If you ever want to spend a ridiculous amount of money on a normal product, you’ll certainly be able to somewhere in London.
There’s a bar that sells a cocktail for £5,000, a restaurant where you can get a bowl of soup for £480, and a place where afternoon tea served with a special pot of tea costs £500.
The Palace Lounge at the Rubens Hotel near Buckingham Palace serves a pot Golden Tips tea that’s fit for queen – or at least we’d hope so for the £500 price tag.
READ MORE: London’s most expensive cocktail that costs £5,000 at The Savoy
(Image: The Red Carnation Hotel Collection)
The Ceylon Golden Tips tea is offered in partnership with specialist tea merchants PMD Tea, and is served as part of afternoon tea for two with a bottle of champagne.
According to Travel Life Magazine, guests get three cups of the Golden Tips tea.
It is described as a “delicate tea”, weighed with precision using golden scales for the perfect infusion before each tip is placed into the silver teapot individually with golden tweezers.
The tea comes in a mahogany box lined with velvet, and is infused with mineral water to produce “an extraordinary liquor and a smooth, light and mellow texture with hints of fruity notes”.
(Image: The Red Carnation Hotel Collection)
It’s described as one of the most special teas in the world because harvesting it is such a complicated process.
Expert tea pluckers handpick the tips of the plant at sunrise, drying the buds on a velvet cloth under the sun until they turn from silver to gold.
As part of the £500 service for two people you can enjoy freshly baked scones, pastries and finger sandwiches alongside a bottle of Lanson Champagne which is sabred at your table.
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So no, it’s not just the tea that costs £500 – but it’s still sure to be the most pricey cuppa you’ll ever have.
There are plenty of reviews of the general afternoon tea experience online.
Many diners have reported of the “excellent” service they received at the establishment while enjoying the afternoon tea.
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