What is a Crème Tea?

hellomagazine.com- This caught my eye quickly because I have the same Johnson Brothers ironstone.

What is a cream tea?  It is not tea with cream in it.  It is a type of afternoon tea meal. A cream tea, Devonshire tea or Cornish cream tea is tea taken with a combination of scones, clotted cream and strawberry jam. In some instances whipped cream is used. In Devon, they split the scone, spread with clotted creme and top with jam. In Cornwall, they spread the jam first then top with clotted creme.

Now, we Americans ask: what is clotted cream?  Clotted cream is not made in the United States because we pasteurize our milk. It is made when unpasteurized milk is indirectly heated and cooled in shallow containers. Clots form as it cools and the cream rises. The fat content is at least 55% or higher. You can buy imported clotted cream in the U.S. The Devon Company from Corsham, England exports English Double Devon Cream. It has a yellowish color.

A friend brought me this clotted cream and I can't wait to try the real thing.
You also can make your own clotted cream. I found this recipe from the a Little Jaftig.com blog.

2 pints heavy cream preferably with a high fat content and not ultra pasteurized. (Like Cedar Summit Farms)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees
Pour cream into deep oven safe dish (at least 3 or more inches deep)
Cover and bake 8-12 hours or until the cream has formed a thick, yellow skin.
Cool at room temperature and then refrigerate for eight hours.
Skim the yellow clotted cream from the top and serve. You can use the cream that remains below for baking. Yields 1 cup clotted cream.

I tried this recipe with ultra pasterized whipping creme. Here is a pic. I was an interesting experiment. Think I will stick to the bought Devonshire cream even though it is expensive! I guess curiosity killed the cat applies to me in this case. I went to all the trouble of doing this and then was afraid to try it.

I pinned this picture from greatbritishchefs.com because you can see both the Devon tradition and the Cornwall version on a muffin.

Creme tea is an afternoon tradition in England that began in the eighteenth century when Duchess of Bedford would order tea to revive her flagging spirits.  You may read a very interesting history of afternoon tea here.

 My husband and I visited the Lake Country in England and enjoyed a quaint creme tea at this inn. I didn't know what to expect and the mystique and anticipation was a thrill for me.

 Our creme tea. It was delightful!

The other two ladies were with our tour on a day trip from London. During the train ride to and from the lake country, these ladies were so interesting and enjoyable. One was an American ex-pat living in London, and the other was from Omaha, and this was her fourth or fifth trip to London.

The grounds were beautiful, but I digress.

Another debate is: which comes first, the creme or the tea? According to www.afternoontoremember.com, milk goes in after tea. Sugar is placed in the cup first, then thinly sliced lemon, and never milk and lemon together.

You can enjoy elegant tea at The Ritz in London.

 Or you can join my friends and me at my home.

 Last week we had a delightful afternoon sipping tea, eating scones with lemon curd and jam and lots of cream as well as a southern favorite, pound cake.

Each guest brought their own teacup and shared their story.

The brown betty teapot was mentioned in my last post here.
The teacups pictured above will be brought to the table, and their story will be shared too. There wasn't room on the tray for all the teacups.

My dear mother-in-law gave me this beautiful cloth and napkins many years ago, and I loved using them.

I had a great time reading some of my books about serving tea and the history of tea. The teacher in me decided to make a display and share some of the things I had learned about tea customs.

Would you believe one of my guests was visiting  Kentucky and out shopping and attended a book signing. Look at the book she brought me. We all enjoyed looking at it and it is full of wonderful recipes.

I was thrilled with the autographed copy and it fit so well in the conversation.

As my table plans evolved, I remembered my tea caddies and decided to use them as part of the centerpiece. Adding a piece of lace, my great-grandmother crocheted made me realize these items are part of the past. The antique crochet hook is also English. It was a  hostess gift from my friend when her son married that shared the brown betty story with me.

One of the books I found intriguing was Antiques for the Table.
These are antique tea caddy spoons! They are so beautiful, and I would love to have just one. I looked them up on eBay, but they do not fit my budget!

We had a special younger guest that was adorable. She enjoyed her tea too!

My friend Nita made all the tea and served us. Her favorite tea is PG Tips, an English tea.

 I wish I had a recording to listen to each teacup's story again. I enjoyed the stories very much.

I realize everyone is not pictured, and also do apologize for the blurring. I was not concentrating very well on taking pictures because I was too busy enjoying the conversation and didn't want to do anything to distract. You know how people scatter when you get out a camera!

Maxine brought three teacups from her childhood all carefully glued back together.

One of my Sunday School lessons recently highlighted nourishing relationships. As I polished several tarnished silver items as I prepared for the crèam tea it made me think that for something to shine and glow, it takes time, work, and effort. Relationships are like that too. Our lives are so busy but do we take time to nourish and treasure our relationships?

I hope you might take this idea and plan a get-together with your friends. It can be simple or as elaborate as your time allows.

Tea was served from the beautiful white teapot that has a story too. Stay tuned.
Thank you for staying with me because I know this post has gotten rather long. I will share the food I served and recipes in my next post, and maybe a few stories.
I hope if you didn't know what crème tea was, you do now. To recap, it is not tea with cream in it. It is a type of afternoon meal having tea with scones, clotted cream, and jam.

Linking to :Wow Us Wednesday, Tablescape Thursday,
and Open House Party Thursday.

What is a "Brown Betty?"

Notice the teapot in the Downton Abbey picture.  After getting interested in tea, I began asking friends that drank tea quite a few questions. One of my tea-drinking friends mentioned the English make their tea in a brown betty and that she has one she bought in London.

