AFTER PRICEY TOAST, BEWARE RIP-OFF TEA ...

A SCANDAL! That’s what the locals in Port Talbot are saying about the prices charged at Remo’s cafe, with its fine views of Aberavon beach. As the Mail reported on Saturday, the charge which most outraged visitors was the £4 for ‘two slices of toast’.

My view is that the manager, Mr Difrancesco, should be able to charge whatever he wants, since no one is obliged to eat breakfast at Remo’s.

I did find his justification odd, though: ‘We serve only hand-cut doorstep slices of fresh bread from a local bakery that have been toasted and buttered only with real salted butter.’

What, as opposed to unreal salted butter? And as any cook will tell you, the freshest butter is generally unsalted, as the salt is used as a preservative. This is one reason salted butter tends to be cheaper (easier for supermarkets to store for long periods). Also, the salt can mask the taste of lowerquality butter.

The Mail also reported that a cup of tea at the South Wales cafe costs £3.10. I wonder if this would include Earl Grey, because, as a so-called premium product, that’s a time-honoured rip-off.

I learned this from my grandfather, a tea merchant, who told me the best tea was from the tips of the leaves. The lower down the plant, the lower the quality.

In order to disguise the tastelessness of the lowest quality tea, one trick was to add bergamot flavouring. Which is your Earl Grey, the posh name designed to delude consumers into thinking it’s a superior brew.

And my grandfather regarded tea bags ( as opposed to leaves) as an abomination: not real tea at all. I bet you don’t get real tea at Remo’s alongside ‘toast buttered only with real salted butter’.