Alphabet Dating - A

Alphabet dating is something I came across on Instagram recently (I wish I knew who to credit!) and decided to do a bit of research into it. When looking for answers on google, I discovered that is was quite a common thing and something that I thought was a fantastic idea. I broached the idea to James and he was also up for it and thought it sounded like a great thing to do once a month.

Alphabet dating is where as a couple or even a new person you are just starting to date, you choose a ‘date’ beginning with a particular letter. We decided that one month I would choose and arrange a surprise date and then the month after James would choose one. When March began, we decided to start with A and as it was my idea I offered to go first. You could of course do this every other week, bi-monthly or whatever suits your dating pattern.

‘A’ was a really convenient letter for me as I had already pre-planned an Alton Towers trip for James’ birthday. After recently attending Scarefest with Kim and telling James about it, he mentioned he had never been and would love to go. I really wanted to take him for his birthday weekend but found out that it only opened a few days before and I didn’t want it to be insanely busy. I forgot about the whole idea when an email landed in my inbox telling me about the service day, 2 weeks before the official opening. The service day is open to all emergency services and armed forces at a heavily discounted rate and with free parking. Perfect! I booked the tickets there and then. Unfortunately this then got cancelled due to the weather we had so I had to come up with another idea!

I decided to plan something for a couple of weeks later. We couldn’t make it to Alton Towers the replacement weekend as James had work so I thought I would plan our date more locally. The first thing that came to mind was Afternoon Tea, and to stick with the ‘A’ theme I thought we could have it in Aylsham. It was between here and The Assembly House but due to having been to The Assembly House before, I went for Aylsham and booked us into Biddies.

We both had Afternoon Tea and were stuffed by the end of it. I had to take my brownie home with me as the sandwiches and scone had filled me up. It was really nice just to get away and chill out and enjoy our meals.

We did also attend Alton Towers at a rearranged date and had a really nice time so I am incorporating that into the A date too.

The idea of alphabet dating is to encourage you to think outside the box and have fun and try new things with your partner. There are so many options that could suit so many budgets and I am already plotting things for date ‘C’, it could be anything to a coffee and cake to a curry or even a cinema trip! In the meantime I will await next months ‘B’ date which James will be planning. Let me know if you want me to continue sharing these! Do you have any ideas for ‘C’?

Harriets Cafe Tearooms Norwich - Revisited

You may have seen my previous review on Harriets Tearooms where unfortunately I did not receive the best service. I must say the customer service team that I spoke to via Twitter after my experience were very helpful and kindly send me two more vouchers for afternoon tea, this time for the Special edition. This time I took my mum along with me and I can certainly say the experience was a whole lot better.

We both went for the standard Harriets Tea blend with our Afternoon Tea which was lovely. There is unlimited refills on the tea and we had a second pot brought over to us when we finished our first. The service seemed to be really great this time and we were seated and served very quickly.

The Special Afternoon tea usually costs £19.95 per person. The bottom tier came topped with delicious fresh sandwiches in cream cheese & cucumber, smoked salmon and Suffolk ham. These were really lovely and the bread was soft and light. My mum didn’t like the smoked salmon so I ate her share too – no complaints from me!

The second tier consisted of scones and you could choose from cheese, fruit or plain. We decided to go for one cheese and one plain each. The cheese scones were served with butter and a really tasty tomato chutney. The plain scones were served with Cornish clotted cream and strawberry jam and tasted lovely and fresh this time. It was nice to have one savoury and one sweet option, it really balanced the platter out.

Finally the top tier was filled with decedent looking cakes. My favourite was the chocolate and caramel cake, topped with a rolo. The macaroons were lovely as were the small pastry treats. No mould in sight! This was probably my favourite tier of the three and the cakes were exciting and beautifully made.

Overall I had a much better experience the second time around and will definitely return to Harriets Tearooms. I put the first experience down to a one off. Will you be visiting Harriets?

Harriets Cafe Tearooms Norwich - Review

For my birthday this year I very kindly received some afternoon tea vouchers for Harriet’s Café Tearooms which is on London Street in Norwich. As a massive lover of Afternoon tea I couldn’t wait to try somewhere new. The vouchers I received were for Traditional Afternoon tea which is perfect for a nice treat.

We arrived at 12oclock for a lunchtime treat and I couldn’t wait to be seated. It wasn’t very busy when we arrived and were seated almost instantly. My voucher was presented in the style of a ration book and was the perfect gift to open on my birthday. Included in the Traditional Afternoon tea was a lovely pot of Harriet’s special or Tearoom blend fresh leaf tea. There was free refills on this so we had a couple of pots of tea throughout our afternoon tea session.

The bottom tier of our plate was topped with egg mayonnaise and ham sandwich quarters. These sandwiches were really nice but I just wish there was more of them, I am not sure if you can request more or not. There was also a little pot of salad garnish which was fresh and you could then use and eat as you wished.

The middle tier contained two scones with the choice of  cheese, plain or fruit. We both opted for fruit and these were served with clotted cream and jam in individual little pots. The scones were nice, not outstanding but a scone is a scone. The jam and clotted cream tasted lovely however my friend said one of her scones was a little dry and tasted a bit off.

The top tier of the cake stand contained an assortment of mini sponge cakes including fruit cake, carrot cake, coffee cake, chocolate and lemon drizzle. Unfortunately we noticed that one of our pieces of cake had mould growing on the side! When we called a member of staff over to query it and tell them there was mould she replied with “I don’t think so” but then took the top plate away. The plate then returned and I’m convinced they just sliced the mouldy end off instead of replacing it but it was hard to say. The icing still looked a bit ‘fluffy’ and I’ll be honest it did put me off slightly. The fruit cake was dry but the other cakes tasted alright. We came out feeling  full which is the main thing.

Overall I had an alright experience at Harriets but I am not going to rush back, the whole mouldy cake experience did put me off slightly. The staff did apologise at the end and said they had thrown that particular batch of cakes away but it should have been spotted before it was served to us. It was a shame really. Harriets have kindly offered to reiumburse me for the meal. The people sat next to us had some delicious hot food so I would consider going back and having something else so I will happily do another review.

 
Have you ever been for afternoon tea in Norwich?