Late summer sunshine. Hot chocolate so thick you almost need a spoon to drink it. Salted caramel macarons. Flaky croissants. Handsome company. Drinking champagne on one of Covent Garden’s famous terraces. Ingredients for a beautiful Sunday, right?
A few weeks ago the team at TRULY, a luxury gift experience company, got in touch to ask if Jason and I might like to head into London for one of their signature dining experiences. We said yes, of course, because who in their right mind would turn down such a wonderful opportunity? The dining experience we selected was the world famous champagne afternoon tea at Ladurée, right in the centre of beautiful Covent Garden. I didn’t realise when we chose it that Ladurée’s tea room overlooks Covent Garden piazza, and that I’d get to fulfil a life-long ambition of having a meal on one of the balconies! The only drawback to this was that I spent pretty much the entire couple of hours we were having our afternoon tea trying to get Jason to tear his eyes away from whatever escapologist/magician/’comedian’ was currently performing in the square and actually talk to me instead ;)
It sort of felt as though summer was having its last hurrah on Sunday- the sunshine was warm and strong, but interrupted by a brisk autumnal breeze that already has begun to pull leaves from the trees. I put together a little film of our afternoon, so do have a little watch of that, if you’d like. It was such a fun one to put together!
The tea itself was as gorgeous (and abundant, oh my!) as you’d expect from a place as beautiful as Ladurée, with the sort of polite, attentive service that takes a dining experience from being good to excellent. We started with a couple of glasses of their own rosé champagne, then ordered a selection of hot drinks, finger sandwiches (the smoked salmon was beautiful!), viennoiseries (which apparently is the correct term for baked goods like croissants/brioche/pain au chocolat- who knew!?), pastries, and of course, macarons!
Everything we ate and drank was absolutely delicious, but the raspberry passionfruit tarts still stood out by a clean mile. They were fresh, light, sharp, and creamy all at once, with beautifully short, biscuitty pastry- quite possibly the best pastry I’ve ever, ever eaten. Those layered chocolate pastries were pretty divine too, with their combination of raspberry infused chocolate cake and dark, rich ganache. On the way over to Covent Garden Jason and I had toyed briefly with the idea of stopping into Patty & Bun on our way back home to grab burgers for dinner, but afternoon tea was so filling and indulgent that we couldn’t even think about eating anything else by the time we were finished!
I’d not come across Give Truly before they reached out to me, and have been so impressed with their excellent service. We were so grateful for how helpful, flexible, and patient they were when getting us booked in for afternoon tea, and everything from the beautiful lavender-scented gift box containing our booking details that arrived a few days before our gift experience, to the afternoon tea itself, was outstanding. Definitely a company I’d recommend and will certainly turn to again myself, especially when choosing Christmas and birthday presents for hard-to-buy-for friends and family!
Now, let’s talk afternoon tea! Where’s your favourite place to go? :)
What I wore :: Jigsaw cardigan (past season, similar), Boden trousers, Hobbs flats, Mulberry Bayswater.
p.s. Though our afternoon tea came c/o of the lovely team at TRULY, this post is not sponsored and my opinions are, as always, honest & unbiased.
