Jamaica Inn

 Just off the A30 on Bodmin Moor is Jamaica Inn. Famous from the Daphne du Maurier novel of the same name. 

It is almost certain that no cream teas are served at the inn in the story they certainly are today. 

The style is one large scone, a pot of tea and cream and jam. Plain or fruit scones are offered and a choice of teas.  The cream is generous but the jam nondescript strawberry. also for some reason a split strawberry is used as garnish on the cream. 

First Cream tea of the year.

 Just back from Cornwall and as expected a couple of cream teas were experienced.

The first was in a little cafe in Tintagel, called Charlie's, on a wet and windy day after a failed attempt to go to Tintagel castle.

We had also ordered a very tasty sandwich which came on a turmeric flavoured sourdough bread, so the cream tea part was sharing scones jam and cream as a seconds.

Scones were small and dark, almost like a Scottish treacle scone. But although small they were very tasty. and there was a very generous portion of clotted cream and jam. Tea was by the cup and there was a choice so English Breakfast and an Earl Grey for the driver.

Nice warm cafe on a wet day, good food and a good cream tea .

 

Skys Diner, St Ives.

It was a foggy day and it's a very long and twisty drive on the coast road from Sennen to St Ives. The result was, that the Passenger was not in the mood for a cream tea when we stopped off in St Ives. Well not a cream tea to herself, but a quarter share of the drivers tea and a bottle of Elderflower Presse which had her revived enough for a later paddle.

Anyway we are getting ahead of ourselves. In the end we found a place to park the car, after witnessing the aftermath of possibly the worst car park crash ever. A wall and a transit van demolished by a Jeep.

The choice of eateries in St Ives is vast with many an offer of fish and chips, pizza and cornish pasties. Less shops were offering cream teas, and of those that did the look was not inviting. In the end we found Skys Diner

It had seats free it looked clean and it sold cream teas, in other words it ticked all the boxes. We wandered in found a seat near the window and looked at the menu.

Apart from the inconsistent use of capitol letters it looked good so tea was ordered.

As mentioned before the passenger was not in the mood for a cream tea but shared a scone with a bottle of fizz. The driver had english breakfast, which arrived in a mug!
Now for me mugs are for coffee and chocolate. Tea should be served in a cup and saucer, from a pot with a pot of hot water on the side. I also think that it is value for money as a tea bag is good fort more than a single mug full.

To compound the irritation with this tea the scones were dusted in sugar, were large and strangely shaped and the jam and clotted cream were too small for the scones.

The problem with misshaped scones is how to cut them. They are impossible to cut so so as to give an even depth of scone. They all end up wedge shaped with too much scone on one for the jam and cream. Here the last bite was almost all scone with little jam and cream. Also the scones were a bit dry and very sweet with the sugar coating on the top.

Overall the the cream tea was OK nothing great but perhaps they know their market.

Ambiance and Presentation:- 3 room was clean but not much atmosphere.
Jam and Cream:- 3 small portion in relation to the scone size.
Scones:- 2 dry and sweet
Tea:- 2 Mug and no pot
Service:- 3 Staff friendly

Overall:- 13/25

The Eden Project. Help yourself to jam and cream!

While in cornwall we had a trip to the Eden Project. We had never visited and one of our friends we were staying with also wanted to visit.

The site is remarkable as it is in an old china clay pit. With all the visitors there are several places to eat. We had a coffee and a cake when we arrived but later we all needed more sustenance after wandering around the Biodomes. 

In the large food court a sign caught our eyes.

Help yourself to jam and cream! 

Well we all three thought we were in heaven and next to no time, three scones were chosen and tea was ordered. We went for fruit scones as there was only one plain scone left and that was a bid of an odd shape. Tea was presented in mugs. The Passenger is not a great fan of mugs as she thinks tea should only be served in fine china cups and tea pots.

The Passenger and the Friend also like their tea the same strength. Strength is perhaps the wrong word to describe their tea, anaemic is a better word. Frugality is also a trait they share so we ended up with two mugs of hot water and a, as in one, tea bag. The driver had his usual everyday tea.

We helped ourselves to the jam and cream, luckily there was enough for the three of us!

