The Kensington’s new Art of Afternoon Tea: Review

Set within The Drawing Room of the stylish The Kensington, this new afternoon is themed around some of the most famous works of fine art, from creations by Banksy to Alicja Kwade, taking inspiration from the nearby V&A Museum.

I was invited to try the new afternoon tea and went to experience it with my mum, who is herself a former art student and self-confessed art lover.

The Kensington is a stylish location for afternoon tea (Image: Emily Davison)

Having been to The Kensington in the past for their afternoon teas, I was confident that it would feature some beautifully crafted treats and I wasn’t wrong.

After being seated we first began with a glass of champagne, before being presented with our designed menus featuring commissioned artwork and a menu of the treats on offer.

The afternoon tea is presented in the Drawing Room (Image: Emily Davison)

To begin with we started off with a selection of sandwiches, including St. Ewe Egg with watercress, Chapel & Swan smoked salmon with lemon cream cheese, Cucumber with mint cream, and Pastrami with gherkin and horseradish

This was followed by two warm and freshly baked scones, each including a plain and fruit scone served with clotted cream and strawberry jam.

We were also offered more sandwiches and scones if we were still hungry too.

We began with champagne and a selection of sandwiches (Image: Emily Davison)

Then moving onto the sweet treats, which showcased the culinary talents of the chefs, there were four sweets crafted to represent different works of art.

The first out of the four I tried was a dark chocolate mousse tart with passion fruit parfait, inspired by James Pollock’s famed ‘drip technique’, this dessert was delicious with a rich combination of flavours from the chocolate and passion fruit.

I then tried the Mango mousse fashioned like a pumpkin, inspired by the works of artist Yayoi Kusama, this was like a little work of art and ended up being my favourite out of all the sweet treats, with the mango flavour mixed with coconut yoghurt cream.

The sweet treats are crafted to represent different works of art. (Image: Emily Davison)

Finally I then tried two desserts inspired by the works of Alicja Kwade, famous for her spherical planet artwork, these were delicious and consisted of a white chocolate vanilla mousse and a smaller pineapple mousse covered in a casing of hard chocolate.

Compared to previous afternoon teas I’ve tried, I definitely think the sweet treats of this afternoon tea are some of my favourites, on account of their light texture mixed with the variety of different flavour combinations.

Alongside the afternoon tea, the mixologists at The Kensington have also created three new cocktails inspired by works of art.

We ended up trying the Girl with A Balloon cocktail inspired by one of Banksy’s greatest works, and Starry Night inspired by the world-famous painting by Vincent Van Gogh.

Girl with A Balloon and Starry Night cocktails (Image: Emily Davison)

A Girl with a Balloon is a punchy mix of vodka, italicus, sherry and pear and finished with a little chocolate fashioned into the red balloon depicted in the painting.

Starry Night, on the other hand, was a citrus blend of Hendrix Flora Adora, spirulina cordial, citrus, Rathfinny and Cuvée Bru and topped with lemon to evoke the colours of the famous painting.

I tried both, but out of the two I ended up commandeering the Starry Night, which for me was sweet with a little kick from the citrus.

If you’re looking for an afternoon tea for art lovers then the Kensington may be the one to visit, the afternoon tea was a contemporary mix of flavours where the desserts themselves were like little works of art themselves.

The Art of Afternoon Tea is currently on at The Kensington for £58 a person.