A Top Chef's Guide to Afternoon Tea

The UK’s most famous meal is afternoon tea. And the most celebrated place to have it is Fortnum & Mason.

The upscale grocer’s flagship store is housed in a glorious, six-floor building on Piccadilly in London. The shelves are stocked with the kind of treats that make you feel like you’ve walked into a fairy tale, with whimsical biscuit-filled tins in all shapes and sizes, bottles of Champagne, chocolates galore, as well as honey from bees at Queen Camilla’s garden in Wiltshire. The company holds two royal warrants, one from Queen Elizabeth II and another from the now-King Charles III, designating it as an official merchant to the family. There’s the occasional innovation, like the new Food & Drink studio on the building’s third floor, which includes a demo kitchen designed for classes, and the opportunity for supper clubs.

But what Fortnum & Mason has been best known for through most of its 300-plus-year history is tea. It stocks 150 varieties at the store, in varieties that run the gamut from smoky Earl Grey to elderflower-laced green tea, and a gin-and-tonic variety with juniper and lime. Sales of tea, and those biscuits, were good for the company—part of the reason Fortnum & Mason earned £187 million ($232.8 million) in revenue for the calendar year that ended in July. At the Piccadilly store, sales increased 32% year over year.

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