling at the foot of Paarl Rock on a family-owned wine farm, Grande Roche’s 18th-century Cape Dutch homesteadturned-five-star hotel makes for a fusion of history (it’s a national monument) and contemporary flair.

Amid reports of flooding and heavy rains, we hunker down in the dining area, where log fires

are burning and plump couches are set against a backdrop of delicate black and white wallpaper, with a flute of chilled sparkling wine or grape juice to get proceedings under way.

On the savoury side, options include cold-cut bruschetta and a seed loaf toasty with tomato cream cheese and marinated tomatoes with basil pesto (my favourite). There’s smoked salmon and sticky rice with cucumber rolls and pickled red onion, and grilled onion cups with braised beef brisket and mustard seeds. As for sweets, the hotel offers, among other treats, orange meringue tarts instead of the traditional lemon ones (Grande Roche’s sister farm grows delicious citrus) and an assortment of subtly coloured macarons that begs discovery.

Tea, served in bone china, ranges from black tea and blends (French Earl Grey or Royal Darjeeling), to green tea and blends (Emperor Sencha or Silver

Moon Tea), as well as Ceylon, rooibos and chamomile.