Afternoon tea is a great British tradition and London does it with style. While often taken in a fancy department store, I prefer the experience in an intimate garden.

Katie: Traditionally, you start with the sandwiches. Got egg mayonnaise, cucumber, and mint here. You’ve got cheddar and caramelized onion and smoked salmon and cream cheese. So this is a very traditional selection. You should never be afraid of making a little bit of a mess with afternoon tea. I mean, the point is to enjoy it, yeah. And it’s very much finger food.

Rick: So when I think of tea in England, I think of…empire.

Katie: Umm. The two are inextricably linked. That’s for sure. And, I mean, really, for the past 300 years, Britain has been obsessed with tea, the drink. It’s driven wars. It’s driven innovation. I mean, some of the fastest ships in the world, the great tea clippers—which would race across the oceans to bring the first harvest of tea into Britain for the highest price—fueled a whole industry and a whole world around it.

Rick: Here’s to tea.

Katie: Here’s to tea.

Rick: I’m liking this tea. And everything is just exquisite. It’s artful.

Katie: Afternoon tea must always present well.

Rick: So there’s two different kinds of scones?

Katie: Right. You’ve got fruit scones, which I’m gonna have, and plain scones as well. So the sign of a good scone is that you don’t need to use a knife. You should just be able to pull apart with your bare hands. There we go.

Rick: So that’s a good scone.

Katie: That’s a very good scone. Yep. On the scone, you put a little bit of jam. I like to do the jam first. Then I follow it up with a little bit of clotted cream.

Rick: Oh, that looks low-calorie.

Katie: Hmm.

Katie: Definitely a decadent treat.

Rick: Yes.

Rick: Tea and scones with clotted cream. It doesn’t get much more British than that.

Katie: It certainly doesn’t.

Rick: Mmm…exquisite.