Champagne teas at boutique hotels

Champagne Ruinart has teamed up with luxury fragrance house Miller Harris to recreate its Champagne afternoon teas.

The collaboration will be available in a selection of boutique London hotels owned by the Firmdale Hotels group.

Available from this month at the Soho Hotel, Haymarket Hotel, Charlotte Street Hotel and Covent Garden Hotel for £35, the tea includes a glass of Ruinart Blanc de Blancs NV alongside a pot of Miller Harris tea, both of which are paired with a selection of cakes and sandwiches prepared by Firmdale Hotels’ chefs.

Chosen to specifically match with the Blanc de Blancs are the lemon cupcake, peach and vanilla friend and raspberry tartlet cakes.

Ruinart’s chef de cave, Frédéric Panaiotis, said: “A glass of Ruinart Blanc de Blancs is the perfect announcement of the arrival of summer. The refreshing aromas from the Chardonnay and the light reflecting on the transparent bottle are like drinking liquid sunshine. Add this to the ritual of a quintessential British afternoon tea and you have the perfect combination."

Representing Miller Harris’ liquid refreshment will be a choice of Thé Bergamot, Thé Bigarade, Thé Pétales and Thé Violette – teas which were created by Lyn Harris.

Harris met Panaiotis in Reims where they compared the similarities between their two professions, prompting Harris to comment: “The olfactory expertise needed to blend and forecast a wine exactly mirrors the skills and knowledge required to create a fragrance.”

Jane Parkinson, 22.06.2010