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  • What could be nicer than enjoying a traditional English afternoon tea?

  • But are you doing it correctly?

  • Here's my official guide.

  • First things first, the napkin.

  • Never call that serviette.

  • Take it and place it on your lap, with the crease folded towards.

  • And next comes the actual drinking tea.

  • Always loose leaf tea, please, so you need to use a tea strainer.

  • And when it comes to stirring our tea, we go back and forth, back and forth,

  • in a 612 motion rather than round and round creating awful racket, splashing,

  • and any sugar you have added in will just sit in the bottom rather than dissolve.

  • After you've eaten the sandwiches with your fingers, not with a knife and fork,

  • then you can move onto the scones, pronounced "scone", not "scoun".

  • We don't use a knife to cut into scones.

  • We break them with our hands into two, just like served.

  • When it comes to layering your scone, you have two options.

  • If you are using Cornish clotted cream, then the procedure is that you put the jam on first,

  • the cream on last, whereas the Devonian Devonshire clotted cream,

  • like the cream that seeps into the scone, and so they put it on first.

  • If you're neither Cornish nor Devonian, you can do as you please,

  • but never sandwich the two together and eat it as a whole.

  • We use a small fork or, sometimes, a pastry fork to eat but up turned in the right hand.

  • And when you are finished, make sure you dab your mouth, not wipe.

  • My thanks to the Milestone Hotel and, now due to my guide, you know how to have afternoon

  • tea the correct way.

What could be nicer than enjoying a traditional English afternoon tea?

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