The Scarlet Hotel is Cornwall’s icon of tranquility, tucked away on the cliffs at Mawgan Porth.
We visited this hotel for the first time last year, to try out their incredible spa facilities and spend the day relaxing looking out at their unrivalled views of the North coast. I haven’t stopped talking about our experience since, as their spa and the hotel design itself is truly luxurious.
So it’s not surprising that I jumped at the chance to try their new Gin-Inspired Afternoon Teas in their seaview restaurant this week! The hotel offers Afternoon Tea all year round, but up until the 9th June they are offering this Gin themed option in celebration of National Gin Day this month. As a lover of all things gin, I couldn’t resist this opportunity.
Alex and I headed over to Mawgan Porth yesterday afternoon and were welcomed into the hotel by their iconic view over the cliffs. The hotel’s design is modern and stylish, yet makes you feel right at home as soon as you walk in, with glassy outdoor water features and earthy tones around every corner. It’s known as Cornwall’s luxury boutique eco-hotel too, as it’s known for its use of sustainable and local materials.
These gorgeous Rose Gold Block heel sandals are from Joules * gifted
We headed down to the restaurant and sat at our booth, opting for pots of delicious peppermint tea as our Tarquins Gin & Tonics (included in the Gin Afternoon Tea offer) and scrumptious selection of goodies were being prepared.
The Scarlet have always served Tarquins as their popular choice of gin, as it is a well known Cornish brand, and have recently started serving tonic by Navas – an up and coming Cornwall based mixer company from Mousehole, who are beginning to be stocked in a range of Cornwall’s best bars and restaurants.
Our Afternoon Tea shortly arrived served on a sleek, modern tiered stand and featuring the most amazing mixture of items! We couldn’t wait to tuck in, and we were both very pleased we hadn’t eaten a proper lunch.
On the top tier, we had a variety of sandwiches such as egg, mayonnaise and rocket, beetroot and gin cured sea trout on sourdough, roasted beef bruschetta as well as cheese scones with bacon jam. They’d prepared the stand so that one side had meat and one didn’t, for me, so it was easy to tell whose items were whose.
The next tier of the stand was absolutely divine; a Tarquin’s gin & tonic cake with lime zest icing, a lemon posset (my fave!), a dark chocolate tart (incredibly rich and completely delicious) and a caramel macaroon – each! Basically three full sized desserts for each of us and we still had the third tier to go…
Naturally, warm scones served with Cornish clotted cream and strawberry jam. Alex hasn’t got quite as much of a sweet tooth as I have, and the mix of items is definitely heavily sweet rather than savoury – however they did ask if we wanted more sandwiches so if you are more of a savoury person, you could always have more of those and perhaps ask to take some of the sweet stuff home with you!
But boy, were we full! It was all super tasty and I don’t think I could even attempt to pick a favourite. I think this would be such a nice experience to have with your girl friends or even maybe to treat your mum too – someone who loves gin and most of all, cake!
The Gin-Inspired Afternoon Tea is only being offered until 9th June, and costs £25pp, so book in while you can! You can find out more on The Scarlet website.
* We were kindly hosted as guests for this experience but all thoughts are my own.
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