A Cornish tea plantation will export cream teas to Japan, the BBC and UK newspapers reported in March. The Tregothnan Estate, near Truro, which makes about a ton of leaves a year at its 25-acre plantation, said it blended traditional imported teas with its own leaves to produce a “quintessential” English tea.
Thousands of cream teas from Tregothnan are to be served at the British Embassy in Tokyo on 21 April for a garden party to celebrate the Queen’s birthday.
Buyers from Tregothnan who recently went to Japan with some scones, jam and clotted cream said they were overwhelmed by the reaction. “So far as the Japanese are concerned, it’s the ultimate tea ceremony from the UK”, a spokesperson said. “It’s a challenge, but by working together with Cornish businesses and the help of UK Trade & Investment, we’ve come up with a cream tea in a box. The cream is the trickiest part, but we can freeze it and then for three days it has a shelf life as if it were fresh”.
