Afternoon Tea at Cloud 23

High in the clouds of Manchester is a luxury bar, aptly named Cloud 23. Sitting pretty on the 23rd floor of the Beetham Tower, between the Hilton hotel and private apartments, the bar is accessed by a private lift, and it's views of the city and the surrounding counties are unrivaled. And luckily for us, so is it's afternoon tea! In the evenings it's an incredibly busy bar, but we decided to try the more laid back afternoon option. So on Easter Saturday, Ben and I went along with my parents and my Godmother to give it a go.

After taking in the dizzying views and daring each other to stand on the glass floor, we calmed our nerves with a Pommery 4 Seasons Tasting Board of champagne. A decadent and slightly dangerous treat for the middle of the afternoon.

Shortly after than champagne the main event arrived on ultra-modern three tiered stands. We started with the savory nibbles - cheese and onion wraps, ham and mustard sandwiches, tuna and cucumber sandwiches and puff pastry rolls filled with goats cheese and tomato. It was all good, but the puff pastry absolutely stole the show in my opinion.The pastry was flaky and light, and paired with the classic goats cheese and tomato combination they couldn't really go wrong could they?

We then moved on to the fruit scones, served with the classic clotted cream and jam. Or is it jam and clotted cream? Either way, these scones were bang on.

Finally the really sweet treats. Chocolate peppermint macarons (or a chocolate cupcake for Ben who is horribly allergic to nuts). For me chocolate peppermint is either a roaring success or a bit of a let down. Flavor wise, these macarons were pretty close to perfect, but in terms of their appearance they were a bit bumpy... And the cupcake? Pretty damn good, according to Ben. You can sort of see in the background of this picture a shot glass of orange mousse, which in my opinion lacked a bit of the zing you'd expect such a mousse to have.

The absolute star of the sweet show was a raspberry and white chocolate tart, which definitely did not have a soggy bottom. Perfection!

Equally perfect were the staff we were served by. Incredibly friendly, completely on top of their game they never let your teacup empty despite it being a busy Saturday afternoon. They even stopped to take some photographs for us - such a treat to get photos of the whole group!

(Can we also take a moment to appreciate my tan? It was just after we'd got back from holiday, and as I'm writing this post I'm sadly staring at my hands, once again ghostly pale).

After taking a bit of time to let our food go down, we couldn't help but sample the renowned cocktail menu. Lot's of the cocktails are named after classic Manchester memories (Here's to Baby, The Industrialist etc) but he menu ranges from the classics like the Kir Royale to the slightly more innovative, like the Washday Blues I decided on. Everything we tried was delicious, and despite the afternoon tea lining my stomach I was more than a little dizzy by the time we were leaving. There's no holding back on the measures in this place!

Ben doesn't drink, but it didn't stop him investigating their "Blue Sky" (non-alcoholic) cocktails. Although I tried my absolute best to get him to order the "Little Fluffy Cloud" because of the name, in the end I think the one he went for was "Salute the Sun", less excitingly named though wonderfully tasty with cranberry and pink grapefruit.

I do think though, out of all of our choices, I picked the most exciting cocktail, "Washaday Blues". Tanqueray Gin, honey, blue curacao, tio pepe sherry and lemon were topped with soda and served with a side of popping candy! When the popping candy was poured into the liquid it went absolutely everywhere, popping and crackling as it went. The squeals this elicited from an every so slightly tipsy me gained us some glares from a nearby table, but come on! Popping candy!

I have to be honest, we had a fantastic afternoon. The food was great, the staff were brilliant and the company was cracking. There's only one but. And it really is a little one. The views were spectacular. Sadly, though, because we were a relatively large group we couldn't squeeze around one of the window seats, so we didn't get to appreciate them as much as we'd have liked.

But there's an easy solution to that isn't there - we'll just have to go again!

You can find Cloud 23 at:

Beetham Tower, 303 Deansgate

Manchester, M34LQ

We booked ahead to make sure we didn't have to worry about the queue. I don't think it's too bad in the day time, but in the evening the guest list fills up months in advance and the queue can be epic.