Everything Stops for Tea ...

Tea time has always held an affection in the British household.. from sugary delicacies in the Nursery to full blown cucumber sandwiches and pots of Earl Grey at the Ritz. Everything stops for tea and long may this tradition last.
As you probably know by now.. Milly & Dottie have a penchant for the odd biscuit or two.. with custard creams being their preferred biccie of choice and judging by the waistline on Dottie.. she has indulged in one too many !

We all have our tea time favourites that feed our childhood memories .. the heady delights of jam doughnuts..impossible to eat without licking ones lips, Fondant Fancies in all their lurid pink glory.. or slabs of Battenburg in pretty pink and yellow chequers...


Do you remember how you would be ravenous after school and dive into the biscuit tin?
Milly especially loved Wednesdays, really hungry after netball practice and her mother had done the weekly shop - a full biscuit tin and cream cakes in the fridge (but not for long!). Those garishly coloured cellophane wrappers were a sight for sore eyes and weary legs...


As a little girl, she would sit in the garden surrounded by teddies and dolls with a favourite tablecloth on the lawn, solemnly passing round the iced gems, hoping that the pink ones at the end would be hers.


Dottie's passion for these treats , started with the biscuit collection in the baker's basket.. in the days when the local baker would deliver bread. Nestled amongst the Hovis loaves would be 'Pimple' biscuits, otherwise known as Lincoln biscuits...


On Saturdays there would be Cadbury's chocolate fingers and walnut cake, Jammie Dodgers, Wagon Wheels, Penguins, Bourbon, Digestives, Pink Wafers, Fig Rolls, Shortbread, Jam tarts, Florentines, Macaroons, Eccles Cakes, Iced Buns, Swiss Roll, cream puffs, crumpets oozing with butter, muffins smothered in jam, Scotch pancakes dripping in honey, Mr Kipling's Finest, Tunnocks marshmallows, Blue Ribbon chocolate wafers and not forgetting that noblest of biscuits.. the Custard Cream.. we have loved them all...

Think back to your own favourites and how you would savour the sugary delights of the tea time spread.. Which were your chosen treats?


Dottie once lived very close to Huntley & Palmers Biscuit factory in Reading and could always tell by the delicious sweet waft on the air, what was baking that day.. it must be said that Custard Creams were the ambrosia of the day...


Crawfords, McVities, Cadbury's, Bournville, Wright's, Gray & Dunn and Peek Freans ... are just some who have all produced our nations favourite teatime snacks....

You will find a wonderful selection of vintage biscuit tins sitting on the shelves in the emporium.. So go and put the kettle on, draw up a comfy chair and have a cup of tea with us.. and a biccy or two!