Tea time

Afternoon tea and treats.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Afternoon tea is a year-round ritual in London, but this time of year - when Londoners celebrate the queen's birthday, the races at the royal enclosure at Ascot, and now Wimbledon - may be high season for formal sipping.

London's top hotels have long traditions of tea service. Claridge's has served afternoon tea for almost 150 years, to patrons from titled folks to James Bond to tourists. The current menu features more than 20 carefully sourced teas - Lovell has scoured the globe to find exquisite choices from small, little-known producers that all use sustainable farming practices. In addition to White Silver Tip, the current menu includes the rare Malawi Antler, which is made from the shoots of the tea plant and cannot be found anywhere else in the UK, the hotel says. There is also an Earl Grey from Tregothnan, a walled tea garden in Cornwall that has been producing fine teas since the 14th century.

As absorbing as the tea selection is, my friends and I are at least as focused on what came with it.

Is that real Cornish clotted cream with those fresh-baked scones? Indeed. Also alongside the plain and raisin studded pastries is Marco Polo jelly, the popular tea-infused jam.

The setting is key to the pleasure of afternoon tea as well. At Claridge's, it's served in the grand but light and airy art deco foyer and reading room, on the hotel's signature Bernardaud green-and-white porcelain. A classical pianist tinkles the ivories in the background, on an instrument smothered at one end by a huge pot of mint, which is regularly snipped for peppermint tea by the kitchen staff.