Afternoon Tea Adventures; Malmaison (New Menu April 2018), Birmingham

I love the afternoon teas at Malmaison. Last summer I came with a friend to try their afternoon tea and really enjoyed it. I also came with friends to try their festive afternoon tea. Again this was lovely.  Malmaison have just introduced their new summer afternoon tea menu and clearly this new menu was something I was eager to try out.

While our table was being prepared we had a cocktail in the lounge. Their cosmopolitan was lovely and was served with some delicious spicy nuts; the the right taste of spice.

For the savoury course the new menu includes a smoked salmon, cucumber & cream cheese bagel, egg mayonnaise sub roll and a Louisiana slider.  As with most bagels I found the salmon and cream cheese bagel to be a little chewy.  I’m not really a fan of untoasted bagels for this very reason but of course this is a personal choice.  The egg mayonnaise sub roll was lovely and the chicken Louisiana slider was delicious; perfectly cooked moist chicken with a spicy batter.  I really love Malmaison for the reason the savoury course isn’t your traditional finger sandwiches.

There was a plain scone with clotted cream and strawberry preserve.  The scone was delicious with a lovely crumbly texture.

For the sweet course there was a seasonal strawberry cheesecake, salted caramel chocolate brownie, Bakewell tart, double chocolate cupcake & a chocolate shake.  As I said earlier this is the fourth time I have had afternoon tea at Malmaison in Birmingham and I have to say I was quite disappointed with the sweet course.  The cheesecake was warm, I know it had been sat on the table for nearly an hour by the time it was eaten but it far warmer than I would have expected.  I got the impression it hadn’t been chilled for sometime which meant it was far too liquidic and the basic base was quite mushy instead of a firm biscuit base.  The bakewell tart also didn’t live up to the standard of food I had become to expect from Malmaison.  It honestly seemed like it had been cooked a little too much.  It wasn’t burnt but the pastry was a little harder and the almond sponge a little dry.

The double chocolate cupcake, brownie and milk shake were lovely however, they were very heavy is chocolate flavouring which felt like there was too much chocolate and I didn’t enjoy the three chocolate items as much as I thought I would.  It felt like something zesty was missing to clear the palette from the chocolate overload.

I enjoyed this afternoon tea but overall I was disappointed with the sweet course; there was too much chocolate, over cooked tart and unchilled cheesecake.  Add in the lack of something zesty, perhaps a lemon cheese cake (?), I didn’t enjoy this afternoon tea as much as I hoped.

There are vegetarian and gluten free options also available.  The afternoon tea is priced at £19.95 and  the champagne and cocktail afternoon teas are priced at £27.  There is also a cream tea priced at £12 which consists of fruit or plain scones, clotted cream & strawberry jam, carrot cake and salted chocolate brownie with your choice of speciality teas.  All of the teas are available at Malmaison hotels throughout the UK.