Afternoon Tea at the Park Hyatt

It's that time of the year again! My friend and I celebrate our mid-year holiday every year with a very girly afternoon tea outing. Mid-year is a holiday we made up a number of years ago, which marks the approximate halfway point in the calendar year. The official holiday falls on June 27 but we usually celebrate during the weekend before or after. This year, we celebrated with afternoon tea at the Park Hyatt. Tea time is from 3pm to 5pm in the hotel's Annona restaurant and we had a wonderful time! The service was good, the tea was great, and the food was tasty. I had the Imperial Earl Grey and my friend had the Emperor's Jasmine.



The finger sandwiches and canapés were served to us on little plates - I liked the variety. Some afternoon tea services offer mostly little sandwiches (with different fillings), but this collection of savouries was diverse in presentation and flavour.

Crispy Cone of Shrimp Mousse, Parsley & Matane Emince
Cheddar Watercress Pinwheel on Wholewheat
Albacore Tuna Tartlet with Caper & Green Asparagus
Smoked Salmon Crepe Pinwheel with Cream Cheese & Dill
Chicken Mousse & Mushroom Fingers on Brioche

My friend liked the crispy cone the best. I kinda liked them all the best. :)



Can I just take a moment to comment on how STUNNING my friend looks? She's wearing a dress that she bought specifically for an event (she was a guest at a wedding overseas) and the blue looks fantastic on her. I also love her with straight across bangs - I think this hairstyle suits her perfectly.

The tea pastries were served in a classic afternoon tea three tiered tray.

Top Tier:
Hazelnut Buttercream Layer Cake
Red Velvet Mini Cupcake

Middle Tier:
Baked Cheesecake with Apricot Compote
White Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Cream Profiterole
Cherry Clafoutis Tartlette
Confectioner’s Sugar Dusted Mini Madeleine

Bottom Tier:
Orange, Currant, & Cream Scones served with Classic Clotted Cream & Fruit Preserves

I haven't really had much of a sweet tooth lately but these pastries were pretty good all around. The cheesecake in particular was delicious and an interesting addition to the usual lineup of afternoon tea pastries - I'm not even a fan of cheesecake and it was probably my favourite sweet treat besides the scones. I'm a HUGE fan of scones so of course the bottom tier was my favourite. I loved how the scones were miniature and we each got three. I gobbled them all up. We had to ask for more clotted cream.



We sat and chatted until the restaurant was forced to kick us out due to Summerlicious reservations. They did so very politely though. :) We made our way to the lobby where we enjoyed some sweet treats that my friend purchased for us! She ordered some custom marshmallows from Boomf. The marshmallows were adorned with photos of us throughout the years - we do photo projects from time to time, we travel together, and we generally have a jolly good time together so it was fun to re-live some of our memories. What a lovely, pillowy surprise!



Here are the marshmallows! I think they look fabulous. :)



The 'mallows were so cute that I couldn't bear to eat them... but of course we did. They were soft and pillowy and sweet - just as they should be. Thank you to my dear friend for a wonderful afternoon and the sweet surprise!