King Charles' former butler Grant Harold has revealed the proper way to drink tea, if you want affect a regal manner.
When you stir your tea with a spoon, if that’s necessary, you shouldn’t move the spoon crudely around the cup clockwise or widdershins. What you do is use a “very gentle back and forward motion.”
A circular motion risks spillage and noise.
Another major revelation from Grant is that scones should not be cut in half. You may employ the Cornish method, with the cream on top, or the Devonshire way, with jam on top, but you must never employ any method of laceration or piercing probe into the middle of the scone itself.
Joanne Watson The Old Town Hall Tea Room in Urenui until October last year and she’s a bit of a scone aficionado.
Photo: TIM MACPHERSON
