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Cream tea
A cream tea prepared according to the Cornish method - jam on first, clotted cream on top. Photograph: Rex Features
A cream tea prepared according to the Cornish method - jam on first, clotted cream on top. Photograph: Rex Features

Devon and Cornwall battle over true home of the cream tea

This article is more than 13 years old
Farm launches campaign to win European protection for 'Devon cream tea', prompting angry protests from Cornish rivals

Poll: jam or cream on top - which method do you cleave to?

The true home of the cream tea threatened to cause a neighbourly dispute today after a farm in Devon launched a campaign to win European protection for the term "Devon cream tea" – much to the chagrin of some proud Cornish people who argue their county has the greater claim.

Paul Winterton, general manager of Langage farm in Plymouth, said the Devon campaign was aiming to win the backing of the government.

Winterton said the move was designed to stop practices such as cafe owners serving cream teas with canned whipped cream rather than clotted cream, which he claims is vital to the afternoon treat.

He said: "I feel people are being short-changed. I have seen Devon cream teas with cream from a can in the Lake District and the scone was like a cake.

"With an excellent food like the Devon cream tea, you need to know its origin. I don't think [the EU] can refuse us."

If the farm wins a protected designation of origin from the EU, only teas produced, processed or prepared in Devon could be called a cream tea.

Similar EU status has already been secured for products such as Stilton cheese and Melton Mowbray pork pies.

But cream tea makers in Cornwall have reacted angrily. Mike Pearce of Cornishcream.com claimed people in Devon were jealous that Cornwall already has several protected products – including Cornish clotted cream.

He said: "There is only one cream tea, and that's the Cornish cream tea. The application should be thrown out."

The precise origin of the cream tea is disputed, though historians have found evidence that a tradition of eating bread with cream and jam existed at Tavistock abbey in Devon during the 11th century.

There are variations between Devon and Cornwall as to how a cream tea should be eaten – and no doubt variations within the variations.

However, one Devon method is to split the scone in two, cover each half with clotted cream, and then add strawberry jam on top. Butter should never be included, some believe.

In Cornwall, the cream tea was traditionally served with a "Cornish split", a type of slightly sweet white bread roll, rather than a scone. The warm roll would first be spread with strawberry jam, and finally topped with a spoonful of Cornish clotted cream.

Mabel, the cartoon cow that Langage farm uses in its advertising material, seems relaxed about how a cream tea should be created: "Cream first or jam first – you decide."

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