Afternoon tea at the Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town
Text by Anne Morse • Photography Courtesy of Mount Nelson Hotel
After a busy day of wine tasting, penguin watching, or spotting South Africa’s “big five” animals on safari, visitors to Cape Town will likely be more than ready for a refreshing cup of tea. They will find a superb one at the Mount Nelson Hotel’s Tea Lounge, along with sandwiches, scones, and pastries that foreign guests are unlikely to encounter anywhere else.
The iconic pink Mount Nelson Hotel—named for Lord Horatio Nelson and nearby Table Mountain—has been welcoming guests since Queen Victoria ruled Britain’s great empire. In the 1890s, Sir Donald Currie, owner of the Union Castle Shipping Line, was determined to build in Cape Town a hotel every bit as elegant and luxurious as the finest hotels in London. He succeeded magnificently. Opening its doors in 1899, the Mount Nelson Hotel quickly became the favored digs of the rich and famous, including a young reporter named Winston Churchill, who lived there while covering the Boer War; British writers Rudyard Kipling and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who shocked other guests by holding séances in his room; Queen Elizabeth II, who celebrated her 21st birthday there; and Beatle John Lennon, who enjoyed meditating in the hotel’s gorgeous gardens.
The Second Boer War began mere months after the hostelry opened its doors. British officers moved in and planned their military campaigns from the Mount Nelson. Soldiers who misbehaved whilst on the premises were forced to muck out military horse stables in nearby Stellenbosch. When the flu pandemic spread through Cape Town in 1919, doctors designated the Mount Nelson Hotel a “plague-free zone.”
To celebrate the end of World War I, hotel manager Aldo Renata Tagliavia had the hostelry painted pink—a symbol of peace—as a way of saying “welcome home” to returning soldiers.
In 1989, the Mount Nelson, affectionately nicknamed “the Nellie,” began offering afternoon tea in the lounge. The two-hour-long tea is served course by course, each paired with different teas. Piano music accompanies the relaxed exploration of flavor combinations. Those who cannot make up their minds which tea to select might simply order the house blend, a delicious mingling of teas (Darjeeling, Kenya, Assam, Keemun, Yunnan, and Ceylon) and rose petals. The petals turn the tea a lovely flamingo shade, which echoes the hotel’s pink exterior.
Freshly made scones are served, not only with clotted cream and strawberry jam, but also with grated Cheddar cheese, which adds an intriguing flavor and texture. Don’t care for scones? Try the ciabatta, served with rosemary and Maldon salt butter.
Among the savories are pea tarts, mushroom parfaits, sandwiches made with slow-cooked lamb shoulder served with a red wine jus, and potato fondant with a Parmesan tuile and honey-glazed baby vegetables topped with a butter and spinach purée. The sweets course includes koeksisters (South African doughnuts) served with Chantilly cream, chocolate fondant with lemon coulis and ice cream, and hazelnut tarts with praline crème. Award-winning pastry chef Vicky Gurovich, a native of Johannesburg, puts much thought into designing her luscious desserts.
“We pull inspiration from desserts that are local to us and try to represent South Africa and Cape Town in genuine and creative ways,” she notes. “With every menu, we aim to have at least one dessert that is inspired by a local delicacy or tradition, like the Koeksister Chantilly. On a previous menu, we took inspiration from the fact that, by and large, South Africans love custard, and they also love butternut, so we took this and created a spiced butternut and roasted vanilla custard dessert.” In order to take full advantage of the region’s fresh fruits and vegetables, Vicky changes the tea menus every few months.
The hotel’s head tea sommelier, Craig Cupido, is every bit as passionate about tea as Vicky is about pastry. He helps visitors decide which of the more than 60 teas from around the world would best match both the menu and their personal tastes. He then serves it to guests seated at tables graced with blue-flowered china and huge pink protea, South Africa’s national flower.
“I have always felt that tea is about connections to the people you are enjoying it with and the places it comes from,” he explains. “I love sharing its many positive properties with the guests and helping them choose the ideal tea to pair with a chosen dish.” Craig also shares his considerable knowledge of tea with guests through tasting sessions and master classes.
It would be a culinary crime to leave the tea lounge without sampling rooibos, an herbal tisane chock-full of antioxidants. Rooibos (an African name that translates as “red bush”) is grown exclusively in South Africa. It’s been sipped by indigenous South Africans for more than 300 years for its sweet taste and medicinal qualities. Tea lovers the world over have increasingly learned to appreciate the appeal of African infusions, rooibos in particular, which has become so popular that 20,000 tons are now exported annually all over the world. At the Mount Nelson Hotel, one will find several blends of rooibos, including those flavored with citrus, cinnamon, lavender, and floral notes.
Every November, The Mount Nelson celebrates African fashion by hosting a five-day fashion show, with models sashaying between the tea tables among guests who are enjoying the delightful combination of couture and cuisine. But even minus the fashion, tea lovers from around the world relish the treat of an afternoon in the Mount Nelson Tea Lounge. After they finish their last bite of pastry and final sip of tea (or swallow of Moët & Chandon Imperial Brut Champagne), guests head outdoors to enjoy the hotel’s fountains, statues, and centuries-old oak and Canary Island palm trees. The odd-looking Egyptian geese (who appear to be wearing heavy eyeliner) waddle about, and thousands of pink flowers line the manicured lawns, including the specially bred ‘Mount Nelson Hotel’ rose.
One hundred and twenty-five years after the hotel opened its doors, the Mount Nelson is more gracious, more elegant, and more welcoming than ever. Sir Donald Currie would be proud.
Afternoon tea ($30 per adult, $19 per child) is served at the Mount Nelson Hotel Wednesdays through Sundays. Classic, vegan, and gluten-free menus are available. Book a reservation online or call +27 21 483 1000.
Anne Morse, an afternoon tea aficionada who has sipped tea around the world, enjoys holding charitable fundraising tea parties in her Maryland home.
