Afternoon Tea.........sandwiches?

[BuyOrBake]

Which sandwiches fillings would you expect to be served at an afternoon tea?

I'm helping organise one for charity and we can't agree, so I thought I would ask here for advice.

I'm not saying what we are debating having yet so that it doesn't affect the responses.

There is always salmon and cream cheese (which I despise, this is how I remember its usually in an afternoon tea!).

At a well known event this week it was egg mayonnaise and cress, salmon with cream cheese and chives, and ham and cheese.

A local tea room does prawn mayonnaise in addition.

Ham/roast beef and mustard, egg and cress 💕💕💕 salmon and cucumber???? That's what I consider to be the posh afternoon tea option lol. Oooh and cream cheese?? 🤢🤢 I'm getting hungry now lol

Egg and cress

Cucumber or creamcheese & cucumber
Smoked salmon
Egg & Cress
Ham & mustard
Prawn mayo
Cheese & pickle

Not all of the above but those fillings are some of what I’ve seen on afternoon tea menus. You could also do roast beef & horseradish.

Salmon and cream cheese.
Egg mayo & cress
ham & mustard or pickle
beef & horseradish
cucumber and cream cheese

Coronation chicken
Tuna and mayonnaise

Smoked salmon, maybe with cream cheese
Cucumber (ditto.. but with CC in either / or, not both)
Egg and Cress
Ham

The egg and cress in a bridge roll.

I don't think people would expect quite the same 'level' or variety for a charity afternoon tea as they would at a fancy hotel.

If you did egg mayonnaise possibly with cress, ham and tomato, cream cheese and cucumber and cheese and pickle, that would be absolutely fine.

Prawn mayonnaise and smoked salmon with cream cheese and/or cucumber is also common, but obviously more expensive so you'd have to be a bit picky to have an issue with not including those when it's for charity.

Given our demographic we are agreed so far on .

Egg and cress.
Ham ( we know mustard won't be popular)
Cucumber and cream cheese.

We want one more and can't decide!

A mixed cheese would give us a second veggie option, I don't think smoked salmon or prawm would be a crowd pleaser and are more expensive

Any other veggie options?

As you have one near and two veggies I would do either tuna or prawn as the fourth option.

I've gone these kind of events and mass appeal was the aim. We did. Hamb salad, cheese a pickle, egg mayo with cress and tuna mayo.

Cheese & Pickle is a crowd pleaser & veggie.

I've had a lovely roasted red pepper sandwich for afternoon tea before. It wasn't soggy which would be my concern making it.

Oh god the typos on mine 😅

Cheddar cheese with a nice tomato chutney could be good.

Cheese
Ham
Egg mayo 🤮
Coronation chicken
Salmon

I made an afternoon tea for a family birthday and did some hummus and cucumber sandwiches which went down well with the vegetarians and vegans. I like a little spice (harissa) in with mine but not always popular with everyone!

I think they have to be more interesting/ colourful than usual ham/ cheese/ chicken mayo sandwiches. It’s about variety and presentation rather then very expensive ingredients imo.
I had a goat cheese and some sort fig jam recently and ham and tomato but in a fancy roll. I even saw a sausage roll included a few times but again it was a bit more complicated roll than usual.

You could do brie and cranberry. Or mozzarella, pesto and sun dried tomato (but be aware that not all pesto is vegetarian due to parmesan cheese, but many pre-made ones will be).

You'll also have to decide how to serve to vegetarians. Make up a few vegetarian plates and randomly allocate an extra one of the vegetarian sandwiches in lieu of the ham or make them to order? Either way you might have a few spare ham sandwiches but you could always eat those yourself or offer as substitutions to those who don't want egg etc. Or just let everyone choose their own sandwiches off serving plates?

Apart from hummus and carrot I can't really think of vegan alternatives, but I think afternoon tea is never going to be something that's attractive/easily adapted for vegans unless you're a specialist vegan caterer, so sadly they'll probably need to sit this one out.

Saw your update. Cucumber and soft cheese would look like you missed the salmon , at least for me. I would go for hummus and cucumber as @Roastiesarethebestbit suggested.
Coronation chicken would be a good 4th option.

Smoked salmon a bit pricey for a charity function, I would do tuna and mayo.

Or cream cheese and pinapple? There was a deli I used to go there that did that, it was amazing. The pineapple was sort of mushed.

Cream cheese and cranberry?

I would go for tuna or rainbow veggie wraps look pretty.

Roasted veg and hummus
Smoked tofu with harissa vegan mayo
Coronation chickpeas

Cheddar and chutney