Coronation Week: Tea and Scones and Stone of Scone (no matter how you pronounce it).

Saturday, BTS will be up early for the Coronation with tea, Wedgwood and well pronounced scones

𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅯 You say "skon" and I say "scone" . . . let's call the whole thing "skoon"?  𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅯

It's Coronation Week and we here at Barb's Tea Service are starting the countdown to Saturday's royal ceremony with tea and scones and a tale of a Scottish stone.

First up, we're serving Coronation Tea from Harney and Sons. It's a lovely Darjeeling, said to be King Charles' favorite type of tea. We're pairing the tea with its traditional accompaniment, scones, and topping them off with creamy lemon curd - a recipe taken from the coronation-inspired menu "Fit for a King" from TeaTime Magazine's May/June issue. We're also taking TeaTime's suggestion to serve the tea in a gilded Wedgwood teapot.

Coronation tea tin notes date and royals

The tin makes excellent commemorative

But what is the proper pronunciation of those quintessential afternoon tea treats?   According to an article in The Guardian,, there's a regional difference in the U.K.:  some say "skon" (to rhyme with "gone"), while others employ the use of the long "o" by simply adding "s" to "cone" (to rhyme with "bone"). However, if that isn't controversial enough, there's yet another way to pronounce the word: "skoon". That is the correct way to refer to the village of Scone in Scotland, near the original home of the "Stone of Scone", which will make an appearance, as it has in royal ceremonies in the past, at the Coronation of King Charles, III.

Stone of Scone now resides at Edinburgh Castle, where we visited in May of 2018

As noted in last month's Town and Country, the Stone of Scone (also referred to as the "Stone of Destiny"), came from Scone Palace and served as a symbol of the Scottish monarchy. King Edward I of England seized the stone in 1296 and brought it to his home country. He later had a coronation chair built specifically to hold the stone to represent his conquest. The chair/stone combo was first used for Edward II's coronation (the son of King Edward) and since 1308, it has been used by every British monarch for their coronation ceremony. (The stone was returned to Scotland in 1996 and is on display at Edinburgh Castle).

So, this Saturday, we will set the alarm early to be positioned at the television by 6:00 am to watch the coronation ceremony, live from London. We'll have a freshly brewed pot of Coronation tea, along with scrumptious scones, and be on the lookout for the Stone of Scone in King Charles' coronation chair.

Whether you say, skon, s-cone or skoon, we're sure to be watching a spectucular Coronation soon. 

Stay tuned for more Coronation blog stories this week from BTS!