The Unusual Tea Time Ritual of King Charles III
Tea time is an indispensable tradition in and around London, and royal residences are no exception; for King Charles III, however, the “ritual” is very different from what one might imagine, shaped according to his own tastes and needs. At the afternoon tea Charles III pairs organic biscuits and crackers with basil, his great passion.
The King’s Irreplaceable Culinary Passion
Small pastries and slices of cake are never missing, but the sovereign has an irreplaceable culinary passion when the clock strikes five in the afternoon, crackers with chopped basil. To reveal the unusual choice was the son Harry, in a passage of his now famous memoir Spare, remembering the first time Meghan Markle met Charles and Camilla. At Clarence House, in front of a crackling fire, afternoon sweets “disposed surgically”, cheese sandwiches and biscuits. An unusual choice, but which in the end does not surprise too much.
Charles III’s Commitment to Organic Farming
Charles III has always been a champion of organic farming, a convinced environmentalist (not only in words) and at the table he likes to bring what his farms produce. The biscuits that Harry mentions in Spare are the Duchy Organic, which the king has been producing for thirty years (in partnership with the company Waitrose since 2010) among the flagship of his company Duchy Originals, founded in 1990. All proceeds, 30 million pounds according to the most accredited estimates, have always been donated to charitable organizations that support the farmers who work in the English countryside. And those who thought that Charles, once on the throne, would have set aside his passion, were wrong. A few weeks ago a job announcement was reserved for students interested in working at Sandringham for the harvest season. The king also has a farm here, a guarantee of zero-mile food, for tea time and not only.
