high tea

Part of the Meals series

Common meals

Breakfast • Brunch • Lunch Tea • Dinner • Supper

Components & courses

Appetizer • Entrée • Main course Side dish • Drink • Dessert

Related concepts

Food • Eating • Cuisine Etiquette • Buffet • Banquet

Tea can refer to any of several different meals or mealtimes depending on a country's customs and its history of drinking tea.

Africa

Afternoon tea has fallen off in popularity, though it is generally available in high-end hotels, restaurants and cafés.

In Kenya, tea (or chai, as it is known locally) is served scalding hot with milk and is usually quite sweet. In northern Kenya, tea time is used not so much as a snack, but a mid afternoon break time from work to rest, cool off, and drink tea. It was customary to always return home during work breaks for meals (lunch); and tea would be served at this time.

Australia and New Zealand

Many Australians and New Zealanders call the early evening meal their "tea" while others will call it "dinner"; though both words are mutually understood to mean the same thing. This largely reflects British custom.

During the working day "tea break" or just "tea" can refer to either morning tea (corresponding to elevenses and coffee break) or afternoon tea. This may be taken in a designated tea room. Colloquially, this can be referred to as a morning smoko or just smoko; which in times past was understood to mean a cup of tea, maybe something sweet or a sandwich, and a cigarette. This term is commonly used by tradesmen and the building industry.

Canada

Due to the great variation of cultures scattered across Canada, one may find families in the same neighbourhood who observe any or none of the tea customs found in the rest of the world.^{[citation needed]}

Guyana

In Guyana, "tea" can mean either the traditional mid-afternoon meal or can refer to breakfast itself. As a former colony of Britain, Guyana is steeped in English traditions. The country's love of cricket, the national game, translates into the common understanding that "tea" is an interval in the middle of afternoon play. A tea meal is also popular at luncheons and afternoon parties.

In addition, when speaking to older citizens, especially those of rural origin, it is not unusual to hear breakfast called "tea", possibly because tea is the most frequently consumed Guyanese breakfast beverage. At breakfast tea, one may eat bread, toast, roti (an Indian flatbread) or any combination thereof.

Most Guyanese refer to the most popular tea they drink as green tea, but it is actually the equivalent of a North American black tea.

Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, "tea" denotes a light meal served in middle afternoon from 2pm to 6pm. This is a practice that Hong Kong people adopted from the British concept of afternoon tea during the late period of British colonial rule. Afternoon tea is common, although not a meal served daily. The food taken consists of some light meals or snacks such as sandwiches, toast, or more substantial fares served together with milk tea, coffee, Horlicks, Ovaltine, yuenyeung, lemon tea for Western style food, and Chinese tea for Chinese style food. Elaborate versions of English-style afternoon tea (see below) is often described as "high tea" by Hong Kong people.

United Kingdom

Afternoon tea

A cup of tea

Afternoon tea is a light meal typically eaten between 3 pm and 5 pm. The custom of drinking tea originated in England when Catherine of Braganza married Charles II in 1661 and brought the practice of drinking tea in the afternoon with her from Portugal. Various places that belonged to the former British Empire also have such a meal. However, changes in social customs and working hours mean that most Britons only take afternoon tea on special or formal occasions.

Traditionally, loose tea is brewed in a teapot and served in teacups with milk and sugar. This is accompanied by various sandwiches (customarily cucumber, egg and cress, fish paste, ham, and smoked salmon), scones (with butter, clotted cream and jam — see cream tea) and usually cakes and pastries (such as Battenberg, fruit cake or Victoria sponge). The food is often served on a tiered stand: there may be no sandwiches but bread or scones with butter or margarine and optional jam or other spread.^[1][2][3]

While afternoon tea used to be an everyday event, nowadays it is more likely to be taken as a treat in a hotel, café, or tea shop, although many British still have a cup of tea and slice of cake, biscuits or some chocolate at teatime. Accordingly, many hotels now market a champagne cream tea. While loose tea is much less common than teabags nowadays there is much more variety in the teas available.

Anna Maria Russell, Duchess of Bedford, is credited as the first person to have transformed afternoon tea in England into a late afternoon meal rather than a simple refreshment.

Isabella Beeton describes afternoon teas of various kinds: the old-fashioned tea, the at-home tea, the family tea and the high tea and provides menus.^[4]

Other uses

'Tea' is also used to mean dinner of any sort in many parts of Scotland, Wales and much of the North of England. In these areas, 'Dinner' often refers to the meal commonly known as lunch.

High tea

High tea (also known as meat tea^[5]) is an early evening meal, typically eaten between 5pm and 6pm in the evening. It would be eaten as a substitute for both afternoon tea and the evening meal. It is now largely replaced by a later evening meal.

It would usually consist of cold meats, eggs or fish, cakes and sandwiches. In a family, it tends to be less formal and is an informal snack (featuring sandwiches, biscuits, pastry, fruit and the like) or else it is the main evening meal.

On farms or other working class environments, "high tea" would be the traditional, substantial meal eaten by the workers immediately after nightfall, and would combine afternoon tea with the main evening meal. See also The UK Tea Council Definition.

In recent years, high tea has become a term for elaborate afternoon tea, though this is American usage and mainly unrecognised in Britain. Such usage is disfavored by etiquette advisors, such as Miss Manners (see below).

United States

For most of the United States, the morning or afternoon break is also referred to as tea as the beverage has not traditionally been a widespread choice with Americans. The term coffee break is used instead to denote a morning social gathering for a snack and short downtime where hot and cold beverages and cakes, breads and pastries are consumed.

The term "high tea" is also used in the United States to refer to afternoon tea or the "tea party," a very formal, ritualised gathering in which tea, thin sandwiches and little cakes are served on the best china. This usage is an analogical construction, the term "high" being associated with social "formality" (rather than a "high," or main, table). Most etiquette mavens advise that such usage is unorthodox outside commercial contexts.

This form of tea is increasingly served in high-end American hotels, often during the Christmas holidays and other tourist seasons, and a rising number of big-city teahouses, where it is usually correctly described as "afternoon tea." The tea party is still occasionally given in the U.S., either for a special occasion or in honor of a visiting celebrity or guest.

See also

• British cuisine
• Coffee break
• Cream tea (Devonshire tea)
• Tea
• Tea party
• Tea dance
• Tea sandwich
• Tea set

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tea (meal)

• http://www.bartleby.com/95/13.html "Teas and Other Afternoon Parties", Chapter XIII of Emily Post's Etiquette (1922)
• "Noveltea: a site dedicated to afternoon tea"