National Cream Tea Day

Delicious Jam, homemade scones, perfectly brewed tea and lashings of clotted cream are an amazing combination for tea time, but how did it all start?

It all began in 1662, when Catherine de Braganza from Portugal married Charles II and brought the custom of drinking tea to the UK and made it popular worldwide. However, we have the Duchess of Bedford to thank for setting up the now well-known ‘tea time’ as a result of the tiring wait between lunch and dinner, so the tradition of inviting ladies to her country house for tea time was born.

The first ever tearoom was opened by Thomas Twining in 1706 in London, and not long after that tearooms started appearing all around the capital. It was a great alternative for ladies to have a more appropriate place to go, rather than the male-orientated coffee shops which were present at the time.

The Cream Tea as we know it today started in 1850 with the industrial revolution’s boom and the opening of the railway which encouraged people to travel to The West Country specially Devon and Cornwall where they could enjoy the sun and try the cream teas.

The difference between Devon’s and Cornwall’s cream teas.
The Origins of the cream tea is often disputed, although there is some evidence that the tradition might have started during the 11th century in Devon where the tradition is to split the scone in two, cover each piece with clotted cream and add strawberry jam on top, while the Cornish way commonly known as the “Cornish Split” consist of a slightly sweeter white bread roll instead of a scone which is first spread with the jam and then topped with a spoonful of clotted cream.

The 24th of June is the recognised National Cream Tea Day. So why not drop in to the Flackley Ash Hotel and sample some of our afternoon delights.