Hilltop, East Malling

It is a curious thing, that whilst I often search out tearooms on the internet, or through adverts in magazines etc, there are some little gems that just seem to sail serenely along under the radar.  Such is the case with the first teatime adventure of 2015.  Hilltop was brought to my attention by a friend of a friend who hadn't actually visited herself but had heard about it.  Located in East Malling, a mere 5 minutes drive away from the home of beloved duo partner, a visit was quickly arranged.

The tearoom is well signed from the road between East Malling and Wateringbury, and is located in an attractive barn-type building.  Inside the tables are mostly set out for groups of two or four, with the addition of a couple of sofas and a lovely old Singer sewing machine on display.  The walls have some work by local artists for sale and I always enjoy playing the game of 'which one would you take home?'  Interestingly partner and I both agreed on a gentle slightly abstract pastoral scene although some discussion took place as to whether it would be worth spending the money as possibly we could just achieve the same effect ourselves. Not, of course, that we ever would! The tearoom ambience was further enhanced by some gentle classical music and the quiet chatter of ladies at lunch or tea.

My companion had booked us a table for afternoon tea and when we arrived we were greeted warmly and shown to a table that was already set out for us with pretty crockery.  The tables were covered with soft green fabric tablecloths over which was placed a covering of transparent plastic - a very practical solution and somehow much nicer than plasticised cloths.

We were given a choice of looseleaf teas - I'm sure, dear reader, you will know that I chose Assam, and my companion chose Darjeeling.  And we were then asked whether we would prefer plain or fruit scones - we both chose plain.  






The finger sandwiches were served, attractively garnished with some fresh salad, and comprised cheddar & cream cheese, egg & cress, fish pate, smoked salmon.  They were all delicious and just the right size.  More sandwiches could be ordered if desired, but we were keen to pace ourselves and declined.


The scones then arrived in a little basket and I was very happy to note that there were just two - one each.  This is so much more manageable than the customary two each.  They were warm and came with homemade jam and fresh thick cream.  The teapots were regularly topped up and we progressed very nicely, in fact we progressed so nicely that I kept forgetting to take photos and you will see that in all the following shots, I have already taken a bite or two before whipping out the camera!

Scones finished, we then perused the lovely cake display - Victoria sponge, chocolate cake, lemon drizzle, fruit cake, coffee & walnut, ginger.  After some deliberation I chose the chocolate cake and my companion chose the ginger.  The slices were generous without being onerous, and the chocolate cake was moist and dark with a rich chocolate cream filling that was not too sweet.  The ginger cake was also delicious (I was offered a taste!) and contained little pieces of stem ginger, topped with icing.












A visit to the facilities did not disappoint - a disabled toilet and a unisex toilet, clean and fresh with some fragrant liquid soap.

We concluded our teatime adventure with a visit to the adjacent little shop, selling various jams & chutneys made on the premises, and little craft items.  Here it is also possible to order a whole cake to take home.  And we gently made our way back to the car feeling satisfied and content but not full to the brim, which was all the better.  Thank you to friend of friend who recommended this tearoom - the bar has been set very high for the rest of 2015!

http://www.tea-at-hilltop.co.uk/

2014 Teatime Adventure Awards!

As 2014 draws to a close, I am very delighted to have concluded a whole year of teatime adventures! It has been a lovely thing to set time aside each month to take afternoon tea with friends or family, where for a wee while nothing else matters except gentle conversation, a refreshing cup of tea and a home-made cake in lovely surroundings.  Each tea room has offered something unique and I have enjoyed every experience.  People sometimes ask me which is the best tea room I have visited, and although I have no desire to rank them in any order as each individual establishment has its own charms and everyone looks for something slightly different in their teatime experiences; nevertheless I thought it might be appropriate to highlight outstanding examples in certain categories, so here goes:  (drum roll, fanfare and very, very, very long silences before announcing winners!!!)



BEST AMBIENCE..................Hempstead House Hotel, Bapchild.

The nature of the building allows them to offer an unparalleled
ambience in the soft drawing room furnishings and leisurely
personal service offered.  To be transported to an earlier age
of gentility - this has to top them all!





BEST CHARACTER...............Melinsey Mill, Veryan

This is amazing setting for a tea room - in the grounds of an old
water mill, and the owners have created a wild and wonderfully
quirky place with a distinct personality all its own.











BEST MENU VARIETY............Oad Street, Borden

This is an undisputed winner.  Every possible teatime combination
was itemised on the menu from full sandwiches to half sandwiches,
scone varieties and cakes, which also includes a big gluten-free choice.









