Proving there is life after English breakfast, the Hawkes feature a range of 50 different teas, including rare varieties from small selected estates. The Complete Jeeves stars a fully stocked tiered cake stand, and teas and jams are sold to take home.Cemlyn Restaurant and Tea Shop Harlech, Gwynedd, tel: 01766 780 425 The runner up to the Top Tea Place 2004 is blessed in many different ways. First there is the view of the 13th-century Harlech Castle, St David's Golf Course, the mountains and the sea. Then there is the huge variety of loose-leaf teas, tisanes and infusions.

14 The Palm Court The Ritz Hotel, 150 Piccadilly London W1, tel: 020 7493 8181. Afternoon tea served at noon, 1.30pm, 3.30pm and 5.30pm daily; £32 per person including serviceScores 1-9 stay home and cook 10-11 needs help 12 ok 13 pleasant enough 14 good 15 very good 16 capable of greatness 17 special, can't wait to go back 18 highly honourable 19 unique and memorable 20 as good as it getsSecond helpings: Other Tea Council award winnersBird on the Rock Tea Room Clungunford, Shropshire, tel: 01588 660 631 As winner of the Top Tea Place, Douglas and Annabel Hawkes can lay claim to serving the best cuppa in Britain. Taking tea here is an event that transcends its own clich?and remains, thank heavens, A Very Good Thing To Do. Bear in mind only the wise words of Winnie the Pooh, that when having a smackerel of something with a friend, try not to eat so much that you get stuck in the doorway trying to get out.The only problem with tea as a concept is that it ruins two other perfectly good eating opportunities in the day, namely lunch and dinner. The answer, then, is to book for an "afternoon lunch" or an "afternoon supper", when £32 can be seen as fair payment for a marvellous meal, rather than an outrageous price for a cuppa.The Ritz does not stock my favoured tea (that is Mariage Fr?s of Paris), the cakes are not the most exquisite in town (that accolade belongs to the patisserie at the Parlour at Sketch, particularly the coffee jelly apostrophe, the chocolate ?air and the lilac primula confection), and the splendiferous buttoned-down coats of the Palm Court staff seem to have gone, along with a little of their character, but still, nobody puts on the Ritz like the Ritz.

The teapots are heavy, the china Limoges, the sugar cubed, the tea spoons engraved. Naturally, it is solidly booked weeks in advance, in spite of now offering four sittings a day.In effect, you can have afternoon breakfast at noon, afternoon lunch at 1.30pm, afternoon tea at 3.30pm or afternoon supper at 5.30pm, at a cost of £64 for two.I adore the Palm Court, a gloriously vulgar Edwardian vision of a Roman Garden, with its gilded trellis and vaulted glass roof, golden-nymph water fountain, birdcage chandeliers, wedding flowers and pale, pretty lemon-clothed tables. Not only is Afternoon Tea At The Ritz a protected species, but everybody including Polly is now putting the kettle on. In the latest edition of the Dorling Kindersley Eyewitness travel guide to Great Britain released earlier this year, we learn that when the clock strikes four, everything in this country stops for tea."Afternoon tea is a British tradition enacted daily in homes, tea shops and grand hotels," trumpets the guide. Not only did it stop the palpitations of the delicate organ that is my heart, it reassured me of the resoluteness of things British. As long as there are still men in bow ties carrying gleaming silver tea services and three-tiered cake stands, there cannot be too much wrong with this country. As it turned out, the rumour was not just vicious, it was groundless Of course it was.

When I heard the vicious rumour that the Ritz was planning to dismantle its afternoon tea, I was so shaken I had to sit down and pour myself a nice strong cuppa It cost me £32, but it was worth every penny. Replacements: A Williams for Maling, 54; S Tuitupou for Carter, 67; B Kelleher for Marshall, 67.South Africa: P Montgomery; B Paulse, M Joubert, D Barry, J de Villiers; J van der Westhuyzen, F du Preez; O du Randt, J Smit (capt), E Andrews, B Botha, A van den Berg, S Burger, A J Venter, J Cronje.Replacements: F Rautenbach for Andrews, 61; J van Niekerk for Venter, 68; Q Davids for Botha, 72; B Russell for Joubert, 74.Referee: A Cole (Australia).. But we have to be realistic, we didn't have much ball after half-time and struggled to get out of our own half Credit to the All Blacks, they never gave up. This hurts, but we have got to learn from what happened."New Zealand: M Muliaina; D Howlett, T Umaga (capt), D Carter, J Rokocoko; C Spencer, J Marshall; K Meeuws, K Mealamu, G Somerville, C Jack, S Maling, J Collins, M Holah, X Rush.