Tavistock is set for a week of exciting new scones as it hosts the first Cream Tea Week in the town. 

Businesses have been asked to come up with a new and inspired flavour scone to celebrate the town’s history as the birthplace of the Devonshire Cream Tea. From Coconut & Lime served with pineapple jam to a Cornish Pasty Scone, they have pulled out all the stops! 

Over the course of the week, you can taste a number of different and inventive takes on the Devonshire Classic, with one recipe being crowned the winner of ‘Tavistock has talent in scones’ by the town Mayor, Cllr. Andy Hutton. 

Legend has it that the very first ‘cream teas’ were served over 1,000 years ago by the monks of Tavistock Abbey. It is said that when the Benedictine Abbey was being re-built after being plundered and badly damaged by a horde of marauding Vikings in 997AD, the monks were so grateful to local workers that they rewarded them with bread and ‘clowted cream’. Apparently, this proved so popular the monks continues to serve them as a treat to passing travellers. 

Not so much scones but a type of yeast bun, less cakey than a scone and more like a semi-sweet roll, they became known in Tavistock as ‘tuffs’. In celebration of this legend, the Tavy Tuff will feature at Tavi Feastival on Sunday 25th where, at 11:45, you can come along and experience what the Devonshire Cream Tea may have tasted like back in the 10th Century! 

For background on the Tavy Tuff see: https://www.visit-tavistock.co.uk/post/tavy-tuff

For more information on Cream Tea Week see: https://www.visit-tavistock.co.uk/cream-tea-week

Janna Sanders, Manager of Tavistock BID, explained ‘We felt it was about time that we put Tavistock on the map as the Birthplace of the Cream Tea and, alongside the Tavistock & District Chamber of Commerce, have devised Cream Tea Week as a celebration of our status. We are looking forward to sampling all the amazing recipes that businesses have thought up and, of course, the legendary Tavy Tuff on Sunday at Miss Ivy’s Tavi Feastival – also a first for the town. We are extremely proud to be a foodie destination.’