Tea at Harrods

It has been warm, and sunny, and the sky has been a beautiful blue the past couple days! Today it is raining, but I have some homework to do so I am not upset about it. Also, it hasn't rained here as much as I thought it would, so I can't complain.

For those of you who don't know what Harrods is, it's a very large, extremely expensive department store in London. In fact we looked up the address and it stretches from house number 87-135! When we went a couple weeks ago I got these pictures of it lit up at night. 

As well as a picture of one of the stores inside. I just loved the architecture and the ceiling! 

When I say extremely expensive, I mean out of price range expensive. I was hesitant to look at any of the price tags, but curious as well. We walked around for a bit before I cold bring myself to do it. I found a generic, sleeveless, tan, top with a bit of detailing around the neckline, thinking it wouldn't be too outrageous. The price for this piece was around £2,500! This I thought was absolutely ridiculous for a shirt of its quality. On that first visit, we also found out that cream tea at The Tea Room in Harrods isn't as expensive as we thought. It costs about £12. So ever since our first visit we had been wanting to have the quintessential London experience of tea at Harrods.

For those of you who don’t know what the difference between cream tea and afternoon tea is, I will explain. Cream tea is what we have been ordering, because it is so much less expensive. At Harrods, afternoon tea is £29, which is a much higher price than the £12 cream tea. Both options come with your choice of tea or coffee. Each person gets his or her own teapot with loose-leaf tea. You must remember to use the small strainer provided to catch the tealeaves that would otherwise end up at the bottom of your cup. Cream tea is served with one or two scones, jam, and clotted cream. If you haven’t heard of clotted cream, don’t worry, neither had I until arriving to the UK. Clotted cream has the consistency of butter, but melts like frosting when warmed by a hot scone. Its taste is somewhere between butter and cool whip, but not too sweet. It can be hard or impossible to find in the US but is fairly easy to make, the recipe can be found here. Afternoon tea is a much more substantial snack. It usually comes with sandwiches, pastries, cakes, scones, or some combination of those things. There is also high tea, which is more of a blue-collar meal usually served with a meat dish eaten by workers who would come home and be too hungry to wait until the dinner hour of 8 o’clock for a substantial meal.

On Wednesday we finally got to Harrods for cream tea. Our tea came with the following: our own tea-pot with our choice of tea, I ordered Earl Grey, two delicious scones, clotted cream, and strawberry and raspberry jam which came in little jars which we kept. I now drink my tea like the English, first pouring in the milk, then the tea, then adding a bit of sugar. The metal thing to the right is the strainer for the tea.

It was the perfect snack to tide us over until Singin' in the Rain! 

Have a wonderfully marvelous day, cheers! ~Laura