Top London hotel Claridges
has been award the accolade of Best Place in London for Afternoon tea by the Tea council.Now in their 21st year the The Top Tea awards see a team of mystery tea drinkers visit each hotel using a checklist with 17 criteria, ranging from décor and crockery to varieties of teas available, to select the very best. This year they added Awards of Excellence, second place basically, and dished these out to the Four Seasons at Hamilton Place, the Savoy, the Milestone hotels and last year’s winner, the Lanesborough.
But the top place in the whole of the UK has been awarded to Hazelmere Café & Bakery in Cumbria. The owners, Dorothy and Ian Stubley, travel extensively overseas to buy their teas, and impressed their mystery inspectors by offering a 'wonderful range of top quality teas which are brewed and served to perfection'. They received top marks in all of the tea categories assessed, with one inspector concluding that the cup of tea they were served was “out of this world”.
