{"id":24076,"date":"2010-02-02T17:05:57","date_gmt":"2010-02-02T16:05:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hightea.com\/nl\/afternoon-tea-at-sofitel-amsterdam-the-grand\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T09:34:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T07:34:12","slug":"afternoon-tea-at-sofitel-amsterdam-the-grand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hightea.com\/en\/afternoon-tea-at-sofitel-amsterdam-the-grand\/","title":{"rendered":"Afternoon Tea at Sofitel Legend The Grand Amsterdam"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Facade<\/a><\/p>\n

Fa\u00e7ade of Sofitel Legend The Grand Amsterdam<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Hotel Sofitel Legend The Grand Amsterdam, familiarly known as \u201cThe Grand,\u201d has\u00a0a long\u00a0history that dates back to the\u00a01500\u2019s when the building was used as a convent. Since that time, it has been a 16th Century Royal Guest House, a 17th Century Amsterdam Admiralty Headquarters, and the city\u2019s Town Hall in the 19th Century.\u00a0 More recently, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands was married here in 1966.<\/p>\n

The entrance to the hotel is through a courtyard, set back from the street. Passing a fountain, you enter the hotel through a brass and wood revolving door.\u00a0 Afternoon tea at \u201cThe Grand\u201d is served in either the lounge, an Art Deco and stained glass room, or in the Bar at Bridges.<\/p>\n

As luck would have it, these two rooms were fully booked the afternoon I arrived with two large groups who were staying at the hotel and having afternoon tea.\u00a0 My fortunes quickly changed when a waiter ushered me into the \u201cVIP\u201d room of Bridge\u2019s Bar \u2013 normally reserved for celebrities and such during the usual evening\/night hours at the bar.\u00a0 It was available (during the day) for afternoon tea.<\/p>\n

The VIP room, ironically, is furnished in a very modern style in contrast to the outer hotel facade, which is one of the oldest and most historic buildings in Amsterdam. I will say that the low seating and low tables, normally reserved for VIP bar guests in the evening, were perfectly suited for a proper afternoon tea.<\/p>\n

At \u201cThe Grand,\u201d there is no afternoon tea menu.\u00a0 They will, instead, take care of every detail for you and all you have to do is say the words, \u201cAfternoon Tea.\u201d\u00a0 I am not quite sure if this is standard practice, but the young Asian woman who was handling my service happened to be quite knowledgeable about tea.\u00a0 She explained that today I would be receiving three different teas, all personally selected by her, one to go with each of the food courses on the three tier tray – the scones, the finger sandwiches and the sweets. She would be recommending a specific tea to pair with each of the food courses.<\/p>\n

The china service used by The Grand is Sieger by Furstenberg.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Table Setting at The Grand \u00a9HighTea.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The first suggestion was to start with the top-tier scones course as they are served warm when first brought out.\u00a0 Since scones are a \u201cheavy\u201d food, she would be selecting a \u201clight\u201d Chinese green tea to accompany it.\u00a0 Heavy food and light tea – I was starting to get the picture.\u00a0 The warm raisin scones with whipped cream went quite nicely with the light Chinese green tea \u2013 a very\u00a0good way to begin the afternoon. I began to wonder what she was going to cook up (brew up) next. The anticipation made it entertaining.<\/p>\n

Since we tried the scones first, the next course would be the finger sandwiches. I was served a delicious egg salad, a smoked salmon (with horseradish), and a third sandwich that I haven’t seen before in an afternoon tea setting.\u00a0 Here at The Grand, I enjoyed a wonderful Dutch shrimp\/prawn tea sandwich, and it was a new and flavorful addition to afternoon tea.<\/p>\n

As we were having the \u201cmedium\u201d weight finger sandwiches, I was thinking to myself \u2013 what kind of tea will she be pairing this with?\u00a0 After carefully removing the original pot of Chinese green tea, along with the cup and saucer, I waited for her to bring the fresh pot of _____? (dramatic pause here).\u00a0 The tea she selected for the medium-weight finger sandwiches was a medium strength Indian black tea, scented with lemon and lotus.\u00a0 A medium tea for a medium food course \u2013 perfect again and very well done. I could definitely detect the scent of lotus in the black tea.<\/p>\n

Finally, the sweets course was last.\u00a0 I was served a cr\u00e8me brulee, some classic scallop-shaped Madeline cookies, an apple tart, and another light sweet. Ok, I\u2019m beginning to detect the pattern here. If this is a light course, I’m going to guess that she\u2019s brewing a heavier tea to accompany it.\u00a0\u00a0 And I was more or less right \u2013 this time a Pakistani black tea was chosen for the final sweets course and, for me, it was the best of the group. Although it was a full bodied black tea, it wasn\u2019t over the top.<\/p>\n

After the afternoon tea, I took a quick trip up to the 2nd Floor to see the \u201cMarriage Chamber.\u201d From 1808 to 1988, the building that now houses the hotel was formerly used as Amsterdam\u2019s City Hall.\u00a0 It therefore required a marriage chamber where civic weddings could be held and are, actually, still held to this day. The murals, by artist Chris Lebeau, depict a man and a women progressing through the various stages of life.<\/p>\n

\"Marriage<\/a><\/p>\n

Marriage Chamber at Sofitel Legend The Grand Amsterdam<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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  The Hotel Sofitel Legend The Grand Amsterdam, familiarly known as \u201cThe Grand,\u201d has\u00a0a long\u00a0history that dates back to the\u00a01500\u2019s when the building was used as a convent. Since that time, it has been a 16th Century Royal Guest House, a 17th Century Amsterdam Admiralty Headquarters, and the city\u2019s Town Hall in the 19th Century.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2551],"tags":[2552,2557,2554,2585,2586,2587],"class_list":["post-24076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-en-europe","tag-en-afternoon-tea","tag-en-amsterdam","tag-en-high-tea","tag-en-hotel-sofitel-amsterdam","tag-en-netherlands","tag-en-the-grand"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24076"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hightea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24083,"href":"https:\/\/hightea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24076\/revisions\/24083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}