The Art of Afternoon Tea: The Perfect Jam for Every Scone

A chef’s guide to the preserves that belong on your afternoon tea table, and the ones that will change the way you think about cream tea forever.

There’s a reason afternoon tea has endured for nearly two centuries. It isn’t about formality or fuss. It’s about pausing. Setting the kettle on. Splitting a warm scone. Reaching for something truly good to put on it.

The tradition is often credited to Anna Maria Russell, the 7th Duchess of Bedford, who around 1840 began requesting tea, bread and cake to be brought to her room to bridge the long gap between lunch and a fashionably late dinner. What started as a private habit soon became a social occasion and, eventually, a defining ritual of British culture.

Today, afternoon tea takes many forms. From grand hotel spreads with tiered stands and champagne to something far simpler and, to my mind, far better: a pot of tea, a plate of warm scones, clotted cream and a jar of jam that actually tastes of fruit.

In fact, the best afternoon teas are often the simplest, provided each element is chosen with care.

For that reason, what you put on the scone matters more than people think.

Why Jam Makes or Breaks a Cream Tea

It’s the heart of the whole thing

A cream tea is beautifully simple: scones, cream, jam, tea. However, because there are so few elements, every single one has to earn its place. Ideally, the scone should be light and freshly baked, while the cream should be proper clotted cream, thick and golden. Most importantly of all, the jam needs to taste like real fruit, not just sugar.

I’ve spent over a decade making preserves in my Gloucestershire kitchen, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this: the jam is the voice of a cream tea. Meanwhile, the cream brings texture and richness, while the scone provides the canvas. Yet the jam is where the flavour truly lives.

When you use a high-fruit preserve, one that’s been slow-cooked in small batches with real whole fruit, the difference is immediate. There’s brightness. There’s depth. Above all, there’s something worth slowing down for. And that, really, is what afternoon tea has always been about.

If you’d like to bake the perfect scone to go with these jams, we have a simple classic scone recipe on the site that never fails.

Four Jams for Your Afternoon Tea Table

Each one tells a different story

Not every afternoon tea calls for the same jam. Sometimes you want something classic and comforting. At other times, you want something that surprises, that makes your guests pause mid-bite and ask: what is that?

Here are four from our kitchen that I think deserve a place at any tea table. Each one is handmade in small batches, cooked in copper pans, and packed with real fruit.

Cream Tea Jam

The Classic

This is the one I created specifically for cream tea. In it, whole British strawberries, tangy raspberries and creamy Madagascan vanilla come together in a velvety preserve that is rich, fruity and smooth, with 94g of real fruit in every 100g of jam. Naturally, it was made with scones and clotted cream in mind, though it’s equally lovely on toast or folded through yoghurt.

If you’ve never tried a jam designed for this purpose, it’s a quiet revelation. The vanilla rounds out the berries beautifully, and the natural sweetness means it doesn’t fight the cream. Instead, the two work together.

Read more about how it came to be in our Cream Tea Jam journal post.
Shop Cream Tea Jam

Morello Cherry Jam

As Featured in The Telegraph

This is the jar that caught the eye of The Telegraph. Bold, tangy and intensely fruity, our Morello Cherry Jam is handmade with around 40 whole Morello cherries per jar. Better still, it’s a Three Star Great Taste Award winner, the highest accolade the Guild of Fine Food can bestow, and it’s one of our most celebrated recipes.

On a scone, it brings something unexpected to the afternoon tea table: a rich, tart-sweet depth that cuts beautifully through clotted cream. As a result, it’s a grown-up choice, a conversation starter, and the kind of preserve that makes people sit up. If you enjoy baking, try our Morello Cherry Crumble Bars. They’re unreasonably moreish.

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Damson Jam

The British Heritage Choice

Damsons are one of Britain’s most underrated fruits, small, intensely flavoured and impossible to replicate with anything else. Our Damson Jam is made with up to 40 handpicked damsons from the renowned orchards of Herefordshire, and, in addition, it too holds a Three Star Great Taste Award.

