I’m a huge lover of Christmas and I’m always excited to see how my favourite London venues prepare for the festive season. As a brand, aqua restaurant group are always at the cutting edge with new and innovative offers per season incorporating beautiful new dishes and design elements. 
The Shard quickly became one of London’s most iconic buildings and as such, people have flocked to British restaurant aqua shard for the modern cuisine and exquisite afternoon tea. With high expectations, Emma and I headed to aqua shard to check out their Christmas tree and sample a few desserts and festive cocktails while we were at it!
Entering aqua shard on the 31st floor, we were blown away by ‘The Tree of Glass’, that reaches from the floor to the high ceiling at aqua shard. Resembling both The Shard itself and a Christmas tree at the same time, the installation by British product designer, Lee Broom in colloboration with contemporary glassware brand Nude is truly sensational. Nothing really is ever done by halves when it comes to the aqua group.
The tree is actually made up of 245 hand-blownglass LED pendant lights which appear to float in perfect formation with the backdrop of the London skyline through the restaurant’s panoramic windows. The festive work of art is also a fitting tribute to Lee Broom’s tenth anniversary in the design world, commemorated during Milan’s annual design week. He’s also the latest in a starry line up to collaborate on the tree which has previously been designed by Vivienne Westwood, Matthew Williamson and Sir David Attenborough 
Emma ordered the Christmas Cocktail, a homemade chilled mulled plum wine, a modern twist on Stone’s Ginger Wine using seasonal plums fermented for 21 days. It’s been given a gorgeous festive garnish of orange red currant and cinnamon. In the true spirit of giving 50% of the sales of the cocktail are donated to the British Red Cross and two of its fundraising programmes. UK Solidarity Fund (www.beta.redcross.org.uk/
Proceeds from special Christmas desserts also go towards the charities. We sample the poached pear with gold leaf which also looks a little like the architecture of The Shard, it sits on a Christmas pudding crumble and is served with egg nog ice cream. 
The mandarin Eton Mess will also get you in the mood for the festive season and is just the kind of dessert that I love!
The Tree of Glass and the Christmas cocktails and desserts will be available until the 5th of January.
