Until the 30th of April, the talented pastry team at Sydney's Sofitel Wentworth have partnered with esteemed French chocolatiers, Weiss, delivering an exceptionally indulgent chocolate themed high tea.
What is it that you see inside your head, when you drift away into a daydream? Well, for us, sometimes all we see, all we crave and desire, is chocolate, chocolate, chocolate! We’d love nothing better than to dive into a sweet river of the stuff, a la ‘Willy Wonka’, and we know we’re not alone! A good thing then, that Sydney’s Sofitel, Wentworth, is, for a limited time, offering the ‘golden ticket’ opportunity to join them for a limited time for their ‘La Vie En Chocolate’ themed high tea, in collaboration with the French maison du chocolat, Weiss.
Since 1882, The Weiss house of chocolate has been inviting royal courtiers, private customers and culinary professionals to experience it’s pure taste seduction, always being proud to use the highest quality ingredients within it’s organic, ‘bean to bar’ chocolatey creation process. The care and mastery that la maison takes over it’s chocolates clearly has been mirrored within the curation of the Sofitel’s high tea menu.
The Sofitel, Wentworth, lies in a surprisingly secluded corner of Sydney’s CBD, all the quieter on the weekends, yet is only a stone’s throw from the breathtaking scenes of the harbour bridge and opera house, and near the botanical gardens, which are perfect for a stroll-around if you’re needing to build an appetite. On our arrival, we were ushered caringly into the plush, low lit, be-chandeliered lobby as if into a convivial, cosy, secret, and felt so far away from the crowds of town. The spacious Soiree restaurant, where the high tea is served, is on the Ground floor.
Our pretty mademoiselle hostess took our orders for our teas and coffees as soon as we were seated. In the name of important high-tea research, of course, we mostly always plump for a tea, and we did choose a firecracker of a spicy chai, one of the 15 Dilmah brand teas on offer, but, in addition, we rebelliously plumped for a cappuccino. Both were delivered beautifully, and we smiled whilst sipping them from gilt teacups, glistening golden spoons by their sides.
Both the savoury and sweet menu options on the Weiss menu included a chocolatey ingredient or two, which made for eye-watering reading when first browsing the menu. We’d never ever heard of having a brie panini stuffed full with a garnish of chocolate buttons, or a chocolate macaron stuffed with fine foie gras. Our first tentative nibbles revealed, though, that both were unexpectedly delicious surprises! The plain scones, served with cream, were joined by their spotted, chocolatey chipped cousins on the middle tier of our plates, and were served, instead of the traditional jam, with a huge glass of house-made chocolate and hazelnut spread, that was so good we wished we could have taken a jar or two home.
The cakes took the form of five different, beautifully artistic petit-fours. Whilst all of the selections were inspired by and included some chocolate, the flavours were artfully selected not all to be overpoweringly ‘chocolatey’. A strawberry, lemon and basil mousse sphere, for example, was juxtaposed by a richly indulgent cocoa and praline rocher, and the sensual richness of the dark chocolate and coconut tart was perfectly offset by the light and angelic white chocolate and green tea choux pastry. The harmonies of the sweeter menu items’ pairing made it really quite easy to sample each and every delectable option without feeling sick from a bit of a cocoa-verload!
The real piece de resistance, and the thing that we thought set the Vie En Chocolate apart was the incredible ‘dessert cocktails’, available to enjoy with the tea or separately at The Sofitel for the duration of the Weiss partnership. We tried a ‘Cloudy Berry’, a pink chocolate cloud, all froths of cream, raspberry sorbet and Chambord, and shared a naughty ‘Chocolate Cherry Kiss’, in which maraschino, vodka, and chocolate bitters could be tasted.
We felt as lucky as little Charlie with Wonka’s golden ticket for having found such a heavenly world of gourmet delights within this excellently curated choccie experience.
High Tea Au Chocolat Menu:
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Cocktails Weiss Aneo white chocolate & green tea choux
- Strawberry & lemon basil sphere, sablé cookie
- Spicy mango, ginger, lime & Weiss litchi crémeux
- Weiss Bassam dark chocolate tart, coconut crunch
- Weiss Manatee milk chocolate rocher, mousse, Weiss praline powder
- Cocoa rubbed pulled pork slider
- Chocolate & brie pannini
- Duck foie gras & chocolate macaron
- Housemade choc chip and plain scones with homemade chocolate hazelnut spread
Cocktails:
- Cloudy Berry – Raspberry vodka, Chambord, white chocolate syrup, cream, raspberry sorbet topped with dry strawberry and whipped cream
- Chocolate Cherry Kiss – Cherry Herring, cognac, chocolate vodka, chocolate bitters, maraschino cherry juice topped with dry orange wheel and chocolate rim
- Pocky Rocky – Ron Zacapa, Mozart, Frangelico, cream, milk topped with chocolate pocky
Reviews for this venue:
- 16 November 2022: Couture High Tea at Sofitel Sydney Wentworth
- 11 July 2016: High Tea at the Sofitel Sydney
- 30 April 2014: Afternoon Tea at the Sofitel Sydney Wentworth
