Help with afternoon tea supplier

[Belovedfool]

I'm planning on sending my FIL an afternoon tea delivery for his birthday. He'll be 85 and is housebound with Parkinsons, but still enjoys a nice wee cake. We're 250 miles away so even without the Parkinsons, taking them out isn't an option, but we thought an afternoon tea delivery would be nice for him and MIL to enjoy.

I've been looking online and there's some amazing choices, but I'm wondering if anyone could recommend any, from experience?

Budget is £40, there's just the 2 of them and they'd prefer mainly sweet elements. I've found one on Piglets Pantry that looks absolutely scrummy but it has a lot of savoury elements and I know fine well those bits would just be thrown out or given away. The Cornish Company's cream tea hamper looks pretty good. I've also considered the M & S afternoon tea, which looks good value, but it's not massively exciting..

Any recommendations?

What area does he live in? The best afternoon teas imo tend to be from small tearooms who do their own deliveries.

Have a look at Fitzbillies. They’re based in London and Cambridge, but post anywhere, and are very highly regarded, so people tell me, and certainly are by me and family! I’d never heard of them until a friend sent me a gift box with Chelsea buns, Macarons and shortbread which were all superb.

I’ve looked, and their afternoon tea in a box is £60, so maybe over budget, but everything is sweet! Lots of other gift boxes. Just to say, I’ve never had Chelsea buns like theirs before or since!

I'll look at Fitzbillies, thanks. They're in Peterborough, so it's not a million miles away.

The problem with using a local place (to them) is that I don't know any of them, sadly. I'm going to ask my sis in law, see if she can suggest anywhere but if she can't, we'll have to do post order.

Don't have experience of them but piglets pantry have a vegetarian for two on Groupon just now.

I've had a few of the M&S afternoon tea hampers, and they've all been very nice, well packed and with good long dates on the items. They would fit the bill for your requirements, as they contain mainly cakes and biscuits, and are within your price range. The Ultimate Afternoon Tea is especially good value at £20.

Last year I had a Betty's hamper, which I thought was expensive for what it contained and I wasn't very impressed with the quality of the items.

We’ve had Piglets a few times and it’s good value IMHO.

The cakes/scones are a really decent size.

The savoury bits are very tasty too- and flavourful enough that they are worth eating ( even with my sweet tooth),

Piglets really does look fantastic....but I know they'd feed the savoury stuff to the neighbours and I don't want to waste my money on that!!
It looks like the M & S one might be what we go for. I love the idea of a proper cornish cream tea but suspect they'd throw half of that out too......
So blooming difficult to choose! Thanks all for the help. We've still got a few weeks till we need to order so will discuss.

I can highly recommend Chef de la Maison in Peterborough. They catered our wedding and we also had deliveries from them
during lockdown. Very reliable and reasonably priced with lots of options to choose from.
chefdelamaison.tapldoo.com/order-now?type=delivery

Ooh thanks!!! Local is good