Afternoon tea is one of my favourite things when flying British Airways. Finger sandwiches, cake and of course the glorious scones with lashings of jam and cream!
A couple of weeks ago the airline introduced new catering in Club Europe, the European business class product. I have reviewed both the new brunch offering and also the new lunch offering for short to medium routes. How about afternoon tea?
Ploughman’s Lunch
Before the change, you were served one tray with all the items and offered scones from the basket. Now there is a choice and the first option is a Ploughman’s.
This is a traditional English meal that is usually served at lunch time. Apparently the term came into widespread use in the 1950s when the cheese board decided to promote eating cheese. As you do!
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- Yummy looking Ploughman’s!
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- Bread in a bag, hmm.
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- Green tea and a tea bag holder!
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- Castelnau Champagne
The meal consists of grapes, a cherry tomato, a scotch egg, meats, cheese and pickles. It is rather nice and a decent amount of food. I am quite impressed by this!
Flavours and textures are striking with this meal, with each element giving a different experience in your mouth. Nicely done!
Traditional Afternoon Tea
For those who are more traditional, you can select another option which is a traditional afternoon tea. This is two finger sandwiches and a something or other. A what? Well, I don’t actually know what it is.
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- Two fingers and a something or other
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- I just don’t know what it is!
It is a thin slice of bread with cheese layered on top and an unidentified splash of a white cream of some kind with chunks of something and a purple thing. Who the hell knows what it is, I know I don’t!
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- See? That is bread!
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- Dessert is cake-a-licious!
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- Fruit inside!
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- Explodes into a crumby delight
Nothing at all wrong with this meal and it would appear to be the lighter option. A stand out missing element for me is the scones with cream and jam though. I loved those. I’d even go so far as to say ditch the sandwiches and offer just the scones. Mmmm!
Overall Thoughts
Once again the lovely cabin crew at British Airways obliged my request to get a second meal in order to get pictures for you. I also ate every morsel of both meals – in the name of research, of course!
The new Ploughman’s is a winner at afternoon tea time and I daresay it will be popular. The traditional afternoon tea is a fine and safe option though previously the offering was three fingers rather than two.
Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Trent, another great article, as usual! As a mostly vegetarian, I am finding that these meals have way too much (processed) meat and not enough anything else. Have you checked out whether a special meal can be ordered? Thanks.
Thanks very much! You can order a vegetarian meal of course. I will have to order one for myself sometime and then report back on what they give you. Hope you’re keeping well!
Keeping quite well, thank you! And my best to you, as well. Moving house to West Clare so all my travel seems to be by car these days! No lounges, no amenity bags, no prepared meals 🙁 just the same cramped spaces on 4 wheels!
Moving house is one of my least favourite things ever! I hope it all goes well 🙂 I’m en route to Sydney, so I’m looking forward to the R&R. Take care!