It's been like living in England, lately. Damp and gray and rainy, day after day. It's weather like this that turns a middle-aged woman's fancy to thoughts of tea.
I've been reading about something called "cream tea", which in the Devonshire tradition means tea served with scones, clotted cream, and jam. What the hell is clotted cream? Where can I get it? I don't know, but it sounds gloriously fattening.
The idea is you split a scone in half, and cover each side with clotted cream, and then smear jam over that. I guess the Brits drink their tea with milk, and here's where I'm an American, through and through. I say, why have cream only on your scone, when you can have it in your tea too? When it comes to cream, more is more, right?
According to Wikipedia, a variation on the cream tea is something called "Thunder and Lightning" which consists of a round of bread, topped with clotted cream and golden syrup, honey or treacle. What the hell is treacle? I imagine a pasty English kid spooning it over his milk toast. It doesn't sound so good. But I suppose it's yummy.
pretty teapot. "clotted cream" brings to mind something coagulating..like spoiled milk in the bottom of the milk carton. blek. but i bet it is more on the lines of cream cheese, or brie or something. it would be nice if we americans stopped at 4pm every day to take tea, eat a sweet treat. no time for that, though. gotta go, gotta do.
ReplyDeleteI am not a tea guy, so i might not be qualified. But before I got too far down the road with your tea party, I think it might be a good idea to study up on this:
ReplyDeletehttp://whatscookingamerica.net/History/HighTeaHistory.htm
H.B.---Thanks for this! This is fascinating. I didn't know there were so many different kinds of teas. I might have to make up a few of my own. The Mony Tea. The Women Libber Tea. Hee hee.
ReplyDeleteI actually do think the English ritual of tea in the afternoon is interesting and am eager to read more about its origins on this website you provided. Thanks for the research!