Heritage Afternoon Teas
China Teacups
At Braemar on Parliament Street we enjoy holding heritage afternoon teas in our big front parlour. In the early 1900s, when this house was first built, guests would not have been admitted any further into the house than the lounge overlooking the street, where they would have been served with afternoon tea. These days life is a lot less formal, and although our afternoon tea is served in the traditional manner, it is now accompanied by a talk about the history of our area and renovations and a tour of the house. Our inaugural event was held during the Auckland Heritage Festival in 2004 and has proven so popular that we have held them every year since. During the festival we take bookings from the general public, entry by donation, and it is fun for all attending to meet new people and get to know each other and us over a nice cup of tea.
Outside of the Auckland Heritage Feastival period we also offer a heritage afternoon tea experience where people can book in a group of their own friends or family and spend the afternoon here taking tea, sandwiches and cakes The food we serve, and therefore price we charge, is tailored to suit the needs of our guests. All of the food we make is from the iconic New Zealand recipe book , the “Edmonds Cookery Book” first published in 1907. I have about 4 editions of this book, the latest of which is from the 1970s, and it is by far my favourite. We typically serve shortbread, Anzac biscuits, afghans (complete with chocolate icing and topped with a walnut half) , apricot balls, brandy balls, maybe a date loaf or lemon cake, with a variety of different sandwiches. Its all quite yummy and of course washed down with copious quantities of delicious Dilmah tea from Sri Lanka.
Visitors to Auckland can contact us for a booking at braemar@aucklandbedandbreakfast.com