The world’s best afternoon tea is in London – and it has a ‘tea sommelier’

Cream before jam or jam before cream? Is it pronounced scon or scown? Cucumber sandwiches: yay or nay? Whatever your preference, there’s one thing we can all agree on: there are few things in life more delightful than a good afternoon tea. And now, an international competition has crowned the best of the best.

Each year, global restaurant and hotel guide La Liste hosts its annual Pastry Awards to find out where in the world you can get the best baked goods. The competition puts 3,000 top-tier pâtisseries, dessert restaurants and artisan bakeries to the test, dishing out medals across categories including World’s Most Creative Pastry Chef and Pastry Game Changer.

The Big Smoke managed to claim some of the top prizes this year. Le Café by Nicolas Rouzaud received the Pastry & Bakery Opening of the Year Award, while Claridge’s baker Richard Hart took home the Bakery Innovation Award. But that isn’t all: the world’s best afternoon tea is also right here in the capital. 

Yep, Londoners can breathe a sigh of relief, because the quintessentially British tradition is officially done best in the capital. La Liste’s World’s Best Afternoon Tea Award, created to honour an ‘exemplary afternoon tea experience, whether traditional or contemporary concept, with outstanding service and location’ went to Jacqueline at The Chancery Rosewood. 

Set within a luxury five-star Mayfair hotel, Jacqueline definitely ticks the location box. As for the service? Well, the tearoom even has its own tea sommelier, there to guide you through a tasting of different infusions. 

Feasting on the world’s top finger sandwiches and mini macarons will set you back a pretty penny, with prices starting at £105 per person. For that fee, the scones better be out of this world. 

Did you see that this hotel bar that makes the best martini in London, according to expert bartenders?

Plus: Time Out’s 50 best restaurants in London in 2026, mapped.

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