Celebrate with high tea for seven pence (11 cents) at Langham hotels

On June 10, 1865, HRH the Prince of Wales (later, King Edward VII) cut the ribbon and officially opened The Langham, London.

To honor the 1865 opening, Langham Hotels is launching a value-lover’s dream: they’re bringing back the original price of afternoon tea to celebrate its 146th birthday on June 10, 2011.

For just seven pence (or US 11 cents), guests of all properties will be able to enjoy the Wonderland Tea, normally priced at £38 (US $62), a signature tea service that includes an array of sandwiches, scones with Devonshire cream, pastries and cakes. The chain has hotels throughout the world, including properties in Boston, Los Angeles, Australia, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and soon-to-open properties in Qatar, India and Thailand.

Of course, if you want to have tea where it all began, you should head to the London original, honored with the Top London Afternoon Tea Award from The Tea Guild in 2010. The hotel is regarded as being the birthplace of the afternoon tea tradition.

To obtain a reservation in London for this event, potential tea-goers must enter an online reservations lottery. Guests will be notified by June 3.

Tarantula cocktail at the Langham London – yes, an actual tarantula

It’s a Scorpion & Oven Baked Tarantula Tea Punch, to be exact. Happy Halloween, right?

Actually, it has nothing to do with Halloween. This unprecedentedly creepy cocktail is the result of the Courvoisier Spirit of Punch Masters competition this year, and was created by the Langham Hotel‘s very own Francesco Orefici and Alex Kratena. They decided to infuse the cognac with a real tarantula and scorpion. They won.

From their creepy recipe:

“Tarantula is baked in primitive fire heated oven. It is traditional and delicious snack, which if infused in spirits gives nice smoky, woody and tobacco notes. Scorpion, according to old legends, is known for healing properties as well as stimulating ones libido.”

This is starting to sound pretty good. They combine 50mL of the VSOP cognac infused with tarantula and scorpion with …

  • 25ml Poire William eaux de vie
  • 25ml Velvet Falernum
  • 25ml Freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 dash Angostura Bitters
  • 1 dash Regans Orange bitters no.6
  • 50ml Sencha tea
  • 3 pcs allspice
  • 3 tbspoon Mandarin peel infused sugar

… and serve it to you like it’s totally normal. Who knew tarantulas and scorpions created tobacco notes? What are these creepy-crawlies up to on their breaks?

[Photo by mikebaird via Flickr.]