Review of the Afternoon Tea Box by Indulge

I do love a good afternoon tea so when Indulge invited me to try their Afternoon Tea Box I was more than happy to oblige.

The Afternoon Tea Box was gifted to me but this is an honest review.

During Covid we tried a number of meal kits, particularly for special occasions, and most of them were amazing and fairly easy to cook. They offer a luxury meal experience for a fraction of the cost of dining out. In fact, that’s how Indulge was born. Chef Andy spent his career working in Michelin-starred restaurants but when Covid hit, he turned his attention to deliver relaxed, fine dining through his meal kits.

The Afternoon Tea Box by Indulge costs £55 and is for two people. There is loads included and the sweet and savoury options can be eaten up to three days after delivery, which is brilliant as we couldn’t finish everything in one sitting!

What’s in the Afternoon Tea Meal Box?

The Indulge Afternoon Tea Meal Box consists of three savoury items, plain and fruit scones with jam and cream, four sweet items and four English Breakfast tea bags by Twinings. We had the meat and fish option but there is a vegetarian option too.

As the weather was so nice, we went to the park to enjoy our Afternoon Tea. As everything is so well packaged, it was easy to pop in a bag and take to the park.

Savouries

Usually in an Afternoon Tea – even a luxury one at a fancy hotel – the savoury selection is sandwiches. Whilst that’s quite traditional, it’s also pretty boring. So I was delighted to see that there were no sandwiches on the menu!

One of the savoury items is an absolutely delicious tartlet with smoked salmon and horseradish cream. It also came with chives but we hate chives so thankfully had the option not to use them. The smoked salmon was so fresh and worked so well with the horseradish (which wasn’t too hot) and I loved the crunchy texture that the tart gave.

The chorizo madeleines were really good and quite unusual to have what’s normally a sweet cake as a savoury option. The last of the savoury options is a thyme cracker that’s filled with heritage tomato and Parmesan cream and then sandwiched together.

Scones with jam and cream

Whilst you can call it an Afternoon Tea even though there are no sandwiches, every Afternoon Tea has to have scones! Included are two plain scones and two fruit scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream.

And they won’t judge you on whether you put cream first or jam first! I went with the Devon way of clotted cream first with jam on top.

Sweet selection

You’re spoilt for choice with the sweet selection. Moist lemon cake and strawberry and white chocolate cheesecake, which can be eaten as is.

The raspberry macarons require you to pipe on the raspberry filling, which was super easy to do – there are four of them, so two per person. The chocolate and salted caramel choux buns also require filling, which again was really easy to do – and they were very yummy! The raspberry macarons look so stylish and they were very tasty, although perhaps a little on the sweet side for my taste.

Is there any cooking involved?

Most of the items are ready to eat, however some require a bit of assembly. Certain items, such as the smoked salmon tarts, thyme and Parmesan crackers, the chocolate choux buns and the macarons come with little piping bags for you to complete the dishes. It was super quick though and quite fun!

There is no actual cooking involved though. I did heat our scones and the chorizo madeleines but it’s not necessary – just a personal preference.

How does delivery work?

The Afternoon Tea Box is only delivered on Fridays and you need to order by 9pm on the Tuesday for delivery that same week. On Indulge’s website they have a month’s worth of bookings so if you have a special occasion coming up, you can order in advance to ensure they are not sold out. On the day of delivery, you’ll be given a two-hour time slot by the courier so you can ensure you’re home when they deliver.

There are clear instructions on what needs to go into the fridge and what can stay out at room temperature.

The verdict

I was pleasantly surprised by the creativity and the non-standard afternoon tea options. No boring sandwiches in this meal box! The quality of the food is superb and everything looks so beautiful when laid out. This is a lovely way to indulge in a luxury afternoon tea without paying a fortune. It would also make a lovely gift. You can also add extras to your order, such as a bottle of Cava or Champagne.

As well as the Afternoon Tea Box, Indulge has a number of other meal kits, such as a BBQ box, Sunday Roast and Michelin-star meal kit options.

Would you order an Afternoon Meal Box for a special occasion?