Lend your weight to the great TEA debate: Jam first or Cream?

This is an age old question that never fails to spark controversy whenever it rears its ugly head.

Here are some of Amos’ arguments for putting cream first:

1)      Cream is a substitute for butter – you wouldn’t put jam on your toast before butter so why change the rules when it comes to cream? If you want to get technical, the fat (yes who’d have thought?) gets absorbed by the scone and not only moistens it but primes it in preparation for whatever jam you’re having.

2)      The scone is the most dense component and thus makes the foundations, then the cream and then the jam. The cream is sticky like mortar and adheres to scone below and the jam up top. You wouldn’t make a cottage from thatch and a roof from bricks, would you?

3)      Jam – with its slippery surface and tiny raspberry-seed roller-skates – makes the cream slide all over the scone and in all probability, all over the tablecloth and down your trousers too. If you like cats licking your crotch, then who am I to reprimand, but every time I see someone putting jam first I naturally assume they’re a pervert.

And here’s Lily’s argument against:

1)      It may not be recommended by doctors but it didn’t take me long to realize that if you apply jam first, then you can have butter too! Butter + jam + cream works, but butter + cream next to each other? Now that’s going a step too far!

2)      From an aesthetic point of view, it’s much prettier to look at.  This way you can evenly spread out the jam and then lightly dollop the clotted cream on top in a little mountain
of pleasure.

3)      The jam first camp has quite a formidable number of supporters. It’s got the stamp of approval from The Queen for a start, which is good enough for me!

Have we managed to persuade you either way? Now have your say!

To find a tearoom near you visit www.noveltea.co.uk