To dislike afternoon tea?

[Watermelonsugarcube]

I’ve never had an afternoon tea I’ve enjoyed - can’t work work out whether I’ve just been unlucky and never had a good one, or if they’re always just crap in general.

Admittedly I don’t have much of a sweet tooth so that’s probably skewing my opinion, though I’d like an actual good selection of sandwiches rather than 3 microscopic bits of sarnie with boring fillings.

Then who actually wants to eat 2 scones followed by a massive pile of cakes? The last one I had included cake pops. Cake pops I tell you - is it 2004? Sorry, I digress.

I always feel like I have to eat this massive pile of cake, because I’ve paid for it and am tight, then come away feeling sick from sugar overload. (Not a competitive mumsnet underrating boast btw, I could eat my- considerable- bodyweight in chips etc).

Hardly a shocker that people have different preferences I realise, though I have so many friends and family member who absolutely rave about it - I can’t be the only one!?

Afternoon tea used to be a pleasant break from shopping with friends: a pot of tea, a few sandwiches, a scone with jam and clotted cream if they wanted to call it a cream tea and a cake or two.
It didn't used to be sold as a special event (except at the best London Hotels, and was a nice thing to have at tearooms across the land. Now it has become 'an event' it contains more food than the average banquet and costs as much. Dreadful.

Love them! Went to The Ritz for afternoon tea once and I was amazing, light cakes, beautiful delicate finger sandwiches, beautiful (but very expensive).

Others I've been too not so great, overly sweet cakes, hard scones and thick sandwiches on cheap bread.

Prefer a cream tea myself 😀

I love them, I'm taking dd (4) to a Paddington bear one next week, I think I am more excited than she is! Also the Charlie and the Chocolate factory fancy one we had in London was magnificent for someone who loves chocolate as much as I do.

Yes I've heard of savoury afternoon teas.
It's the performance and atmosphere I love. The cakes can be hit or miss, I agree.
My friend made one for me my last birthday and it was fab. She got out her grandmother's floral china, used a table cloth and went all out. All that was missing was the tiered serving plates!
And I made one for us for the Jubilee this year as my daughter was studying for exams, the benefit of homemade is sandwiches and cakes you like!

I blame wowcher and Groupon!! I love a good afternoon tea, but with these sites offering 'cheap' deals they've flooded the market with poor imitations.

And a good scone is light and fluffy, and never dry, thats what the jam and cream are for!!

It's about the sandwiches for me. The Landmark's chicken sandwich was lush and I don't think I could recreate it at home.

I'm less bothered about the cakes bar the macarons (which seem to cost an eye watering amount if you try to buy them).

YANBU

I don't like restaurant/hotel afternoon teas

But love them when home made

I'm a fussy eater though so guaranteed to not like any of the shit they've put in the sandwiches and 90% of the fancy, weird textured cakes too

I was going to mention clotted cream but only to say it's revolting.

Afternoon tea is the WORST. horrible sweet carby unsatisfying crap that leaves you too full to eat your supper. A cup of tea and a biscuit at 4pm is amazing, maybe a scone or a great piece of homemade cake after a huge amount of physical or mental exertion but afternoon tea is the devil. Thanks for starting this thread @Watermelonsugarcube and I hope your views on other matters are as faultlessly correct as this.

……. Also , I think I’m one of the few that found the Ritz AT a big disappointment. Food was ok, went with a girlfriend, we were told we couldn’t take any photo’s. That was ok until we noticed a group of obviously rich hooray Henrietta’s who were snapping away with their Phones, and being fawned over by the staff. So ….. look rich and bray a lot and you’ll be ok !