About Time You Tried: Dining Blind at Maison BlancBy Matilda Long

As you adventurous folk may know, there are many things in life which are vastly improved with the addition of a blindfold. Oh stop it. I’m talking about food, of course. Luckily for Londoners, those renowned purveyors of pristine patisserie, Maison Blanc, have harnessed this knowledge and come up with a clever little way of making their sugary delights seem all the sweeter; plus they’re adding a generous dollop of that warm fuzzy feeling that comes from knowing that you’re helping a good cause.

Dining Blind: The Idea

The London Without Limits festival – in aid of The Royal London Society for Blind People – is a series of stimulating sensory events dotted across the capital, where all participants are blindfolded. This way, you’ll focus all your attention on one sense – in this case taste – as well as learning a little about the experience of people who’ve suffered childhood sight loss.

Dining Blind: The Experience

For two weeks, the Hampstead branch of Maison Blanc is inviting sweet-toothed shoppers to put their taste-buds to the test, and to try and identify the flavours of a range of puds with zero help from their peepers. With no pretty colours and bake-off worthy piping to distract your fickle brain, it’s the taste alone that’ll do the talking. Think you could you tell a pistachio macaroon from a vanilla without so much as a glimpse of a tell-tale pastel hue? Head into the store, don your blindfold, and attempt to pick out as many flavours as you can from a selection of heavenly puddings.

Dining Blind: The Prize

Each savvy visitor who names at least two of the flavours correctly will be entered into a prize draw to win a delicious and indulgent afternoon tea for two at any Maison Blanc store.

The event takes place until 2 November at Maison Blanc, 76 High Street, Hampstead. For more information click here.