Afternoon tea at Urban Tea Merchant

I've been dying to go to an afternoon tea for a while but never got the chance until this week!  I was debating whether I should go to Urban Tea Merchant or Faubourg.  The last call for Urban Tea Merchant was at 5:30 and Faubourg at 5:00 so we decided to go to Urban Tea Merchant because we left the campus around 4:30 hoping to make it on time. 

When I first walked in, I saw two counters.  One selling desserts such as macarons and truffles and the other was for tea.  I was thinking... "where are we going to sit?"  .... hahah after a moment of confusion, the waitress took us to the back and there were seats for peple who are visiting for brunch, dessert (from Thomas haas), tea, and afternoon tea.

The waitress gave us 3 menus.  One was the harvest afternoon tea special which was $48 per person, one was for tea and the last was for food.  When I opened the tea menu, I was overwhelmed by all the choices. I ended up ordering the creme caramel rooibos tea
and Jae ordered the vanilla bourbon rooibos tea.  I usually get rooibos tea or earl grey when I order tea from a cafe. I love it with a little bit of sugar and milk and I can drink it with nothing in it as well. 

Creme caramel had a hint of sweetness to it.  I drank the whole pot.. :)

My awesome teapot.  It kept my tea warm for about an hour.

We ordered the $25 per person petite signature afternoon tea.  You have to order a minimum of 2 orders for all of the afternoon teas.

my small selection of sandwiches

egg salad(?)

This was so cute!! and I loved the idea

 Chicken salad sandwich filling in an unsweetened waffle cone. 

After the sandwiches, I moved on to the scone! (SCOONS!!! haha from masterchef Australia)

It was still warm and it came with two of my favourite things to put on bread! WHIPPED BUTTER and STRAWBERRY JAM!!!

Nothing can go wrong when they give you a scone w/ whipped butter and strawberry jam..Unless... you hate ginger and you get a scone with candied ginger inside?Well that's what happened to Jae.. he hates ginger and he got a ginger scone.  So if you do not like ginger, please ask them to give you the plain one.  I tried the Ginger scone and it wasn't bad.  It was strange though because I thought I would taste ginger but I could only smell it. The candied ginger tasted slightly sweet.

After the scone, I moved on to the desserts.

Lemon lush tea macaron, marzipan and a strawberry dipped in chocolate.  I personally did not like the marzipan..I am not a big fan of almonds and the filling was somewhat citrusy.  I didn't like the combination.

Crunchy on the outside, soft inside.  I loved the lemon filling.

After eating all 3 tiers, we had to leave in a hurry because our parking meter ran out and we saw a lady outside who was ticketing the cars.  On my way out, I managed to take some snapshots of the desserts out in the front.

colourful tea infused macarons 

Truffles

So.. afternoon tea!

I would say.. the highlight at Urban Tea Merchant was definitely the tea.  My least favourite was the dessert.  I thought the desserts would be the highlight and that's probably why I was disappointed by the quality. I enjoyed the sandwiches and the scone very much.  Also, I was disappointed at how small my order was.. but then again.. it was called "petite" signature afternoon tea.  I am going to try the afternoon tea at Faubourg next time.  I am am hoping that their desserts will meet my expectaions.