So yesterday i visited the Cutty Sark for the 1st time in Greenwich with my mum.
I had seen that they do Afternoon Tea under the ship so was intrigued so we booked a ticket for both costing £27.00/£28 each which includes the tour and Tea afterwards.
We booked a timeslot for 2pm for the Tea, they suggest an hour or more for the tour. When you arrive in the entrance/giftshop you hand over your tickets and get your audio headphones which are included in the price of the ticket. The tablet device is divided into numbers which correspond to parts of the ship 21 in total and you play them as you got through the ship.
The deck you enter onto is not in fact an actual deck but what would have been the cargo hold, which has been made into a deck with flooring of Tea Crates and info on the types of Tea and cargo the ship would have transported. A short video with seats.
up to 10,000 crates of Tea were on board and worth up to 18million in today’s money.
You go up a deck to the Tween deck (inbetween deck) it is not straight and looks sloped to allow water to have drained off. This deck is full of interactive displays and facts about ship life, the cargoes the ship carried from Tea, Marmalade, Pianos, Candles, Wool etc
Their are models of the ship, relics from the ship and lots of interesting things to read and see. You then head up to the top of the Ship.
Cue Titanic style photo opportunity
You can now explore the top deck, Poop Deck and crews quarters as well as the Captains and firs tmate and stewards quarters. See the Galley, Carpenters room and find out about life on board and the diet of the sailors.
A crew of i think 26 people so not a lot. The youngest one was 14 and oldest 56 and lived off a diet of Salted Meat and Peas and Biscuits and Tea. They kept Pigs and Chickens on board ship. over 650 crew have sailed over the history of the Ship and only 5 have been lost at Sea.
You can go up to the wheel and then pop down into see the Masters rooms and 1st mate and steward. Before you head down to below the ship for the end of the tour and the Tea.
Below the Ship
You then take a bit of a trek down some stairs to underneath the Ship, where you can find out information about the Cutty Sark and see the collection of Figureheads donated. The figurehead of the Cutty Sark is called Nanny. supposedly based on a Robert Burns poem about Tam 0 Shanter who encounters a coven of Witches partying he is attracted the the Witch Nanny who wears a short skirt called a Cuuty Sark. He calls out to them and they chase him off , he escapes on his Horse ( maybe Nanny has the Horse Tail in her hand)
The ship was built in 1869 in Dunbarton commissioned by John Willis who wore a White top Hat and got the name “white Hat Willis” and owned it until 1895
In 1895 it was sold to a Portuguese company who renamed it Ferreira The ship traded various cargoes between Portugal, Rio de Janeiro, New Orleans, Mozambique, Angola, and Britain
The term Clipper\( to go at a clip, go quickly)) came to mean any large vessel with a long narrow hull, a Yacht like appearance, raking Masts and a very large sail area
THE TEA!
So that is the end of the Tour and you can see the Cafe where they serve the Tea. We had a slot for 2 but decided to try our luck earlier at 1.45pm. We announced our arrival and they had a small table reserved for us.I was asked if we want Tea or Coffee of course Tea!
we sat down and a couple of Minutes later the whole lot arrived.
Their was no Menu but did see one online. The staff did not communicate what they was either. I did ask as several items had Nuts 2 i couldn’t have. Nice Crockery and the Teapot had at least 3 cups of English Breakfast Tea inside for the size of the Cups. Nice and clean the Cafe was not too busy either and by the looks plenty of other people had also had the Tea.
So what do you get?
Scones with Clotted Cream, Jam and Butter
Macarons
Nutty Brownie ( Hazelnuts)
Millionaires slice i guess?
Lemon Cake
St Clements cake (Nuts Almonds)
Sandwiches Cucumber, Cream Cheese, Smoked Salmon, Egg Mayonnaise, Cheese, Ham Baguette
Pot of Tea each ( equivalent for me to 3 cups in the sized cups given)
So how was they?
With an intolerance for Almonds i could not have 2 items the Macaron and the St clements Cake but i was surprised that 3 items on the stand have nuts. The sandwiches are nice not dry and a decent size, the Baguette was chewy a bit old i think.
The Nutty Brownie had a lot of Hazelnuts, never had so much Nuts in a Brownie before, they was nice. The millionaires slice was also nice but not very well constructed a smaller round Tartlette would have been better than a slice. Lemon Cake was nice with a little Icing on top.
THE SCONES
I was surprised to see a little Butter pack, do not usually get those just the Cream and Jam
The Scone was about the size you would expect but much darker than expected. It had a few fruit bits in, but in both our opinion had been overbaked it was dry and you can see the glaze on top is dark. This was the downfall of the Tea, with the Jam Butter and Clotted Cream it was okay but definitely overdone.
“It looks like it was cooked in the Galley on the Cutty Sark” quote by Mum
Afternoon Tea review
You get the Tour and Tea together in the online bundle.
We both enjoyed the Tour and would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in Nautical history.
It is a nice end to the tour and most of the food was enjoyable, but i was underwhelmed by it just being in a Cafe. When i read it was under the Cutty Sark and you can look up at the Ship i had expected something a bit more fancier. Not just a casual Cafe. They go to the effort with the Crockery so why not make it a bit more premium looking tablecloth maybe?
It would have been not much effort for staff to go through the selection of what was what, since their was 2 of them. Or a small Menu
Scones were the downfall overdone and dry. The menu selection was okay but nothing special i could not have made myself.
It would have been great if they could have taken inspiration from meals that the crew would have eaten in some way and themed these into the menu. For instance they ate salted meat ( Salted beef sandwich) they could offer Pea and mint soup in the cafe as the sailors ate Peas. Or even Cargo they carried and included them in somewhere.
I had expected for their to be some kind of choice of different Teas seeing that the Ship carried different Teas in the 1st part of its life. Just a English Breakfast Tea was served.
I know they do a Tea tasting session another time another price so this is not something that would be hard to implement.
Adampastryguy 