£7.50 cream tea!!!

i should be talking about how brilliantly matthew rowed over the weekend and how lovely the isles of scilly are or indeed about the sight of 122 boats lined up on the start line. however the real talking point of our weekend on the scillies was a £7.50 cream tea on st martin's.

this year we went a day earlier than usual (although i have only been once before so not sure i can really say usual) so that could go to one of the off islands and we chose st martins - partly so i could see Great Bay, which we were given a picture of for a wedding present, and so that we could visit some of matthew's relatives. i was also quite keen to visit another island other than st mary's as this was my fourth trip to the scillies in under two years and all i had seen was hugh town.

we had a very pleasant day, we walked across the island, dropped in on the relatives, had lunch on the beach at Great Bay and waked to the daymark at the far end. we returned to higher town to catch the return ferry calling in at a cafe for tea on the way.

we timed it well as it had just started to rain and the rain got heavier whilst we were there. matthew went to place the order and discovered that they only had one scone left so ordered a slice of apple cake as well. fortunately another mis-shapen (and previously rejected) scone was found so we were able to have one each, but when he returned to the table matthew was looking somewhat aghast at the cost of the tea which came to £13.95.

one of the other customers later discovered that the cream tea was £7.50 and tea for one was £2.50, so we had paid £3.95 for the cake (with clotted cream). the two scones were large, the quantity of jam and cream adequate but £7.50!! even accounting for the ingredients having to come from the mainland via st mary's it still rates as one of the most expensive cream teas i've had. the best value one was at oxwich bay on the gower- some years ago now but you got bread and butter and a piece of cake as well as the scones and jam. i can't remember how much it was but i was a student at the time and we all thought it an excellent deal.

i cannot write a post about a cream tea and not mention the correct 'cornish' way of preparing your scone, ie jam first as opposed to the incorrect 'devon' way, where the cream is put on the scone first. the cause of much debate even at a training day in somerset where we were given devon cream scones. a tourist 'emmet' can be easily identified by how the cream tea is eaten, you have been warned!