Passiontree Velvet-Mother's Day High Tea

It's been a while since I've been to high tea, and when I heard there was a new place near me, I thought why not do something special and different for Mother's Day this year?

Passiontree Velvet is  at Macquarie Centre, located in the Fresh Food Market side (near Coles). 

colourful displays filled with macarons, tarts, eclairs and cake!

chocolate

Tt's actually my first time having high tea inside a shopping centre. It's a different feeling compared to the "traditional" high tea places like the QVB Tea Room, or inside hotels with a view. There aren't massive rushes of people walking around here so it is a nice place to relax and have a cup of tea, but you do have the occasional curious browser looking at your high tea stand. There is also natural lighting coming in as well.

some of the menu

Harney and Sons Tea: Paris (front) and Yellow and Blue (behind)

I had the Paris tea which is a black tea with vanilla and some fruit flavours. It was quite a generous serving of tea leaves and the tea smelt really nice, but couldn't really taste the sweetness in it. It's similar to the Earl Grey Harney and Sons tea that I tried before. The Yellow and Blue herbal tea is mainly a chamomile tea, but there is also some lavender fragrance which makes it really nice. The staff are super friendly and happy to refill your tea. Some places only refill your tea once since they don't want you to think their tea is bland after the second refill...

Mother's Day Duchess Full High Tea for 2-$90

The Duchess Full High Tea consists of come cakes, scones, finger sandwiches and a drink which is normally around $35pp. The Mother's Day high tea included some macarons as well as 2 gifts for Mum to take home, so it was definitely value for money, since one macaron is $3 (tbh, the macarons was the turning point for me to decide to book a high tea here rather than having a Mother's Day brunch somewhere else). I love high tea since you can try a selection of everything without having to purchase the bigger sizes and end up eating too much sugar. Even though I prefer things not too sweet, I secretly have a sweet tooth.

I realised the stand is slightly different, since the metal goes around the plates rather than through it. The plates aren't fancy Royal Albert China, but sometimes simple white and wooden boards for tea pots also work. Starting from the bottom tier...

Finger Sandwiches: ham, egg, tuna and cucumber, and smoked salmon biscuit in the middle

I like how they used white, wholemeal and multigrain bread. Normally it's white and wholemeal. There are also a lot more variety in sandwiches here, to probably compensate for the lack of pastries compared to a high tea place which makes their own savouries inside their kitchen there. Sandwiches are easier to serve in a shopping centre. It's also pretty cool how it's a three tiered sandwich, but since it's small, it's not messy and easy to pick up and eat.

Sweets!

The macarons which were gifted as part of the high tea are blueberry, vanilla, lemon and jasmine flavoured.

The Rocks Eclair: chocolate ganache, pistachio sponge, caramelised pistachio and choc cookie chunk

that dark choc ganache...

I actually emailed them beforehand and asked if eclairs will be featured on the high tea, and they said it wasn't, so I was prepared to purchase a separate eclair on top of the high tea...So I was presently excited when I saw an eclair when they brought the high tea out! (I think they replaced it with another mousse cake) The choux pastry was light, and the chocolate was dark enough so not that sweet. Couldn't really taste the pistachio in the sponge, but I loved how it gave it some colour, and the addition of the cookie crunch gave it some texture some all that ganache

lemon meringue tart

I also love my meringues, but this one is more dense and not as airy compared to other meringues which I prefer. It's not too sweet while the lemon filling inside was more on the sweet side still had some acidity. 

salted caramel tart

Both my mum and I was wondering where did the salt go? There was a good amount of cocoa, but the salt was very subtle...maybe it was because of all those sweet things which masked the saltiness....

berry white chocolate mousse

Loved the white chocolate in this since it wasn't overpowering in the sweetness/creaminess from your typical white chocolate. A few years ago when my mum watched an episode of Masterchef and learnt what white choc is actually, she used to love white choc then didn't after...so luckily the white choc wasn't too sweet.'t berry compote gave it some acidity, and loved the berry sponge at the bottom. Oh, and of course, loved the addition of a mini macaron.

Scones were a tad on the small side, and a tiny bit crumbly (hopefully it was just this batch). At least they weren't rock hard like the scones at the high tea at Westfield Chatswood which weren't fresh (according to my mum). These were soft and warm to serve. The whipped cream is more on the dense/creamy side, the jam wasn't too artificially flavoured luckily (I actually don't really like jam apart from one French supermarket jam).

Really enjoyed the high tea despite being in the middle of a supermarket. All the staff were really friendly and helpful, and definitely got value for money. Hopefully be back to try their coffee and other cakes :)

Their colour obviously isn't as nice as the Tiffany Blue (patent) colour, it's a slightly darker shade, but still love the coloured boxes. Some take home goodies:

20 assorted chocolates ($40), and a Harley and Son's Handbag Tea (normally $7). We were super full, and decided to take home the macarons for dessert.

The vanilla macaron had more of a cream filling, the blueberry had a little compote in it, jasmine one could be more stronger in flavour, and the lemon was actually quite sour rather than the 'artificial' lemon flavour. Chocolates generally have a very smooth texture.

Happy Mother's Day! Thanks for everything that you do for me <3