So I learned what a brown betty teapot was. I had seen them but did not know they had a particular name or anything about their history. The reference below is from Wikipedia.

Sadler "Brown Betty" teapots

A Brown Betty is a type of teapot, round and with a manganese brown glaze known as Rockingham glaze.[1][2]

The original teapots came from red clay that was discovered in the Stoke-on-Trent area of Britain in 1695. This special clay seemed to retain heat better and so found use as the material for the teapot as early as the seventeenth century. These early pots were tall and shaped more like coffee pots. In the nineteenth century, the pots began to take on the more rounded shape of the modern Brown Betty. The Rockingham Glaze was brushed on the pot and allowed to run down the sides, creating a streaky finish as it was fired.

In the Victorian era, when tea was at its peak of popularity, tea brewed in the Brown Betty was considered excellent. This was attributed to the design of the pot, which allowed the tea leaves more freedom to swirl around as the water was poured into the pot, releasing more flavor with less bitterness.[3]

[edit]

See also

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Betty_(teapot)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Betty_(teapot)

 Pardon the poor quality of the photos, but these were snapped while watching on television and had to be done very quickly. Downton Abbey takes place during the 1920s.

 Of course, this is an upstairs tea which is quite a contrast.

 This Brown Betty has a more rounded shape.

This recent BBC series features a new owner a few years later and a new staff living in the same 165 Eaton Place residence as the original Upstairs Downstairs.  Jean Marsh, co-creator, who played Rose, the parlor maid in the original series, reprised her role, this time as a housekeeper. You can read more about the new series and Rose here.  The original aired on Masterpiece theater in 1973-74. The series aired for three consecutive years from 1973-1976.

If you haven't watched Upstairs Downstairs, it is available on Netflix.  We watched Upstairs Downstairs in the seventies and have now watched all 68 episodes again as well as the new version.

This teapot looks more like the coffee pot shape Wikipedia mentioned above, so do you believe this is an earlier-dated Brown Betty? Feel free to jump in with any knowledge you have. I am not an authority just become intrigued with the customs of preparing and drinking tea and the customs that go along with it. It is quite interesting and complex.
I found a neat blog that expounds on the Brown Betty that you can view here. I think I have bitten off more than I can chew through blogging about tea! There are scores of books written on the subject. There are scores of blogs about tea. I now realize I was presumptuous to blog about tea because so many are more knowledgeable than I am. However,  I have a few more things I find interesting to share coming up.

 On a personal level, this is the teapot that my grandmother gave me when I was ten years old. She brought me Russian tea in it when I was sick. It is very special to me but as you can see it is broken now. I bumped the whatnot shelf it was on, and it fell off and broke. I was so sad my husband worked hours trying to glue it back together, but in the end, it was not possible.  It does have the brown betty shape.

But it is not an authentic brown betty. It would be more collectible before it was broken because it was made in occupied Japan.  Of course, it is valuable to me because it has sweet memories.

Do you have a brown betty? Did you know what one was before you read this post? Don't get the teapot confused with apple brown betty the dessert.

Next post: What is creme tea?


Linking to Seasonal Sundays, Tabletop Tuesday, Wow us Wednesday Open House Party Thursdays 

Antique Boxes

I wish this 19th century English  antique lapdesk could talk. Who did it belong to? How did it get to the states and when? I bought it from an antique dealer about 18 years ago.

It has a beautiful patina and is in good condition.

To read more about antique lapdesks click here. 

I love antique wooden boxes. It is unusual now for boxes to be made of wood. I have several antique boxes I have collected. One is a sewing box, several tea caddies and several are all occasion I guess you would call them. Some have mother-of pearl inlay that I like. Because they are all old they have a history but all I know about them are their approximate age probably 19th century and I bought them at different times over the last twenty years.

The bottom box is not old maybe 50's or newer ~ just guessing. The way the light is shining the box looks worn but it isn't.

Do you like old boxes?

Linking to: Be Inspired Friday, Seasonal Sundays, Table Top Tuesday, Wow Us Wednesday, Ivy and Elephants and Open House Party Thursday.

Al Fresco Tea

I am actually drinking a cup of hot tea as I type.  I have especially enjoyed hot tea this winter more than ever. Trying different teas has been fun. What is your favorite kind of tea?
I have been intrigued by the  English custom of having daily tea recently watching Downton Abbey and Upstairs Downstairs on Masterpiece Theatre. It has been interesting doing a little research which I plan to share on a future post.

I bought these sweet tea napkins at an estate sale recently. They were lovingly ironed and folded and penned together with safety pins. It was the sweetest estate sale I have ever seen. Everything was so neat and a great deal of work was evident. I did not personally know the lady whose home contents were being sold but several of my friends fondly remember her as one of their elementary teachers. She decided to move closer to her children and sell things she or her family members did not need.

She was not present at the sale but her sweet spirit was. I also bought an enamel pan, silver candelabra, some books and another set of solid linen tea napkins.

I would love to have tea with all of you reading this post. 

Metawa Pewter ~ Holland

 Barouther Walosassem, Bavaria GERMANY

This tea set has eight cups and belonged to my mother-in-law. She gave it to me recently and I was thrilled. I believe she bought it on a trip to Germany in the 70's.  

Hope everyone has a great week!  Blessings to you.

Linking to Seasonal Sundays, Tabletop Tuesday, Wow us Wednesday Open House Party Thursdays and Tablescape Thursday.