Afternoon Tea

Today I went with some friends for Afternoon Tea at the Swan Hotel, one of the larger hotels of Harrogate. There were seven of us and we'd brought four coupons allowing us to have two Teas for the price of one. For any non-British readers out there, Afternoon Tea is one of the grand old institutions of Britain. It's a lovely (and filling) treat typically consisting of dainty sandwiches, cakes, scones with clotted cream and preserves and non-stop tea. The tearoom at the Swan was fitted out with sofas, easy chairs and low coffee tables all in muted tones of brown and beige. Maybe it was our American accents or the size of our party but our waitress seemed a bit befuddled while taking our order. Or maybe she was just new at the job. We were instructed to choose a sandwich from the menu. She then disappeared for what seemed like ages. When she finally reappeared she brought out our treats on triple-tiered dishes along with pots of preserves and butter. There were also small saucer-like dishes filled with a whitish-liquid. What could that possibly be?? We surveyed the array set before us. Sandwiches piled on the top tier. Scones on the middle tier. Toasted teacakes, caramel slices and flapjacks on the third. What was missing was the clotted cream. Or could that whitish liquid once have been clotted?? Sure enough! That was the case. We had to request fresh clotted cream. The sandwiches were tasty, as was the caramel slice. I was underwhelmed by the quality of the flapjacks, teacakes and scones. But even so, we had a great time chatting and yucking it up.