Bea’s of Bloomsbury has been on my list of ‘must visit’ café’s for ages so when my friend’s Japanese girlfriend mentioned that she’d love to experience a traditional English afternoon tea I knew exactly where to take her. I gathered together a motley, cake eating crew and we headed on down to Bloomsbury to the cake haven that is Bea’s…
The shop front is quite understated and if I hadn’t been purposefully going there I think I would have walked straight past completely oblivious to the amazing cake-like goodies awaiting me inside…
We had to wait a few minutes for our table to be vacated and relaid, which wasn’t a problem as I had the cake display to keep me occupied…
The staff were really friendly and very accommodating when 2 extra friends came along as late entries to join our table.
Once settled, we were asked to choose from the tea menu…
I went for the vanilla black, which was delicious and fragrant and the perfect accompaniment to the afternoon tea, which consisted of a scone with jam and clotted cream, a cupcake, a mini valrhona brownie, a mini belgian blondie, a mini meringue and a home made marshmallow…
The scones were my favourite part, they were so moist, light and mouthwatering-ly delicious (even more so when piled high with strawberry jam and lashings of clotted cream)…
There were a few varieties of cupcakes on our stand, the choice was tough but in the end I opted for this one…
I didn’t sample them all but I was reliably informed by my friends that they were all delicious. Both the sponge and the frosting were extremely light and I loved the fact that although sweet they weren’t too sickly, plus they were beautiful…
We made a valiant effort to do as we were instructed on the cake stand…
but in the end we were beaten by cake (I never thought I would see the day) and had to leave a few lonely morsels amongst out afternoon tea aftermath…
Our Bea’s experience was lovely…totally unpretentious, delicious and such a bargain at only £9.90!
I was very excited to read on my way out that a second Bea’s is due to open at the end of October in St Pauls…
Right around the corner from where I work…danger danger!
Afternoon Tease 