Cream Tea - Jam vs Cream first, debate with Video

Friends and I had beach walks in Cornwall, and one afternoon we went in search of a coffee outlet for pick-me-up treats, as it was a windy day with storm clouds looming.

After a few attempts, we found this cafe that was open for service, and the picnic-style benches were ideal for us.

Interesting name I thought, and the main building was a round white old cottage structure as seen on the sign.

We all had coffee, and this cappuccino was my delightful brew.

While dining, I observed that other customers went for the traditional Cream Tea, which is English tea with scones, jam and clotted cream. It was interesting to observe how they applied the jam directly onto the scones, with cream on the top.

You see, there's a big debate about whether the Devon way of applying the clotted cream before jam, versus the Cornish way of spreading jam and adding the clotted cream on top, is right.

Even though I seldom do Cream Tea, I was intrigued and decided to test the theory myself. So, here I am at home, having an afternoon tea of supermarket-bought scones, jam, clotted cream and some Rooibus tea, as opposed to English tea.

The first step is to cut the scone in two and apply the jam and cream on either side, as opposed to eating it like a sandwich.

Strawberry Jam might be a more popular jam, but I went for the raspberry on this occasion.

Jam with seeds as seen, as I prefer to have a bit of roughage, and this clotted cream said classic cornish, so I grabbed this pack from the shelf.

I was hoping that this cream tea treat would be my last outdoor dining before winter kicked in, but it was windy with spitting rain, so I set up inside, which was lovely and cosy.

I strongly believe that a teahouse or a coffee shop is anywhere I want it to be. So I like an attractive setting, with nice conversation, but today it was a solo setting, which was ideal for me to mess around with my videos without feeling too self-conscious.

Click on this video for my opinion about scones, clotted cream and jam.

I found it all a bit sweet... Mind you, I went heavy-handed on both the jam and the clotted cream, simply because I know that they will sit in the refrigerator until they go off, more so the cream, but the jam will be there for ages.

So, of course, you could spread this neatly, and probably use less of both.

My preference is for savoury more than sweet, so I was inclined to have the cream more than the jam, and I even thought about skipping the jam completely.

Overall, I see the logic in the Devon way of spreading the cream as you would the butter, and then adding the cream on top. However, I would probably do it that way, and then still add a double serving of cream on top of the jam to tone down the sweetness.

This experiment turned out to be way more fun than I anticipated, but I've got to watch my waistline, cheeks and thighs, so I don't foresee this becoming a regular thing.
Besides, it's a bit of a tongue twister, and I kept mixing up Cottage Cheese with Clotted Cream. Don't they sound too similar?

I have a special treat of the director's cut for my honest opinion about this elaborate spread. Why don't you click to find out;)

I would be delighted to hear your preference for applying both cream and jam or if you do eat scones another way.

All images and video clips belong to me:)