AN ENGLISH TRADITION
AFTERNOON TEA AT ITS BIRTHPLACE, THE LANGHAM, LONDON, IS A MUST
The Langham, London is Europe’s first “Grand Hotel”. Opened in 1865 by the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), it was later frequented by authors Oscar Wilde and Mark Twain and composers Arturo Toscanini and Antonin Dvorak. It has also welcomed Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle and Princess Diana. It is where the Duke of Windsor entertained Wallis Simpson during their courtship. It has even been mentioned in several of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes novels. Last but not least, it is the birthplace of afternoon tea and has continued this tradition for more than 150 years.
Hosting the Tea Guild Awards, its dazzling Palm Court has been serving tea to the crème de la crème of London since the Victorian era. Guests can indulge in a selection of 30 tea blends, served by a tea sommelier, together with delicate finger sandwiches, dainty cakes, beautiful miniature pastries and fresh scones with clotted cream and jam. The “Langham Afternoon Tea with Wedgwood” — serving Wedgwood speciality teas in tailor-made “Langham Rose” Wedgwood teaware — is unique.
The practice of enjoying afternoon tea dates back to 1865 when Anna Russell, the 7th Duchess of Bedford (1783-1857) and also lady-in-waiting to Queen Victoria, felt a bit hungry and asked her servant to bring her tea-brewing paraphernalia with bread and butter. She started to invite her elitist friends over for “afternoon tea”. The bread and butter evolved into sandwiches, scones, cakes and desserts. And has since become tradition.
Recently, a group of Thai reporters enjoyed afternoon tea at Palm Court and spoke with Lars Jensen, a tea sommelier who has been working there for four years.
“We were the first to serve afternoon tea in 1865. The Langham London was the first luxury hotel built in London,” Jensen noted proudly.
Palm Court has a choice of 30 kinds of tea for guests. It works closely with Wedgwood on its tea and floral China tea sets while its speciality teas are blended by a company called Blends4friends.
“My job as tea sommelier is to help and guide our guests in Palm Court with their tea selection before, during and after their afternoon tea experience in order to compliment it with the food in the best possible way,” said Jensen.
As part of his training at the Langham, Jensen completed different tea masterclasses in order to understand the process involved in the production of the different types of tea from around the world.
“I love being able to educate our guests about tea and enhancing their experience. Some guests know very little about tea. They might only be familiar with the classic black tea, which is such a shame. In Palm Court, we allow guests to sample as many teas as they wish, which makes it easy to compare the different teas and pair it to our sandwiches, scones and pastries created by award winning pastry chef Cherish Finden and her team,” he said.
The new “Langham Afternoon Tea with Wedgwood” is inspired by classic Wedgwood collections featuring butterfly and daisy patterns that symbolise the start of spring and changing seasons.
After an amuse bouche of apricot and natural yoghurt panna cotta, guests are served with exquisite pastries such as “Paisley Parcel”, “Butterfly Bloom”, “Yuzu for You”, “Wedgwood Wild Strawberry” and “Hathaway Rose”.
English teas are never far from a scone and at the Langham, a selection of plain and raisin scones are served with Cornish clotted cream and strawberry preserve, along with a variety of finger sandwiches, including the quintessential classic cucumber, cream cheese and chives, truffled duck egg brioche and smoked salmon, asparagus and rye cracker.
“When we pair tea with our afternoon snacks, you can either merge similar or contrasting flavours to create a magical experience. I suggest a delicate tea to enjoy our light fluffy scones such as the Silk Road blend, which is created especially for us. The tea and scones are both very light and don’t overpower the other,” Jensen added.
According to him, a vanilla tea such as Rooibos also goes extremely well with scones as the vanilla flavour in the scones and tea pulls the two together. For pastries, he suggests a smoked tea such as Lapsang Souchong as it has a lovely contrasting flavour to all the cream and sugar.
“Choosing a best tea is very difficult as it depends on what flavour you are after. However, we have a handful of teas created for us, which means that you can’t try them anywhere else,” the tea sommelier said.
Nothing is more English than afternoon tea in London. Fortunately, residents of the City of Angels will be treated to an authentic afternoon tea in a Palm Court-lookalike tea room when The Langham Bangkok, Chao Phraya River opens at Canapaya Riverfront on Rama III in 2020. It will surely be an unforgettable experience.