If you’re looking to splurge on fine food, there are a few different places you can head to in London but none is so beloved to me as the department store Fortum & Mason, on London’s Piccadilly Street.
I could write a long blog here on the history of the store, its beautiful architecture, its fantastic tea salon and its basement deli area - but that’s for another day.
Today, it’s all about the tea and biscuits (and let’s not forget the coffee too, since whist the Brits are famous for their tea-drinking, coffee is very much loved by our nation).
It’s hard for me to walk down Piccadilly, at any time of the year, without longing to step through the door of Fortnum & Mason, but since it’s Coronation week, it’s even more delightful, anticipating what I’ll find inside. After all, this is a store known not just for its high-quality produce but the beautiful tins in which such produce comes…
In the meantime, I’m going to search for sweet treats and hearty beverages that are truly fit for a monarch.
So, what do we have first? Don’t these look lovely - they’re Scottish Ling Heather Honey biscuits and I’m told they’re produced by bees north of the border (hence the ‘Scot’ part). The shop assistant informs me that they’re elegant and light and would go very well with a Darjeeling tea.
Fortnum also (by the way) sells Scottish Ling honey, as well as their very own concoction - yes, they have bee hives on their roofs!
Ooooh, these look good too. They’re a selection of biscuits in a beautiful keepsake tin which I’m informed plays ‘God Save the King’ as it spins!
What’s inside. Well apparently, sweet treats that invoke the memories of the Commonwealth (of which the late Queen Elizabeth II was particularly fond).
These include Canadian cranberry, Fijian ginger, South African macadamia nut and British clotted cream delights.
I’m also told there are lemon curd (half coated in milk chocolate), orange and milk, chocolossus (wow!) and Scottish ling heather biscuits in the tin.
They really are perfect for teatime.
OK, you cant’ have biscuits without some English tea so it’s time to search for something in which to dip these cookies. And I’ve found it. It’s the Coronation organic Darjeeling,
It’s annother beautiful caddy design of course - a quite majestic Egret sitting in the Himalayan hills (which is where Darjeeling is grown). And, as for the tea inside, well Darjeeling is known as the ‘champagne of teas’ and give it a deep and rich flavor.
I’d definitely dunk a clotted cream creation in a cup of this!
And what do we have next. Well, it’s a ‘Coronation Coffee Blend’ that comes in a tin with the most gorgeous leopards on the front. I’m told the blend is from beans that hail from Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia and offer tasters a smooth and fruity finish!
I love the colour co-ordination too - the purple background against the yellow and black-spotted leopard, topped with a turquoise lid. I’d purchase this coffee for the tin alone!
OK, tea, coffee and biscuits challenge over, what about something a little different?
Well, finally, inspired by the fairy story of the princess and the frog, here we have some solid chocolate insects.
Made in Belgium, I’ve heard they’re tiny milky bites of heaven.
And if Prince Charles is as charming as is suggested, then Camilla really is Lady Luck!
A lovely little afternoon treat, when you’re craving something sweet.
Now can you see why I’m so mad about this department store?