All scones are best eaten the day they are made as they stale very quickly. Scones can be frozen very successfully but should be defrosted and used within one month, three months at the most. Clotted cream is one of the best-known West Country products and, as it both keeps and travels well, is often brought or posted home as a souvenir by the tourists who throng to this part of the country every summer. Clotted cream is widely made in Cornwall and Devon and some also comes out of Dorset. The clotted cream that forms has a yellowish colour, wrinkled appearance, distinctive flavour and a very thick, grainy texture.
Some people use whipped cream instead but the flavour and texture is completely different.
The other vital component of a cream tea is a really good conserve or jam. Strawberry jam or conserve is traditional but other fruit jams or conserves are also good. Conserves are made from whole fruits, suspended in a thick, sweet syrup, and they do not set firmly. Raspberries and loganberries can be conserved in the same way as strawberries. There is certainly some controversy over whether the clotted cream should be spread onto the scone first or the jam.