Afternoon Tea: A Chilterns Guide to Getting It Right

As the days lengthen and gardens come back to life, there's no better excuse to revive one of Britain's finest traditions. Here's what makes an afternoon tea worth remembering, and a few things that quietly let it down.

A Tradition Close To Home (For Us!)

Afternoon tea has been with us since the 1840s, when Anna, the 7th Duchess of Bedford, decided that the gap between lunch and dinner was simply too long to endure without intervention. She began requesting a tray of tea, bread and butter, and small cakes to be brought to her room in the late afternoon. She started inviting friends. The friends told other friends. And so a ritual was born.

For those of us in the Chilterns, there's a pleasing local footnote to that story. Anna was a Russell by marriage, and the Russell family, Earls and later Dukes of Bedford, owned Chenies Manor in Buckinghamshire for over four centuries. The house that gave the Duchess her title sits just a few miles from our own door, and has been part of this landscape since Tudor times, when Henry VIII himself was a guest. Today, visitors can still take tea there, and the blend they serve is our own Bucks Blend: a tea rooted in the same county that gave afternoon tea its name.  For more on their afternoon tea, click here

The Food Order - Here's Why It Works

The tiered stand gives you a clue about where to begin. Finger sandwiches at the bottom, scones in the middle, cakes and pastries at the top. There's a logic to it: savoury first keeps your palate fresh, and you'll appreciate the sweetness of the top tier far more for having earned it. That said, nobody is watching. Start where you like.

The classic sandwich fillings, cucumber, smoked salmon, egg and cress, exist for good reason. They're light and delicate, designed not to compete with what follows.

Getting The Tea Right

The food at a great afternoon tea is usually a pleasure. What elevates it from pleasant to memorable is nearly always the tea itself. Properly boiling water, a warmed pot, and enough time for the leaves to infuse properly makes all the difference. The classic choice is an Assam-based blend: robust, malty, rich enough to stand up to a scone loaded with clotted cream. A Darjeeling is a lighter option that works beautifully alongside the sandwiches. Try it without milk.

An Award Winning Afternoon Tea

Waterperry Gardens in Oxfordshire, just across the county border, won Afternoon Tea of the Year at the 2025 Garden Centre Catering Awards. Everything is made on site from scratch: the scones, the jam, the cakes. Loose leaf tea, served in a proper pot, looking out over the gardens. Worth the trip.

A few questions we get asked...

Cream first or jam first?

Cream first. The Cornish put jam first and will tell you there's no other way. The Devonians cream first and are equally certain. We side with Devon. We accept no responsibility for any family arguments that follow.

Milk first or tea first?

On this we don't judge, it is up to you.  Having said that Granny Spoon does milk first and she is usually right.  Milk first was a practical solution for those using fine china.  The milk protected the cup by diluting the temperature of the boiling water.

Should I cut the crusts off?

Off. It's afternoon tea, not a packed lunch.

Does it have to be complicated?

Not even slightly. Fresh sandwiches, good scones, a proper pot of tea and somewhere pleasant to sit. The occasion does the rest.

If you want the tea they are using at Chenies and Waterperry Gardens click here for Bucks Blend.