I love a scone.

I don’t know how or when exactly I became a fan of scones, but it happened at some point in the last ten years.

Arguably, my love of scones goes back to when Hardees began offering their cinnamon and raisin biscuits. Those things are practically scones and they were a favorite treat for years before I ever tried a single official scone.

In my early 20s, I was a vegetarian for a few years and the cinnamon raisin biscuit was my go-to for fast food breakfasts –and it was also cheap.

In 2021, I spent a summer traveling around West Virginia. I visited every county with the intention to see something, find something to do and/or get something to eat.

This was harder in some places than others, but whenever I happened across a bakery or coffee shop, I looked for scones. I happened across at least a dozen different bakeries and coffee shops. I got a scone at most of them.

There were some surprises. I was pretty impressed with the scones I got at Stone Tower Brews in Buckhannon and Fairfax Coffee in Berkeley Springs (to be fair, I was extra hungry and hyped up on adrenalin/caffeine), but didn’t find what I was looking for in Morgantown.

Morgantown has a more diverse restaurant selection. I thought they’d have crushed it, but I tried a couple of different places. The best was from a chain restaurant.

The funny thing was that of all the places where I had a scone, none of them topped a buttermilk or golden raisin scone from Charleston Bread on Capitol Street.

I still stand behind that.

The texture and taste are perfect, as far as I’m concerned –and in the years since that summer, I’ve had many scones from many little coffee shops and bakeries in many places all over the region and beyond.

Charleston Bread still makes my favorite.

I love a scone.