So I actually graduated last week! And to celebrate, we went to check out another tea room.

Eteaket is a well established brand of its own, it even featured at the Baftas 2015. Even so, I had never heard of it and so had no preconceived ideas about the place clouding my judgements at all.

 

Upon entering you are immediately struck by the loud, loud colours and the delicious scents coming from the kitchen. There are some dangerously seductive sweets on the counter, and like Anteaques the front of the tea room is also a shop. There’s a large assortment of tea bags you could buy here, as well as cups and pots.

The actual seats are a bit further back in the room, so you can sit in private peace and not be bothered by an active shop counter.

I have to admit, the interior is not quite my cup of tea.
Sure, it is clean and colourful, and actually the teacups and pots are very cute, but I somehow felt like I was at a “young” and “hip” school’s art department. This may be because the wackiness of the decor is obviously planned out to the t: there is not really an authentically casual feel about the place. This is probably because the aim of Eteaket is to revamp the image of tea, shake of its stuffy old image, and to make it more popular with the youth.

My family disagreed with my dislike though, and I was soon proved wrong by the astonishing quality of the afternoon tea.

We ordered the “Famous Afternoon Tea”, which is very good value for money. It includes a massive scone, 4 sandwiches per person, a free choice of their teas, and a couple of sweets. Sure, the clotted cream was just butter, but overall we were all greatly impressed by the quality, and quantity, of the food and tea.

I chose the Rose Flower Blossom tea, because I had actually never tried a Treasure Tea before and I wanted something light and refreshing to go with the afternoon. Although this is kind of an expensive tea, it is included in the afternoon tea package.

Rose Flower Blossom is a tea of handsewn green tea leaves and flower petals, in this case roses and, I suspect, golden marigold.
The bundle is put into a glass teapot so you can see it open and “blossom”, as it were. When the flowers are completely opened the tea is ready for drinking.

This is such an elegant, light tea. Absolutely perfect for a refreshing afternoon tea.

All in all, I had a wonderful time at Eteaket, which was definitely not at all coloured by the festivities of graduation and the bubbles that come with that. Sure, the look of the place is not what I would have gone for, but I get why they went for this style and honestly, the quality and pricing is so right that it really does not matter at all.