Af ternoon Tea

Estate

At this year’s Gold Medal Awards, Mount Juliet Estate won gold for ‘Ireland’s Afternoon Tea Hotel’, sponsored by Barry’s Tea. Judges described the afternoon tea offering at Mount Juliet as faultless; from the magnificent drawing room and the variety of the menu to the excellent staff, this was a most deserving winner.

John Kelly is the Executive Head Chef at The Lady Helen at Mount Juliet. When it comes to afternoon tea, his motto is to keep it simple. “We make everything to order and every item on the menu is as fresh as possible. I find that a lot of afternoon teas are too sweet, so I try to ensure a good balance between sweet and savoury. I always tell my chefs, if you’re creating a menu then you should be coming up with dishes that you’d want to eat yourself. We have the same attitude towards our afternoon tea.”

Afternoon tea at Mount Juliet features an array of tempting dishes such as coronation chicken sandwiches, almond sponge, fresh scones with orange zest and chocolate madeleines. The team in the kitchen make their own clotted cream and raspberry jam, along with their own lemon curd. “We also cook pineapples in caramel and leave to marinade in a bag for 12 weeks with vanilla and star anise. That’s served as a pineapple and coconut tart. Our afternoon tea changes with the seasons; at the moment we have a lovely lemonade with a passionfruit foam which guests are really enjoying.”