So today is National Cream Tea day but I say why not turn it into a Cream Tea weekend in fact why even wait for a day you are welcome here anytime.
Crumbly scones, sticky fruit jam, lashings of clotted cream and perfectly brewed tea. It’s a heavenly combination, but where did it all begin?
Time for tea
Treat yourself to an afternoon tea in the Woodmeadow Tearoom
Britain’s love affair with tea began when Portuguese Catherine de Braganza married Charles II in 1662, bringing the custom of drinking tea at court with her and making tea popular worldwide.
In 1706, Thomas Twining opened London’s first tearoom. Before long, a flurry of tearooms appeared across the city, a far sight more inviting for a lady than the male-oriented coffee houses.
Afternoon tea
Tiring of the long wait between lunch and dinner, we have the Duchess of Bedford to thank for the invention of afternoon tea. What started out as simply ordering tea and treats to her room when peckish soon evolved into a gowns-and-all social affair, inviting friends to join her in her country house.
By the middle of the 19th century, afternoon tea was an every day occurrence; a spread of sandwiches, cakes, scones, cream and jam – the first hint of cream teas as we know them today.
Cream tea
The cream tea tradition flourished in the Westcountry following the tourism boom in the 1850s, brought on by the opening of the railway. Visitors bustled south looking to relax and indulge, and hotels, tearooms, farmhouses and cafés were happy to oblige – offering delicious afternoon cream teas, made with the finest local ingredients.
The jam was invariably strawberry. And the cream was always clotted.
The Cornwall Devon divide
Cream then jam, or jam then cream? It’s the difference between the Cornish and the Devonshire cream tea and the cause of much controversy.
HINT: don’t treat your clotted cream like butter and your scone will be all the better…
You can read more about cream teas www.creamteasociety.co.uk