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The Sun
3 days ago
- The Sun
Four of the UK's coolest afternoon teas from Mexican snacks to flower-themed cakes
NATIONAL Afternoon Tea Week starts tomorrow and hotels across the country have been warming their baking ovens and prepping their finger-sandwich fillings for the occasion. From floral pastries in botanical gardens, to Mexican-inspired scones in quirky hotels, Sophie Swietochowski picks out the best afternoon teas to celebrate. 2 2 The Crown Hotel, Harrogate, North Yorks Harrogate's charming Crown has been serving afternoon tea since the 1880s – so they've certainly had time to master the ritual. Their summer tea is an absolute steal at £26 per head and includes all the best sandwich fillings such as egg mayo and smoked salmon, plus scones and various sweet treats. Make sure to try the chocolate, rum and pistachio delice. See Virgin Hotels London-Shoreditch You'll have to be quick to bag a table at this fun-packed tea that's fuelled by tipples, as it's available for the next two weeks only. To celebrate the launch of Virgin Atlantic's new route to Mexico, special afternoon tea-quila (see what they've done there?) experiences will be taking place throughout the week at this glorious East London hotel. Expect Mexican twists on classic treats – including a strawburrito, crammed with grilled strawberries and mexi-scones, flavoured with Cheddar and jalapeno. Better still, diners will have the chance to bag up to 65 per cent off a Mexican holiday to Cancun. GO: The experience costs £49.50pp, and guests can upgrade to a cocktail pairing menu, featuring three tequila-inspired concoctions for an additional £35pp. Underrated towns you need to visit See Gleddoch Golf & Spa Resort, Glasgow If you take your tea with a spoonful of countryside views, then there's no better place to sip it than at Gleddoch Golf & Spa Resort, in rugged Port Glasgow. Scoff down finger sandwiches stuffed with pastrami ham and delicate Victoria sponge cakes, before strolling the grounds. Be sure to check out the 18-hole golf course with greens that are guaranteed to impress any keen player. GO: Afternoon tea costs from £35pp. See The Retreat at Elcot Park, West Berks Sophisticated folk will be flocking here, where the petit fours are as elegant as the manicured gardens. A botanical-themed tea incorporates classic British flavours into dainty pastries and nibbles, including cucumber-and- cream cheese open sandwiches, Cheddar custard tarts topped with marigold petals and lemon-and-poppy seed scones. GO: Botanical afternoon tea costs £42pp, including a glass of AIX rosé. Botanical-themed cocktails cost an additional £12 each. See Bovey Castle, Devon What could be more grand than tea in a castle? With the rolling hills of Dartmoor National Park on its doorstep, five-star Bovey Castle is crawling with history, having transformed from a manor house into a hospital during World War One, before becoming the golf hotel it is today. It may never have operated as a castle, but it's still a lovely place to spend an afternoon while tucking into salt beef sarnies, pork and apple sausage rolls and choux buns oozing with meringue filling. Little ones can tuck into a mini version too. GO: A traditional Afternoon Tea at Bovey Castle, Devon is from £45pp or £60 with champagne. A Children's Afternoon Tea is £15.
Otago Daily Times
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Music month offers variety
Dr Reknaw weave a web of peace and positivity. Photo: Ashley Hillier DR REKNAW Album: Miracles The Crown Hotel, Ōtepoti, May 3 Every May, NZ Music Month/ Te Marama Puoro o Aotearoa brings a wave of fresh music, as bands drop new albums to mark the occasion. In the first half of the month, Ōtepoti is being treated to a diverse array of album release shows from both local and touring acts. Excitingly, these albums are all independent releases, a testament to the fact that the DIY spirit is thriving in our musical communities. The relaxed grooves of Wellington reggae/soul/folk outfit Dr. Reknaw's album Miracles weave a web of peace and positivity around listeners, gently urging them to pause and consider the possibility that everything is going to be all right after all. Alongside the hallmarks of classic reggae, the album features liquid psychedelic guitar, Latin-flavoured flourishes and swirling rock riffs. The final track — surely the one they refer to as "nun rock" — with its violin, piano and clicking fingers, feels like an old-world spiritual ushering in of a new utopian era. Throughout, Miracles frontwomen and sisters Julia and Sophie Cooper radiate sizzling synergy, shifting between angelic purity, sultry whispers and soulful power as they deliver timely reminders of how we can thrive in this complex world. "Gotta make time for yourself", they remind us. "Put yourself on a pedestal" and "be a conscious creator". And when they say "we gotta get higher", you know they aren't just talking about spirituality, although they most definitely are. A tip for experts — if you're wondering who Dr. Reknaw is, try reading it backwards. The Fabulists deliver potent retro flavour. Photo: Shane Gilchrist THE FABULISTS Album: The Sky Spill Secrets Pearl Diver, Ōtepoti, May 3 Ōtepoti band The Fabulists present themselves as peacocks in a monochrome city — storytellers and conjurers of marvels. Their new album The Sky Spills Secrets draws from a wide palette — including plump synth bass, strummed acoustic guitar, washy textures, deep sonorous vocals and an eclectic mix of samples — and mixes these ingredients into a variety of different forms. Listeners are treated to bass-heavy dance floor bangers, lazy summer day songs and power ballads with epic emotional shifts. Straight 8 — a gently crooned, David Bowie-inflected critique of modern life — has biting lyrics: "Turn on your big TV, the plot is getting deeper. Fast-fry last night's meal, yet still it's under-heated". Some tracks on The Sky Spills Secrets could slip under the radar on a Classic Hits of the '80s radio station, others make you sit up in surprise — often both simultaneously. The Fabulists recognise this, describing The Sky Spills Secrets as "a strange mix of cohesion and chaos". The cohesion is to be found in the potent retro flavour, the distinctive vocal stylings and in the faintly cheesy quality that runs through the album. Whether this touch of kitsch is a self-aware wink or simply an accidental flourish is open to interpretation. But overall, the addition of the chaos makes The Sky Spills Secrets a perplexing listen; The Fabulists' vision is so uncommon that it's difficult to place — but that is undoubtedly part of its charm. Powder Chute are immense and confident. Photo: Nat Warburton POWDER CHUTES Album: Powder Chutes The Crown Hotel, Ōtepoti, May 9 The members of Wānaka grunge/hard rock band Powder Chutes may still be in their teens, but they're already hitting the big time, their eponymous album sitting at No 4 on the Official Top 20 Aotearoa Album Chart. Head-spinningly, four of Powder Chute's songs have been shoulder-tapped by Classic Rock Magazine for their "best new rock songs you need to hear right now" column. It's not hard to see why the band are receiving these accolades — their sound is immense and confident as they erect walls of complex, layered noise, reminiscent of classic bands like Sound Garden or Pearl Jam. It's a relentless barrage, packed with riffs and high energy, that demands good speakers to be felt properly. Everything here pulses with symphonic grunge urgency — even the misleadingly titled Mellow Track refuses to dial it down. The lads take influence from the cookbooks of many genres — occasionally an emo flavour is identifiable in the vocals, elsewhere tasting notes of System of a Down are evident in the mantra-like chanting. The subject matter is the nuts and bolts of life — the enduring teenage topography of existential troubleshooting, unrequited love, fraught family relationships and getting blackout sloshed — all rendered with beyond-their-years maturity and poeticism.
