Halloween Afternoon Tea at The Cauldron NYC
It’s almost time for Halloween, Steepers! Now Halloween may not immediately make you think of afternoon tea, but I found a fun spot for the spooky season! Today I’m doing a review of The Cauldron in NYC. I’ve been to The Cauldron for a few events: The Christmas Tea in 2022, a Potions Making class in the summer of 2023 and now the Halloween Afternoon Tea this October 2023. The Cauldron in general is a great vibe even just for apps and speciality drinks with a little magic. The Cauldron is often referred to as a “Harry Potter bar” because of its magical themes, though they note they are not associated or affiliated with any specific fantasy text. However, they strive to create immersive experiences around whatever can be made real from fantasy genres in books and pop culture. They do an excellent job of this, creating something that feels familiar but incredibly unique at the same time.
A Little Bit of History: The Cauldron has multiple locations in the UK and US, but their afternoon tea is only available in their central London and NYC locations. I have only been to the Stone street location in downtown NYC. According to their website, The Cauldron started as a Kickstarter project to open the world's first wizard pub in London. Since then, the idea has expanded to bring “magic to thousands of non-magical beings around the world”. They consider themselves a technology-led entertainment studio that delivers immersive experiences & products by blending hospitality, science and technology with food, beverage, and retail.
The Experience: All special ticketed events at The Cauldron take place in their upstairs room and need to be paid for in advance on their website. They do sell out early so it’s not something you can typically just show up for and do without a prior reservation. *Note: If you are just interested in drinks and apps, that is definitely something you can walk in and do!
Each experience is led by a potions master who will guide you through the experience Every potions master I’ve had has been excellent, friendly, and helpful. You will get to select a wand (if you didn’t bring one yourself) to start the experience. There’s one wand per table and you will need to put a credit card down just in case your wand “mysteriously” disappears. For the afternoon tea experience, you receive two “spells” or tea mixtures to create. You are given a chest of ingredients and a QR code to read the spells and create the potions.
The magical part of this experience is brewing your own tea. The sandwiches, scones and mini desserts come out while you are following the steps to create your teas. Instead of three traditional afternoon tea tiers, the sandwiches and desserts are stacked on this beautiful magical platform with a dragon egg on top. The display is gorgeous.
You preorder the standard afternoon tea, vegetarian/vegan/gluten free afternoon tea, or “little wizard” afternoon tea in advance. The standard afternoon tea consisted of four sandwiches: 1) smoked salmon, 2) dill and cream cheese, 3) cream cheese and cucumber, 4) Baby BLT. My friend had the vegetarian/vegan/gluten free afternoon tea which also consisted of four sandwiches: 1) cherry tomato, vegan cheese and pesto 2) Hummus and scallions 3) avocado, agave and mixed greens, 4) cauliflower and romesco. Our scone was a cranberry scone with clotted cream. For our desserts we had a macaron, brownie, and cupcake.
As you are brewing your tea, your potions master will bring out your food. I won’t spoil how the teas turn out and what’s magical about them, but its a fun experience especially if you have kids. I really enjoyed all the sandwiches, scone and desserts. For the most part, the experience is self-guided but your potions master is there to help and keep time so you know when to move on to brewing your second tea.
You can also add magical enhancements like alcoholic drinks or non alcoholic drinks (like soft drinks) for a more elevated experience.
As of Today: The Halloween Afternoon Tea only runs the month of October and in 2023 it was only available on the weekends. But The Cauldron runs a standard afternoon tea which includes much of the same “formula” all year around. They also do a Christmas Tea in December which I did in 2022. It is a similar experience, accept you get a complimentary Christmas inspired drink beforehand, and the desserts are Christmas themed!
The current prices for the standard tea is $64.99 and $67.99 for the vegetarian/vegan/gluten free tea. This is a little bit on the pricier side because you are paying for the immersive experience and not just the tea.
My Rating: Just for uniqueness, this experience is 5/5 teacups. If everything comes out on time, it’s a leisurely experience and the “potions” to make tea are not too complicated so it’s a fun, stress free, afternoon out. The service has always been excellent, the food is good, and the immersive experience is a great time all around!
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