On a cream tea, damson jam is deeply satisfying. It has a rich, almost winey depth with just enough sharpness to balance the sweetness. Consequently, it pairs beautifully with the butteriness of a warm scone and the cool richness of clotted cream. If you’ve never had damson jam at afternoon tea, you’re in for something special. It also works wonderfully in baking. For example, our Damson & Raspberry Jam Brownies are a favourite.

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Strawberry Apple Vanilla Jam

The Crowd-Pleaser

Our interpretation of the classic strawberry jam earned a place at the 2023 Wimbledon Picnics. Here, juicy strawberries are blended with a little crisp Bramley apple for a natural soft set, then finished with warm, fragrant vanilla. The result is a jam that tastes both familiar and special, nostalgic, but with real character.

For a traditional afternoon tea, this is the safe bet that never disappoints. Children love it. Adults reach for seconds. Before long, it’s the kind of jar that quietly empties when nobody’s looking. We also make it in convenient mini jars, which are perfect for individual place settings at an afternoon tea party.

Shop Strawberry Apple Vanilla Jam

How to Host an Afternoon Tea at Home

Keep it simple, make it beautiful

You don’t need a tiered stand or bone china to host a proper afternoon tea. You need a good pot of tea, warm scones and something wonderful to put on them. That’s the whole secret.

If you’re hosting friends, I’d suggest putting out two or three jams so people can try different flavours. For that reason, our Perfect Afternoon Tea gift set, which includes two of our finest fruit jams alongside Tregothnan English-grown tea, was designed exactly for this kind of moment.

A few thoughts on getting it right:

Bake your scones fresh and serve them still slightly warm, because cold scones are a missed opportunity. Equally, bring out the cream and jam at room temperature, since jam straight from the fridge does not spread well and can mute the flavour. It also helps to use a clean spoon for each jar. As for whether cream goes first or jam goes first, that debate is best taken lightly. In Devon it’s cream first, while in Cornwall it’s jam first. In my kitchen, I simply do whichever I fancy. After all, with a good jam, either order works beautifully.

If you’d like to take your cream tea a little further, consider offering a sweet bake alongside the scones. Something like our Morello Cherry Crumble Bars or a simple Victoria sponge filled with Damson Jam would sit beautifully on the table.

Afternoon tea isn’t about getting it perfect. It’s about making space for something slow and unhurried in a day that usually isn’t.

Cream Tea, Light Tea, Full Afternoon Tea: What’s the Difference?

A quick guide

The language around afternoon tea can be a little confusing, so here’s a simple way to think about it. A cream tea is the most pared-back version: scones, clotted cream, jam and a pot of tea. Nothing more, nothing less. For me, it’s the purest expression of the tradition.

By contrast, a light tea adds a few more sweet elements, perhaps a slice of cake, some biscuits or a pastry or two. Meanwhile, a full afternoon tea is the grand version, with finger sandwiches, scones with cream and jam, followed by a selection of cakes and sweet bites. Typically, it’s the kind of spread you’d find at a hotel or for a special celebration.

All three have one thing in common: the scone with cream and jam sits at the centre of the experience. In other words, it’s the anchor. Get that right, and everything else is just a bonus. The history behind these distinctions is fascinating, rooted in the social customs of Victorian England that still shape how we gather around tea today.

Frequently Asked Questions

About Afternoon Tea & Jam

The Jam Makes the Moment

I’ve been making preserves since 2011, and every jar that leaves this kitchen is still made the same way: by hand, in small batches, in a copper pan. That matters, because it means each jar carries the flavour of real whole fruit, carefully balanced and cooked with attention. In many ways, it’s the same approach I learned in professional kitchens, now applied to something simpler and more personal.

Afternoon tea is one of those rare traditions that hasn’t lost its meaning. Whether it’s a quiet cup with a friend, a birthday celebration, or a proper cream tea in the garden on a warm day, it’s always worth doing well. Ultimately, it all starts with what you put on the scone.

If you’d like to explore our full collection of preserves, you’ll find everything on our shop page. And if you’d like to know a little more about the chef behind the jars, you’re always welcome to come and meet me here.

Written by Sarah Churchill, chef and founder of The Artisan Kitchen.