The Classic English Cream Tea
A Quintessential British Food Dispute: The Cream Tea Conundrum
Over the years I have written a great many articles about the classic Engish cream tea - mainly based on the big row that goes on between Devon and Cornwall concerning whether it’s cream or jam first? It’s all a bit silly really - something made up by journalists like me who needed good stories and head-lines during the slack period of high summer.
In my Hesp Out West series in the Western Morning News and Western Daily Press this weekend I am ignoring the debate in favour of discussing the merits of excellent tea-gardens you can find dotted all around the English countryside. However, I thought that here today I would publish the following article which I wrote for the papers many years ago…
Other regions in the world have their big debates—some disputes are centuries old, others lead to bloodshed—but few resurface and inspire so many storms-in-a-teacup as the great Westcountry debate concerning cream teas.
Cream or Jam First? The Question That Divides a Region
Should you adorn a scone with cream or jam first? It’s an overriding question that has spurned a thousand newspaper headlines, let alone heated debates in otherwise quiet and polite tea-rooms. But now one of the country’s leading mathematicians has used logic and numeric wizardry to come down firmly on the side of the latter.
It is the jam first...
At least, it is according to the latest research carried out by Dr Eugenia Cheng from the University of Sheffield’s School of Mathematics and Statistics.
Cornwall Rejoices: A Win for the Jam-First Method
The news is causing great excitement in Cornwall, which traditionally (but not altogether accurately) claims to be the home of the jam-first system. So much excitement, in fact, that Rodda’s—the county’s leading maker of clotted cream—will be mounting an exhibit explaining Dr Cheng’s new formula at its Royal Cornwall Show stand.
Rodda’s cream tea stand at Royal Cornwall Show
Devon and Somerset Hit Back: A Cream-First Legacy
But cream-tea lovers in Devon and Somerset (where traditionally the cream comes first) say they’re smelling something of a rat among the strawberries. It was, they point out, none other than Rodda’s who commissioned the new study.
Cue: protestations of innocence from the Cornish company:
“When we commissioned the research we specially chose a university professor from out of the county because we wanted it to be objective,” a spokesman told the Western Morning News.
“And Dr Cheng is someone who is famous for connecting food and maths. We put it to her because we wanted her to come up with a perfect cream-tea equation.
Classic scones, cream and jam at the Rodda stand
The Science Behind the Scone: Dr Cheng’s Cream Tea Formula
“What she’s talking about is not just the clotted cream question, but also the whipped cream controversy,” the spokesman continued. “People often use whipped cream in other parts of the country—this is about the importance of clotted cream.
“We didn’t say to a top mathematician: ‘These are the results we want you to find’.”
Dr Cheng’s formula calls for the jam to be spread first in order to avoid the danger of it running off the edge:
“Jam, due to its density, needs to be spread prior to the application of the clotted cream—putting it on after the cream may cause the jam to run off—creating sticky fingers,” says Dr Cheng, who has made a film of her reasoning.
She added that a 5mm rim should be left between the jam and the edge of the scone, and between the jam and cream.
“Building a good scone is like building a good sandcastle – you need a wider base, and then it needs to get narrower as it goes up so that it doesn’t collapse or drip.”
Devon Cream Tea Traditions and the Fight for PDO Status
Although the logic might sound correct, it won’t please the folk who mustered around a campaign launched in May 2010 at the Devon County Show to have the name "Devon cream tea" protected within the EU under Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) rules.
“It’s definitely cream first—it always has been since I was a little girl going to the Harvest Festival teas,” declares Heather Knee, of the award-winning Broadway House cream tea establishment in Topsham.
“We’ve won many awards for our cream-teas including accolades from Taste of the West. We are the best in the west and this is the way you do it,” she added, pointing out the instructions on her website (broadwayhouse.com/creamtea) which call for no less than half an inch of cream first, then the jam.
The National Trust’s Diplomatic Cream Tea Solution
Most purveyors of cream teas take the middle road. A spokesman for the National Trust, which has more tea-rooms than most, said:
“Our catering department in the South West arranged a photo-shoot which showed scones with jam on top of the cream and we got complaints. They weren’t just a tease—people were deadly serious.
So we serve the three ingredients separately, then people can arrange the scones, cream and jam as they please. It’s the only way.”
Local Wisdom: "Just Do It How You Like It"
And some believe the whole cream-first debate is nothing but a huge storm in a teacup. Nancy Johns—who, until this year, made cream teas professionally at Hartland Quay and Hartland Abbey for just under half a century—told the WMN:
“I’m a Devon girl through and through—but I always put the cream on first, which they say is the Cornish way.
It’s all a load of rubbish—you do it the way you grew up with—and a lot of people in this part of Devon put the cream on first. Just do it how you like it—that’s what I say.”
Final Thoughts: The Cream Tea Will Always Be Personal
Whether you favour jam first or cream, the West Country cream tea remains a beloved British tradition. While science may have its say, in the end, it’s taste, memory, and regional pride that rule the tea table.
