Afternoon Tea at Browns: A Family Tradition

I love many things in life. My family, my friends, cooking, British television, and afternoon tea. This is possibly my favorite meal and nothing beats Browns for afternoon tea. In my opinion, Browns makes THE BEST afternoon tea. Hands down. It has the best ambience, tea, sandwiches, and cakes. This is one of the main reasons why I come to London!

For years now, it has been a family tradition to start our vacation with afternoon tea here. We arrive in the morning, freshen up in the room, relax and explore the neighborhood, but at 4 pm, we have tea at Brown's. It's glorious and nothing else says, "WE'VE ARRIVED IN LONDON!!!", like this tradition.

The tea room at Browns

For tea, my parents and I selected the Brown's Afternoon tea blend. This is a lovely blend of Darjeeling and Assam. Add a splash of milk and it's manna in your teacup.

Our selection of tea sandwiches was fantastic. Roast beef and beet root, egg and watercress, smoked salmon, cheddar cheese and pickled onion, and cucumber. Yum yum yum! The lox was phenomenal, but the stars of the sandwiches were the roast beef/beet root and cheddar cheese/picketed onion. I will admit, I was skeptic over these flavor combos, especially the latter sandwich. Somehow the sharpness of the cheese complemented the acidity of the pickles!

Next, we had the scones, served with clotted cream and strawberry jam. Yummmmmm. My mouth is watering just thinking about them! The scones are small, but still warm and fluffy --- straight from the oven! I know clotted cream isn't healthy, but I love it so much! Mixing that cream with the strawberry jam...it's heaven on a small confection.

After scones comes assorted small pastries. We had a a raspberry macaroon, a chocolate tart, a pistachio eclair, and two fruit tarts. Because we didn't have enough food already (said very sarcastically) we had the opportunity to enjoy a slice of Victoria sponge or a strawberry tart. I opted for the strawberry tart, whilst my parents selected the Victoria sponge. I should say, my mother LOVES Victoria sponge and was looking forward to this the whole tea time!

Although we still had a full pot of tea, my mother ordered the "matcha." Matcha is a traditional green tea that is whisked from powder. My mom takes Japanese tea ceremony lessons, so she was intruiged to see matcha on the Brown's menu. She ordered it and boy, was she surprised.

Normally, matcha is served in a large round ceramic bowl, but not here. At Browns, for some reason, the matcha was served in a 1920s-era round champagne glass. Very odd. Furthermore, it was weirdly thick and super bitter. The matcha complemented the sweets nicely, but it was still weird.

The matcha was sadly not as good as we had hoped, but that didn't ruin our afternoon tea. Going to Browns is always such a pleasure and a mega treat.  My favorite tea place in London. I only wish I could have such high quality tea back home!