Ten reasons jam goes first on a cream tea

A cream tea is a scone, clotted cream, jam and a pot of tea. Cornwall puts the jam on first and the cream on top. Devon puts the cream on first and the jam on top. People have fallen out over less.

We should declare an interest. Kernow Trading Co. is run from Devon, which makes what follows something close to treason. Here are ten reasons the Cornish have it right.

1. Jam spreads. Clotted cream does not need to. Jam is the thing that wants a knife. Proper clotted cream is thick enough to sit where you put it, so let each do what it is good at.
2. The cream is the crown. Clotted cream is the expensive, glorious part. It belongs on top where everyone can see it, not hidden under jam like a secret.
3. You get more cream. A dollop holds more than a scrape. Jam first is simply the method that ends with the larger amount of cream, and we rest that part of the case.
4. A warm scone is kinder to jam. Put cream straight on a warm scone and it starts to melt into it. Jam does not mind the heat, and it keeps the cream cool above.
5. Nothing slides. Jam on cream is a slope. Cream on jam is a foundation with something soft resting on it. One of these reaches your mouth in the order you built it.
6. It is tidier to share. Jam first keeps the cream spoon out of the jam and the jam knife out of the cream, so both pots survive the table.
7. It looks better. A white peak on a red base is the picture on every postcard for a reason. Jam on top looks like an accident.
8. The Palace is said to agree. A former royal chef has said that scones at Buckingham Palace garden parties were served jam first. We cannot check with the Palace, but we will take the reference.
9. It is Cornwall's name on the tin. If you are eating a Cornish cream tea, in Cornwall or in spirit, the people who named it get to say how it goes.
10. It starts the right argument. The point of a cream tea is an hour at a table with someone you like. Jam first guarantees there will be something to talk about.

In fairness to our neighbours: Devon treats clotted cream like butter, which is why it goes on first there, and Devon can point to Tavistock Abbey, where bread with cream and jam is said to have been eaten in the eleventh century. Both ways are delicious. Only one of them is correct.

Useful elsewhere

• The UK Tea and Infusions Association