I’ve been meaning to start a Tearoom Tour of Britain, with a target of 100 in the year. Julia has indicated disbelief in my ability to do this (citing logistical difficulties rather than my lack of capacity for cream teas).
Rather than put a number to it, I’m going to start and see where we end up.
Today we went to Thoresby in Sherwood Forest. It’s not the best of the grand houses in the forest but it’s free and the service is a lot better in the cafe than the off-hand, rude, inefficient and useless service encountered at Clumber. Clumber is a better attraction in general, though expensive if you aren’t a member of the National Trust. But the cafe at Thoresby is a lot better. You may have formed that idea after reading my comments on the disgracefully bad, lamentable, terrible, rotten service at the Clumber cafe.
That’s why we won’t be rejoining the National Trust this year. We aren’t saying we won’t rejoin in the future, but for the next year or two their surly waiting staff will have cost them money.
Anyway, back to Thoresby. We didn’t have much time so we had a quick snack – I had the cream tea, Julia had the toasted teacake and we both had plenty of tea. Very palatable, served efficiently by pleasant staff and in nice bright surroundings, There was no time to look round the courtyard, which is partially closed for the winter, but we have done before, and it is worth a visit.
The downside – the scones seem a bit regular and industrial, rather than home made, but they were still good.
I’m happy to recommend Thoresby to anyone. £8.90, in case you are interested.
To be fair, I’m happy to recommend Clumber to anyone who wants grudging, slow, inefficient service in a dingy room, but it’s a niche market. It’s also slightly more expensive, as I recall, but you do get a free snarl and a long wait thrown in as extras.
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So Clumber is not much cop, then. Not worth a visit for the caff, then. Have you said that?
I may have alluded to the iniquity of the cafe. 🙂 Clumber Park itself is good, though there are cheaper venues with better catering.
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Off to a good start with tearooms! Hope the tearoom schedule isn’t too punishing.
I’m going to be very careful not to overdo it. 🙂
This sounds like a tasty tour you’ll be taking us on!! 🙂
I hope so.
I once had a posh friend who chastised me for calling the midday meal dinner.. He said ‘People have lunch, dogs have dinner’ I reminded him that the midday meal at school was called ‘school dinner’!
A long-running debate… 🙂
As an American who doesn’t remember well, I’m going to need a refresher. (I know we’ve covered this before.) To me, “tea” is tea with assorted lovely baked goods. And the baked goods often have lovely spreads such as whipped cream (although you call it something else, I think.) So “cream tea” always throws me. What the hell are you talking about? in other words. : )
Oh, and your hearty recommendation of the Clumber is well noted. I will be sure to stop by next time I’m in your neighborhood. : I
Tea is a drink with many variations.
It is also the evening meal for many people, depending on class and geography, but that is a whole post in itself. Often called High Tea. 🙂
A cream tea is a scone with jam and cream on it.
And then we come to the tea you are thinking about. The posh one, available in hotels and tearooms, is afternoon tea.
So, to sum up, being Northern and lower class, I drink tea, eat it in the evening (having eaten my dinner in the middle of the day) and have a cream tea when I go out.
Afternoon tea is something I read about on menus but don’t actually bother with.
OK – thank you very much. I think I have it now. My grandma lived on a farm in Pennsylvania and always had her big meal in the middle of the day. She called it dinner. Then “supper” in the evening was a lighter affair. I think it’s a sensible way of eating, but when you work all day away from home it makes the evening meal the big one by default. –
Now I just have to remember that “cream tea” is just a scone with spreads.
Ah well, “cream tea” leads on to a number of other discussions, as you will see. 🙂
A cream tea on a winter’s day sounds like a good thing!
It was good. 🙂
It is hard to choose between a cream tea and a teacake. I might have had to have had both.
It was tricky but I decided the scone would need less chewing, and cream teas are nearly as photogenic as kittens. And they don’t scratch when you spread them with jam.