BEST VALUE..............Peggoty's Tea Room, Rochester

A very nice tearoom offering a good choice of cakes, nice
atmosphere and a complete bargain!  Can't go wrong!





BEST FACILITIES...............Willow Tea Room, Burwash

A nice loo always makes a teatime experience that little bit
better, and here I was quite doutful when directed out of the
tearoom and around to a separate building.  However, my doubt
turned to delight at a clean, bright loo complete with flowers and
handcream.  Perfect!  (didn't take a photo of it, though!)





BEST CAKE...................Moat Tea Rooms, Canterbury

An all-round great tea room, but with a big variety of interesting
cakes, which all looked delicious.  Certainly my lemon one with lemon curd filling and tangy lemon icing was just a perfection of lemony yumminess!










HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE AND HERE'S TO A 2015 FULL OF NEW AND WONDERFUL TEATIME ADVENTURES!

Headcorn Village Tea Rooms

Amidst the madness of the last few days before Christmas, I managed to create a small window of calm and sensibility for the last teatime adventure of the year with a visit to the charming village of Headcorn.  I am known to visit Headcorn a couple of times a year as it is home to a musician friend of mine whose beautiful grand piano I am always pleased to stroke my fingers over!  My visit to her usually involves lunch and a perusal of the charity shops, where I have been always been extremely lucky.  For instance on my last visit, I found a gorgeous brand new 'Per Una' coat which has been greatly admired, and of course cost only a few pounds.    And so husband, younger son and I set off for Headcorn - my husband content in the knowledge that the charity shops do not open on Sundays.

 The Village Tea Rooms is housed in a traditional clapperboard building with a low-beamed ceiling, and younger son having attained the giddy heights of over 6 foot by admirable perseverence and a lot of sleep, found this quite a handicap - although husband and I were not at all troubled in this respect.  It was quite busy, but we were met by a friendly waitress and found there was a vacant table in the window. Tables are covered in green checked table cloths with painted country chairs.   The tea room extends into a second room at the back and houses a number of gift items for sale and pictures on the walls which makes a pleasing visual environment to while a way a pleasant afternoon.  There was a pleasant ambience with plenty of chat and good humour amongst locals and staff.


The menu lists a good variety of lunches, and selection of teas including breakfast blend; Earl Grey, Ceylon, Assam, Darjeeling, Jasmine, Lemon and fruit & herbal.  There is also a range of coffees available.  Husband and I both chose Assam, and son chose a fresh orange juice. We viewed the available cake selection which today comprised chocolate, Victoria sponge, lemon.  There had also been carrot cake but this had run out.  I noted that all the cakes were made of similar construction whatever their flavour - with sponges sandwiched with butter icing,  although the menu did refer to them as 'homemade cakes'.   Perhaps it is just the 'house style'.  I chose the lemon sponge and my son chose the coffee & walnut.  Husband chose a fruit scone with butter and jam.  When the cakes arrived, we thought that the portion size was not overly large, but in fact the sweetness of the cakes meant that the portion size was more than adequate, and in fact son and I both left some unfinished.  This is not to say that the cakes were unpleasant - but we neither have a very sweet tooth for too much icing.  The scone arrived warm and had a good amount of fruit.  The jam was a pot of Tiptree strawberry and butter in a little packet.  The tea cups were also warm which was rather nice on a cold day, and the tea was a good flavour made with tea bags and plenty of milk, but no extra hot water.

Toilet facilities were spacious, clean functional and the cost of the tea was also very reasonable.  

This is a nice local village tea room, which I imagine is at the heart of the community and a good place for people to meet and exchange village gossip together.  The service is friendly and efficient - long may it flourish!

Duddleswell Tea Room, Ashdown Forest

A mild but foggy November day was the backdrop for this month's teatime adventure.  I was spending the weekend with one of my oldest friends at her home in Crowborough, East Sussex and I had asked her to suggest somewhere for afternoon tea.  We had spent a very happy hour or so browsing the numerous charity shops of Uckfield where we had been delighted by the high quality of ladies' clothing and several successful purchases had been made.  Our appetite for retail therapy duly satiated, we returned to the car and took a drive out through the village of Maresfield into the Ashdown Forest to find the Duddleswell Tea Room which has been proudly serving tea since 1936.

