Imagine you’re going for afternoon tea. You’ve been promised a vegan macaron. You’re envisioning a classy affair.

You open the door to find ‘Africa’ by Toto playing full blast, hazy purple lighting, a hen do in full swing, and not a macaron in sight. It’s safe to say my trip to Jam was not exactly what I was expecting, but it did manage to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

I heard about Jam in this article about vegan afternoon tea options in Liverpool. I couldn’t find the word ‘vegan’ anywhere on their website, but when I emailed an enquiry I was sent a vegan afternoon tea menu which featured several kinds of sandwiches, a scone each, and a cake plate of chocolate tart, Victoria sponge, chocolate flapjack, and macaron. I was sold.

But even though I booked over a week in advance, it was not even close to what we were served.

We had two kinds of sandwiches: avocado and veg, and hummus and veg. The hummus was really good, and it made a pleasant change to have the sandwiches served on baguette rather than sliced bread – these two factors elevated these from fairly run-of-the-mill vegan afternoon tea fare.

As for the scones…no, there’s no mistaking these for scones. They were clearly lemon drizzle cakes. The texture was a little spoiled by too much moisture, but they were certainly lemony enough.

And as for the cakes, we could be generous and call this a slight twist on the Victoria sponge: a light cake with raspberries and a vanilla icing on top. It was a little dry, but otherwise nice. The highlight of the whole tea was the hazelnut sponge with chocolate topping. The topping was still sticky and gooey (they might have been freshly made for us), and the sponge was really light and delicious. I could have eaten ten more of these!

Quite a mixed bag, in general – we were a little disheartened on arrival to find it was not a classy restaurant and there were no macarons, but the hummus, bread,and chocolate cake went quite some way to salvaging it. At £17 a head, I’d say this was quite steep for what we got and it wouldn’t be my first choice in Liverpool (hello, Tea Parlour) – but if you’re being dragged along on a hen do, take heart that you’ll be well looked after. Alternatively, if you like purple lighting and listening to full-blast bangers while you eat, book your table right away!