The Cream Tea Debate

The Great British Cream Tea, there’s nothing more wonderfully summery - with the possible exception of Pims and lemonade, strawberries and cream, Flake 99’s, crust-less cucumber sandwiches and gin and tonic (what a perfect shopping list for a summer garden party!)

For those of you unfamiliar with the tradition, here’s a lovely little article in the Guardian: 

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2014/jun/12/how-to-eat-cream-tea-scones-jam

Basically a ‘Cream Tea’ involves a scone, split, then liberally slathered in jam and cream, served with a plenty of tea.

In Devon, the tradition is cream first then jam, in Cornwall it’s jam first then cream. 

I grew up in Somerset and now live in Bristol, so I’m not biased about either county, to me, both Devon and Cornwall have always just meant ‘holidays’. 

As a kid, going through the Somerset border, past the sign saying ‘Welcome to Devon’, I always experienced a giddy sense of glee that I was ‘on holiday’ (I still do!).

So what’s the ‘right way’ to serve the cream tea - cream, first or jam first?

It’s an age old question, one that courts much controversy (almost as much as which way round the loo roll should face).

This is what I’m fuelling my writing with this afternoon:

Note the split test: One scone Devon style, one Cornwall style.

In my case the ingredients are:

• A fresh scone from the awesome Lidl bakery (it’s not possible to walk into Lidl’s and walk out without buying a freshly baked good, they’re placed tantalisingly by the entrance - a master stroke of product-placement-genius!) 
•  Cream 
•  Homemade jam with strawberries from my garden and honey instead of sugar so it has a pleasing zing to it!

I’m being very scientific about this - I have in the past been known to state my preference for the Devon method - so today, I put it to the test:

·    It may not look it, but there are equal amounts of cream and jam on both (a generous tablespoon of each per scone).

·    The first thing I noticed, the Devon method (cream first) ‘looks healthier’. This scores it extra points because of course, if we fool ourselves it’s healthier, there’s less guilt in the consumption! (This is why Carrot Cake is one of my five a day!)

·    Conversely, this makes the Cornish method look creamier and decadent

·    Also, I can confirm, it’s much easier to get the cream right to the edge of the scone with the Devon method and the jam is held nicely by the friction acting on it from the denser cream. I’m a nibbler so it’s important to me that the topping covers the whole scone evenly. If you’re a two bites and it’s gone type, this will be less important to you.

·    The Cornish method was also trickier to eat, with the cream wanting to slide off the jam. There was much rearranging with the knife and trying not to get gooey fingers as I ate it. 

Gooey fingers + keyboard = bad news

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·    It was also more of a challenge spreading the cream on the jam without mixing the two – personally, I like a clear distinction between the white and red, it’s just neater and that pleases me - no swirly pink bits of part jam part cream - the flavours should be kept distinctive.

·     I will concede, I used whipped double cream (thickly whipped, *mind) instead of clotted cream, so there is an argument that had I used the ‘right’ cream, it wouldn't slide off the jam.

(*adding ‘mind’ to the end of a sentence to punctuate a point is a peculiar Bristolian thing I appear to have picked up over the years!)

So, my verdict: 

Cornwall, you may have better beaches, surfers and sound more like pirates than your neighbours in Devon, but I’m afraid the Devonian’s win the Cream Tea debate for me.

However, I will add that both methods result in a lip-smackingly-good mid afternoon snack. 

Great fuel for writing!