Cream Tea And Christmas With Paul A Young

In the last week, we’ve been lucky enough to attend not one but two Paul A Young events. The first was the launch of his Christmas range (more of which in a moment), but this week he is also launching a “cream tea” to coincide with National Afternoon Tea Week.

Teas are available at Paul A Young @ Heals and include a selection of teas from the Rare Tea Company, freshly baked salted caramel scones with Rodda’s Clotted Cream and Salted Caramel Sauce to spread on them.

If the thought of a full afternoon tea is too much for you, then this might be right up your street. The scones were rather delicious (despite not looking much like a traditional scone that I’m used to), and the clotted cream and caramel works surprisingly well, especially with a nice cup of tea to cut through the sweetness.

If you’re in a hurry and can’t spare time to sit down with a cup of tea, you can also get the scones, cream & caramel to go. Great if you happen to work in Central London and want something a little more indulgent for lunch – or just fancy making your fellow commuters jealous on the way home.

The tea includes your choice of truffle (I opted for the Pimms truffle), although at £12.50 per person I do think it’s a little on the high side. If you’re in the area or in need of a rest after a heavy shopping spree at Heal’s, it is a rather tasty option though.

Christmas Range

It’s always a bit strange writing about Christmas products in summer, but with the rain and gales we’ve had in London over the past week, the delicious mulled wine hot chocolate that was waiting for me at Paul A. Young’s Islington Shop was very welcome.

With the Christmas range laid out around the shop, it was difficult to know where to start, but the most striking part of the range was definitely this Advent Calendar, made of 24 individual wooden houses, each with a chocolate inside.

Not included are the white chocolate snow or giant chocolate baubles, although these may be available separately closer to Christmas. What will be definitely available to buy are smaller milk, white and dark chocolate baubles, chocolate footballs with essential citrus oils and sparkling chocolate stars.

For the grown-ups, there’s a rather tasty new fruit & nut brownie made with hazelnuts, raisins, almonds and muscovado. Paul’s “Brownie Mince Pies” are also back this year. Both of which would be fabulous with his new Rum & Salted Caramel Sauce – something which improves just about every food I’ve tried it with so far!

There’s a bit of an old-school Fruit & Nut theme to several products in the Chistmas rang, but there’s also an emphasis on Persian spices. Both themes are present in three new chunky bars; White chocolate with cardamom, pistachio, rose petal & safron; Milk chocolate with hazelnut, almonand and currants; Dark chocolate with orange essential oil and candied orange zest.

But the stars of the range have to be eight new filled chocolates, which together with the much loved salted caramel form this rather spectacular box.

They are: Persian Spice & Baberries, Rum & Tonka Bean, Brewdog Porter & Ginger Molasses Cake, Caravan Coffee & Praline, Port & Cheese, Fruit & Nut, Sweet Potato Pie, Orange Preserve With Sacred Rosehip Cup.

Phew. Quite an extensive (and very tasty) range, I’m sure you’ll agree. It’s almost enough to get me excited about Christmas… but a little bit more summer wouldn’t go amiss first!

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