Miss Marple’s Tea Room, East Looe, Cornwall, England

For the best Cornish Cream Tea in the towns of Looe in Cornwall, head to Miss Marple’s on the main street. My host and family friend Avril took me for this proper and ancient tradition known throughout the world. The cream tea originated in the areas of Cornwall and Devon and in Southwest England you will see teashops and bakeries all over advertising their cream teas.


Miss Marple’s is a quaint upstairs shop with a few tables, a windowed cake stand and a lovely staff. We were there for one thing and one thing alone: cream teas! Before long, we were presented with personal pots of tea, one large scone and a two big servings of homemade jam and clotted cream. This is the best clotted cream I have ever tasted. Clotted cream is made fresh in Cornwall and Devon and so of course, you only get the freshest and best quality there. I learned that the Cornish way of eating your cream tea is to spread the jam on first and then layer that with clotted cream. I usually make it the Devon way myself, so that I can get more cream on the bottom, but seeing as I was so happily being introduced to Cornish culture, I made my scone the Cornish way.


Another thing to note is that the scones here are not the hard, crumbly scones we find in the states, but much softer and more breadlike. Avril explained to me that before scones, people made cream teas on Cornish Splits, which is a soft bread roll that goes very well with cream and jam. Because of this, I think the scones here are more closely related to splits. They were fresh and delicious. I could certainly see myself back at Miss Marple’s enjoying a pot of Assam tea and a fresh scone. And to add to it, the people are so friendly and let you linger as long as you want! A lovely place, indeed!