The Ashdown Forest is in the heart of the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, but most importantly is the home of Pooh Bear.  The bridge from which the game of Pooh sticks was invented is located in the forest near to the village of Hartfield.  The foggy conditions on our day of visiting, however may have made the game a little tricky.  It was easier to imagine the hound of the Baskervilles, created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who lived at nearby Windlesham Manor, emerging from the gloom!

The tea room is housed in a lovely old cottage standing in splendid isolation on one of the roads through the forest.  We entered and gratefully noted the log fire and homely atmosphere.  A friendly young waitress greeted us and we were pleased to find a vacant table in the bow window.  The tea room is clearly popular and was very soon full to capacity.  The room is furnished with country oak chairs and tables with cheery teapot design curtaining.

We perused the menu which offers a number of savoury items and various set teas which included a Sussex Tea, an Ashdown Forest Tea,  a Yeoman's Tea, a Duddleswell Tea and delight upon delight - a Pooh Bear Tea!  Each contained different permutations of scones - plain, fruit or savoury, jam, cream, cakes and sandwiches.  Having enjoyed such a nice girly time, I didn't feel any affinity to the Yeoman's tea, but the Pooh Bear tea beckoned strongly! This comprised a scone (plain or fruit) with honey (of course) and a choice of cake.  There was also a good selection of teas.  I settled on a plain scone and a slice of apricot and almond tart.  A very tempting cake display included fresh cream Victoria sponge, a mountainous 3 tier chocolate cake, a huge banoffee roulade, banana & honey cake, besides the more conventional lemon drizzle, coffee & walnut and carrot cake.


Having foregone lunch in order to prepare for a teatime adventure, my companion was feeling the lack of savoury sustenance and opted for a tuna sandwich.  It looked perfectly pleasant but it is not the stuff of afternoon tea and so I will refrain from further comment!  My scone was served warm and had a lovely golden colour and soft texture into which the runny honey melted beautifully.  I have not previously considered honey as a scone accompaniment, but it worked like a dream.  It was also served with clotted cream but I saved that as an accompaniment to my warm apricot and almond tart.  This was perfection with really succulent apricots and a light texture so often lacking in this sort of pastry concoction.  We shared a pot of loose-leaf house blend tea (Assam & Ceylon) which came with additional hot water.


The single toilet was a 'no-frills' affair but perfectly clean and adequate.

I don't know if Pooh Bear enjoyed home-made scones with his large jar of honey, but I suspect that he may have done given his impressive figure, and I am very grateful to him for this tasty inspiration!

Hempstead House Hotel, Bapchild

After the impromptu surprise of September's Teatime Adventure, imagine my delight at a second surprise adventure this month!  An invitation came my way to accompany my dearest friend to Hempstead House Hotel where she had been given a voucher for their afternoon tea.  Now strictly speaking, my remit in recording these adventures is to uphold the independent tearooms that battle valiantly to continue this most English of traditions, however I certainly wasn't going to pass up the opportunity of an afternoon tea, especially with my dearest friend in such a delightful setting as the charming Hempstead House Hotel, (which is independently owned and run) and especially as it fell only a few days after my birthday!

We arrived at the hotel wearing our posh frocks and found our way into reception where we were greeted and shown to a private drawing room called 'The Snug'.  We had the use of this absolutely delightful room all to ourselves for the afternoon, and it offered the perfect blend of country house elegance, with a lovely fireplace, dual aspect windows giving views of the grounds and the swaying trees, and comfortably upholstered chairs.

Having settled ourselves in we were greeted by our waiter and chose our blend of tea from the comprehensive tea and coffee menu.  My friend selected the English Breakfast and I chose Assam.  The cake stand was decked with a sandwich selection on the bottom tier and little cakes on the top.  The middle tier just held a pot of cream and jam, as the scones would be brought in warm when we were ready.  We tucked into the finger sandwiches:  ham, cream cheese & cucumber and egg - all very tasty.  We then managed one of the two scones each - fruit and plain; warm and tasting slightly of cinnamon.  However, despite taking plenty of time over excellent conversation and many cups of tea, we felt unable to continue our feast until we had taken a gentle perambulation of the grounds.  This completed, we returned, still unable to face a second scone, but refreshed by more tea we each ate a little swiss roll (incredible light) and a sweet little strawberry and blackcurrant pastry tart.  We were defeated by the little lemon drizzle sponge cake!  However, our friendly and attentive waiter brought a little box for us to take home our scones and cakes so nothing was wasted!

I must say that the whole experience was absolute perfection - from the delightful setting, to the understated but attentive hosting, to the quality of the food - there was nothing to be found wanting here at all.  For the consummate afternoon tea experience, this would take a lot of beating and I am very appreciative of such a lovely treat!

