In this video I headed out to Farm House Cafe in Clevedon, Auckland to try something that genuinely makes me a bit nervous: a mystery afternoon tea. I’m someone who likes to be prepared and I normally want to see the menu in advance, so turning up not knowing exactly what I’d be served was definitely a “hit or miss” situation. The standard high tea was $79.90 NZD, and it’s set up more like a degustation than a traditional three-tier stand—savories first, then scones (three different types), a palate cleanser gelato, and finally sweets. For the savory course I had a beetroot macaron with smoked goat cheese (beautiful and original, but the goat cheese was very strong), salmon tartare in super flaky pastry with a nice bite, and a spinach & butternut squash Swiss roll with sour cream and chive. Because of my allergies they swapped the beef item for fried chicken strips with honey aioli—and honestly, those were my favourite and I could’ve happily had seconds. Scone service was interesting: sweet date scone (my winner), Devonshire scone (a bit firmer and I’d rather have the cream separately), and a three-cheese scone that actually converted me, which is saying something because I usually don’t like cheese scones. Dessert-wise, I loved the tart lemon curd meringue, really enjoyed the triple chocolate mousse (but found the pistachio base too dense), liked the light raspberry cheesecake, and wasn’t keen on the opera cake purely because I don’t like coffee flavours.