Cream Tea Review - Hardwick Hall

So I thought it was about time I covered my Number One cream tea, the one that all others seek to emulate - Hardwick Hall. 

To begin with I should say that Hardwick Hall is my favourite National Trust property. A beautiful Elizabethan house built for Bess of Hardwick, Hardwick Hall is fascinating, impressive and boasts superb gardens. Plus as a National Trust member you get free entry to the neighbouring ruins of Hardwick Old Hall (despite being operated by English Heritage) which are simply amazing. Standing enough to run around in and ruined enough to offer a sense of mystery the ruins of Hardwick are my favourite place to be in Britain. So I obviously enter into a review of a cream tea at Hardwick with a bit of a bias, but believe me it does not need it. With or without my bias, Hardwick is undoubtably home to the best cream tea i've sampled so far. So onto the ratings...

Setting: The Hardwick Hall National Trust operated restaurant is located within the building adjacent to the Gift Shop and in the old kitchen. There is one large room and a smaller cosier room (which I prefer) and you sit on long benches often having to share tables with other parties. The restaurant offers waiter service which is often a rarity in National Trust properties but it can get really busy and noisy. This often leads to queues to be seated but it is worth the wait.  8/10

Atmosphere: The usual National Trust atmosphere but predominantly an elderly crowd rather than families. 

Quantity: 2 scones. The way it should be!  10/10

Accessories: A generous sized pot of National Trust blend tea. The scones come with butter and the usual pot of Strawberry jam & thick Clotted Cream. On a recent visit the Strawberry jam was replaced by Raspberry but I believe this to be a temporary replacement due to a Strawberry jam shortage. 9/10

Choice: Hardwick Hall is fruit scone-hater friendly. Much to my housemate's delight the menu offers you the choice of plain or fruit. My friend has two plain scones whereas I opt for one plain and one fruit. Diversity is the key! 10/10 

Quality: This is where the Hardwick cream tea really excels. The scones are absolutely delicious - not too heavy, not too light, warm and freshly baked. Simply delightful. Sometimes they can be quite crumbly but it's a small price to pay.  10/10

Verdict: 10/10  Offering choice, delightful surroundings and a quality product and service Hardwick Hall is the gold standard of cream teas. 

Cream Tea review - Lyme Park

I thought it was time I kicked off this blog with an actual Cream Tea review. So i'll start with the most recent before i finally work up to visiting the cream teas of the past year. 

So without any more ado... 

Setting: Restaurant at Lyme Park (operated by The National Trust). Lovely house (part of the BBC's Pride & Prejudice was filmed here! Ah Darcy).  6/10

Quantity: 2 scones  :)  10/10

Accessories: Nice National Trust blend tea in an attractive Art Deco-esque tea pot. The scones came with a lovely Strawberry jam & thick Clotted Cream but unfortunately no butter.  7/10

Choice: The menu listed the cream tea as including fruit scones only, which is fine for me but it deterred my sultana-hating friend from ordering it. But two plain scones arrived!  4/10

Quality: Not freshly baked. Large but quite cold and stodgy.  6/10

Verdict: 7/10

How they are rated

Well for a starter i thought i should provide a bit of background information on how the cream teas will be rated. 

I will be using a scale of 1 to 10 and will be commenting on the following aspects: 

Quantity - 1 scone or 2 that is the question... 

Setting - at home, in a dingy small room, a quaint tea room or a grand Stately Home restaurant

Cream Tea accessories - the quality, quantity & choice of the tea blend, cream and jam will be considered

Choice - do you get the choice of fruit, plain, cherry or, controversially, cheese? Or are non-raisin fans at a loss?

Quality - are they freshly baked, dry or wrapped in plastic? 

Welcome to Cream Tea review

A very warm welcome to my blog. My name is Emma and i'm an avid fan of Stately Homes and their sweetest accessory the humble British Cream Tea. 

With a National Trust membership card in hand it has been and is my continuing mission to sample the cream tea culinary delights of this fair country. However, I stress to add that this blog will include reviews of not just cream teas at Stately Homes but ones consumed in tea shops and even shop bought scones for DIY cream tea making. 

I hope you find this a useful guide to the cream teas just waiting for you out there. But most of all i hope it encourages you to go out and seek your own here, there and everywhere. The cream tea is a pleasure which shouldn't be underestimated. 

Happy Cream Tea-ing. 

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