The cream was clotted and the jam was strawberry. 

The whole ethic of the Eden project is of sustainability and in this spirit the jam and the cream are both sourced locally. The scones are backed fresh each day in the kitchen of the restaurants. The scones were good, a bit heavy, fresh but not just out of the oven fresh. It would have been better if they had been popped into an oven just to reheat them.

The cafe area was interesting, it was laid out with long tables and benches made from RSJs and thick planks. 

Milk was supplied in a large jug from which you helped yourself and serviettes were a kitchen roll on a pole, dotted around the tables.

When we were there it was not very busy and we had plenty of space but I would think if the Cafe was busy it could get very cramped.

We all enjoyed our cream tea, especially the Friend as she was finding a bit of a long time since the last feed. The Passenger managing to help herself to the correct amount of jam and cream without the embarrassment of having to go back for a refill. 

Ambiance and Presentation:- 3 Not a room for a quiet cream tea but more like a motorway service station. Mugs and not cups.
Jam and Cream:- 5 Quality and portion size as we did the portion control it could hardly be anything else
Scones:- 4 Good and made on site.
Tea:- 4 A reasonable choice.
Service:- 4 Friendly counter Staff.

Overall:- 20/25

Lanhydrock House cream room.

The Driver and the Passenger visited Lanhydrock house on the way back from their honeymoon many years ago.  Lanhydrock house near Bodmin in Cornwall has one of the most impressive sets of kitchens of any National Trust house we have visited. The Kitchens had been remodelled in the late Victorian era, after the house had been almost completely burnt to the ground.

It has kitchens for almost all the different needs of the house. A bread bakery, a meat preparation room, game larder a dairy and something I had never seen before, a clotted cream room.

It was laid out with broad shallow bowls sitting over a heat source, with the cream scoops and cream jugs beside.

It was a nice little insight into the backstage areas of a grand victorian country house.

Lamorna Pottery and the perfect scones.

Near where we were staying in Cornwall was the Lamorna Pottery, which has a tea shop attached. Both the Driver and the Passenger have visited here in the past. Previous visits had been prior to meeting each other and then later, together and then later still with children. So it is true we have a long history with this tea shop.

On arrival it was clear that little had changed since the last visit nearly twenty years ago.

Inside the tea room is small bright and clean with tables in the garden. The pottery is no longer a production pottery but they sell lots of different gifts.

Our memories of the teas here were of wonderful teas with generous portions. The menu confirmed that they still did cream teas.

Not cheap but we hoped they would be as good as they were. We ordered 2 cream teas, with Earl Grey for the Passenger and Ceylon for the Driver.

When they arrived we were not disappointed. The only problem was that the teapots had two bags in each and as the passenger likes her tea on the weak side of weak, it was a bit of rush to remove the bags before the tea got too strong.  Hot water was given without asking.

The portions were as we remembered. The portion of cream was gigantic and the jam was of a similar size. The jam was strawberry and there was no choice but the quality was fantastic. It tasted of strawberries and there were large chucks of fruit in the jam.

The scones were warm. When opened they had a wonderful texture. We assembled our teas and tucked in.

The first bite was accompanied by groans of pleasure. The scones were absolutely wonderful, light and they just melted in the mouth. We both agreed that the scones were the best we had tasted in years. It would be fair to say that it would be hard to think of anything that could have improved on these scones.

We scored the tea:-

Ambiance and Presentation:- 4 A clean room with a nice atmosphere.
Jam and Cream:- 5 Quality and portion size
Scones:- 5 To dream about.
Tea:- 4 reasonable choice and hot water given without asking.
Service:- 4 Friendly counter Staff.

Overall:- 22/25

Cornwall trip.

The passenger and I are just back from a trip down to Cornwall. Staying on a farm at the end of a long narrow lane about four miles from Lands End.
We had a great time and sampled five, yes five! cream teas. Well when I say 'we' sampled five cream teas I meant the driver sampled five and the passenger sampled three and a bit. Some of those roads are very twisty and turney and driving them in thick fog put the passenger of cream teas.

One of the farms on our lane was a Rodda's supplier

You can tell they are proud of their cream in Cornwall.