Tea at lebua

The story goes like this. Back in 1661, Charles II of England decided to marry the Portuguese infant, Catherine of Braganza. With Charles II of England, she regularly eats a light meal snack in the afternoon, where she brought this practice with her from Portugal and to the British Empire; the afternoon tea. Afternoon tea eventually became famous among European countries and many others.

                Though the afternoon tea tradition is famous, it does not have a chance to introduce itself to Thais. Only a selection of hotels has them. I guess many Thai people are not familiar with afternoon tea (including me). Due to the change in social customs, we are usually busy in the afternoon. Not many people have 2-3 hours of free time in the afternoon. I’m so excited to be introduced to this tradition by lebua; The lebua’s Victorian Afternoon Tea.

Location

                 lebua’s afternoon tea section is located in the main lobby, hidden from public view by 3 big European style pillars. A little while after I lower my body comfortably in the chair, I sense something that is really ‘nose stimulating’, it’s a hot towel with lemon fragrance. This claims to make your nose sense the tea’s aromas better. 

                Not so long after the hot towel, a tea pot, a rack of bit-size pastries (about 10 of them), scones with strawberry jam and Devonshire clotted cream were brought to rest perfectly on the desk. These were all punctiliously made and baked by lebua’s pastries specialist; Chef Gilles Delaloy.

Collection of alcoholic beverage

Not like what we drink in the morning or in office where all we need is a tea sag, cup and hot water. The loose tea was brewed in a pot and poured through a tea strainer to filter out the leaves and herbs. I’m going to be honest that at first I doubted that it couldn’t be that much better than my everyday medium price tea bag; but all doubts evaporated when my lips touch the cup. Though I’m not really a fan of tea, it was superb. Not like general jasmine green tea where jasmine and green tea both trying to dominate over each other, it combines perfectly. The assimilation of taste and aroma truly is sublime.

Waitress on duty

Moving on to the pastries, I had a feeling that I should start with a scone, strawberry jam, and Devonshire clotted cream. I spread both jam and cream equally on one half of my horizontally split scone and take a bite. The scone and jam were not that distinctive, but with Devonshire clotted cream this set is my top recommendation. After the last bite, I lift the cup slowly to my lips and I notice that I’m sipping an empty cup.

After pouring my 2^nd cup, I transfer the chocolate praline to my plate with a pastry tong. Chocolate praline is ‘the must’ for you if you are coming to lebua. Nothing I say will do justice to this bitter chocolate with a ‘melt-in-mouth’ recipe praline; you just need to come and define it yourself. The set of pastries will change every time you come, but these twos that I had mentioned earlier are what you can expect to come for sure. I don’t want to spoil the rest and even if I try, it would take me too long.

                If you do like to have a nice afternoon off and isolate yourself from the hustle and bustle of metropolitan Bangkok, have an afternoon tea with someone here at lebua. I believe you are going to have a good time like me.