Jam or cream first? The great scone debate ...

It is the great question facing anyone with a serious interest in tea time: what goes on scones first - the cream or the jam?

Cream tea connoisseur Hollie Newton and the Ritz hotel claim they have the answer.

Ms Newton, 27, an advertising copywriter and art director from Covent Garden, said she had often debated the subject with friends. So she wrote to the Ritz, Fortnum & Mason and Claridges for their opinions, signing herself "Afternoon Tea Enthusiast".

She included a sketch to help them with "this contentious and important matter".

Only the Ritz replied. Executive general manager David Collas wrote: "I can confirm that we at The Ritz London would prefer to encourage the 'jam then cream' option as this is the traditional method of preparing scones."

He also reminded her that butter can be spread first, "although this is reserved for the more indulgent tea taker". Mr Collas said: "We don't get many requests like this but since I am French - where we have no tradition of this - I asked my English staff and it became quite a talking point."

Ms Newton, who attributes her love of cream teas to being born and brought up in Dorset and educated in Devon and Cornwall, said: "I decided to settle the matter once and for all. I was surprised and delighted to get a reply - which came down on my side." The letters led to a surge in internet hits after she attached them to her Facebook page.

But the debate is by no means over - particularly in the West Country. According to Gerald and Heather Knee, who run Broadway House, a guest house and tea room in Devon, the clotted cream comes first, followed by a dollop of strawberry jam.

But in Cornwall, they say, the tradition is for butter first, then a layer of jam, then cream. The Knees' website concedes that the Cornish method has a bonus - "your cream doesn't slide off".

Back in London, at the High Tea café in Highgate, owner Georgina Worthington said: ''Our cream supplier from Devon says jam first, but I think cream, simply because you can get more on that way. And it's butter OR cream, in my view. But I think it's a matter of personal preference."