Tiptree Tea Rooms, Heybridge, Essex

I must start the report of this little adventure with a confession, dear reader!  Although I am writing this at the very end of September, the delightful adventure which I am about to recall actually took place during August.  The summer holidays afforded more leisure time for such pleasantries, and I was keen to share this one with you as again it offered something quite different.

And after that little preamble,  I shall begin..... Our journey into Essex and up the A12 to Maldon is one that is undertaken a number of times in the year in order to visit our very dear friend and godmother to our two sons, and her delightful daughter. After enjoying a particularly fine home-cooked chicken curry, it was then suggested that we might like to take a little drive out to Heybridge for a wander along the tow-path of the Chelmer and Blackwater canal and to conclude with tea.  And so ensued the particular pleasure of an unplanned afternoon teatime adventure!

Having basked in endless days of glorious sunshine, we sallied forth unprepared for the torrential downpour that awaited our arrival at Heybridge.  However, we were quietly determined and sat in the car for about 25 minutes until the rain had eased sufficiently for our adventure to begin.  Your writer is exceedingly fond of rivers and canals and the peace that they exude, and our stroll along the towpath was a perfect precursor to an afternoon tea.

The tearoom is located at the Heybridge basin affording lovely views of boats bobbing gently on the water and in the flat landscape, some beautiful big skies.  The tearoom is run by Wilkin & sons who make the Tiptree jams & preserves.  It is located in a long clapperboard building right by the basin, and we entered and selected our table.




The menu comprises the usual cream tea, an afternoon tea special which includes a sandwich, and the traditional English afternoon tea which is the full works of sandwiches, scones, and patisseries. However, after such a tasty and filling curry, we mostly opted for cakes, except for hubby who as you will anticipate, dear reader, opted for a cream tea!

As one might expect, the choice of jam to accompany the scones was myriad, and husband was very satisfied with his little scarlet strawberry preserve.  I chose a St Clement's cake which came in a large slice, but was slightly disappointing in it's lack of citrussy flavours.  Our companion had patisserie which again was large and very creamy.  The tea was a pleasant afternoon blend and all was served on plain white china.

Our tea concluded, we then took a further stroll across the lock and along the basin to observe the plentiful water fowl and dramatic skies before returning, with grateful thanks to our dear friends,  from yet another delightful teatime adventure!

Melinsey Mill, Veryan, Cornwall

Now I know that there are some of you who have taken to visiting the tearooms which I have written about, and so far these have all been in Kent - with the exception of last month's London adventure.  However, you may be seriously challenged with August's teatime adventure as it took place during the family holiday to Cornwall.  We were first introduced to this particular tearoom a number of years ago by friends who live in Cornwall, but even they found great difficulty in actually locating it and after driving around the area for quite some time, I recall that directions were finally requested.  However, once found - never forgotten and we have made a point of visiting regularly since.

 The tea room at Melinsey Mill is located on the beautiful Roseland peninsular on the south Cornish coast.  It is now well signed from the Tregony-St Mawes road and a dark winding lane takes you down to the secluded valley bottom where suddenly you come upon this little treasure.  It is beautifully unkempt with tables made from mill stones and rustic chairs arranged haphazardly around the mill pond.  There are a couple of wooden shelters, but otherwise some simple tarpaulin is the only defense against precipitation.  There are no menus, but the wide range of simple excellent homemade cakes is on display in the little kitchen building.  On offer today were carrot, coffee & walnut, Victoria sponge, scones, brownies, chocolate cake, treacle, bakewell tart, and almond slice. 








We chose to sit in one of the shelters and ordered tea for two and elderflower for two.  The tea came with a pot of hot water.  All the cakes that we ordered were well received - the chocolate cake is dark and not too sweet, a light sponge with very chocolatey buttercream filling; the bakewell tart was described as lovely and sticky. We also had a brownie and an almond slice.  All the cakes were generously proportioned.

I must say that Melinsey Mill counts as one of my absolutely favourite tea places, because it is nestles comfortably in it's wild natural surroundings; it is unpretentious and although the menu is not as extensive as some (no varieties of tea or coffee for example); the quality of the home-baking more than amply makes up for this.  The toilet facilities are housed in the mill where you can also see the mill workings and purchase some local crafts.  

So if, like me, you enjoy an excellent cake and a really good cuppa served up in friendly fashion in quirky, wild surroundings, then do make the trip down to Cornwall!  You will be rewarded.