Scones and a scoop!

I ask you, how many days have you ever been plugging away at the office when a British woman drops by with a sackful of scones? For me, the answer is precisely once: yesterday, when Linda Rivers, soon to open Holly Cottage Tearoom in Newnan, came by to say hello along with her lovely daughter Michelle -- and with a gift of some scones to test! (I ate one, shared some, and brought some home. Lucky me!)

Now I am such an anglophile I would pay simply to hear Linda speak for a while, but she immediately struck me as a gracious woman, very much a kindred spirit as far as taking tea (and a few other things), and I can already tell Newnan is going to be very blessed to have her in town. I learned an old church friend of hers is a friend of mine as well, and I was impressed when Linda spoke of having prayed over this business every step of the way. She also answered all my nosy questions without batting an eye (yes, colorful china; yes, she's going to have a cottage garden and a picket fence!). And can you believe she actually trained at the Atlanta branch of Le Cordon Bleu? I expected those scones to be terrific, and they were. You know how they say "we eat with our eyes first"? Well, my eyes were quite smitten with the appearance of these fluffy-looking scones. The consistency was so light and airy (even better than my own, which are pretty good if I do say so), and my husband and my friend Deberah liked the ones I shared with them as well. "That is GORGEOUS!" gushed Deberah when I offered her one of the scones.


I asked for her to e-mail me her opinion, and here's what she said (and I concur): "The scone is really, really perfect, too! It is SO good. I couldn't wait and I can't praise it enough. It is almost kin to a very soft cookie. I think she might have added a very light sugar glaze which gave it just the right amount of sweetness without being too sweet. The currants were just the right size, not too big and not gooey. I can't see that there was anything to complain about and everything to praise. I really, really loved them! So often the scones we get here in tea rooms are really biscuits and these are just wonderful." (I think she liked them as much as I did, don't you!) When I got home I heated one of the scones in the toaster oven and spread it with raspberry jam, making an already delicious scone even more enjoyable. Now, if I can just survive the next two months until the new tearoom opens!