Tea (meal)

This article is about meals referred to as "tea". For the beverage, see tea.

Tea can refer to any of several different meals or mealtimes, depending on a country's customs and its history of drinking tea. However, in those countries where the term's use is common, the influences are generally those of the former British Empire (now the Commonwealth of Nations). The tea meal can be small or large and used, for example in the phrase, "to take tea".

United Kingdom

Afternoon tea

A cup of tea

File:Cornishcreamtea.JPG

Cornish cream tea in Boscastle, although prepared in the Devonshire Method.

Afternoon tea also known as low tea, is a light meal typically eaten between 3pm and 5pm. The custom of drinking tea originated in England when Catherine of Bragança 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 will rarely take afternoon tea, if at all.

Traditionally, loose tea is brewed in a teapot and served in teacups with milk and sugar. This is accompanied by sandwiches (customarily cucumber, egg and cress, fish paste, ham, and smoked salmon), scones (with clotted cream and jam, see cream tea) and usually cakes and pastries (such as Battenberg, fruit cake or Victoria sponge). In hotels and tea shops 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, or toast, muffins or crumpets.

Nowadays, a formal afternoon tea is usually taken as a treat in a hotel, café or tea shop. In everyday life, many Britons take a much simpler refreshment consisting of tea and biscuits at teatime.

While living in Woburn Abbey, 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.

High tea

High tea (also known as meat tea) is an early evening meal, typically eaten between 5pm and 6pm. It is now largely followed by a later lighter evening meal.

High tea would usually consist of cold meats, eggs or fish, cakes and sandwiches.

In its origin, the term “high tea” was used as a way to distinguish it from “low tea” or afternoon tea. The words 'low' and 'high' refer to the tables from which either tea meal was eaten. Low tea was served in a sitting room where low tables (like a coffee table) were placed near sofas or chairs generally. The word high referred to a table, this one in a dining room table, and it would be loaded with substantial dinner dishes - meats, cheese, breads, perhaps the classic shepherd's pie or steak and kidney pie.

Other uses

In many parts of England, particularly the North-West and North East and in many parts of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, tea is used to mean the main evening meal.

Australia and New Zealand

Many Australians and New Zealanders call the early evening meal "tea", while others refer to it as "dinner", both terms are understood to refer to the same thing. Calling a meal "tea" reflects the custom of northern England, Wales, and Scotland where "tea" refers to an evening meal.

During the working day a "tea break" or just "tea" can refer to morning/afternoon tea (corresponding to elevenses or a coffee break) or a break in the afternoon. This may be taken in a designated tea room. Colloquially, a break of this sort may also be called a smoko, particularly tradesmen and the building industry.

United States

For most of the United States, the morning or afternoon break is not often 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 or afternoon break from work, or social gathering for a snack and short downtime, where hot and cold beverages and cakes, breads, and pastries are sometimes 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).

This afternoon tea is increasingly served in high-end American hotels, and at a rising number of big-city teahouses, where it is sometimes described as "afternoon tea." The term "tea party" is still occasionally used in the U.S., either for a special occasion or in honor of a visiting celebrity or guest.

France, Belgium and Switzerland

Similarly, in French speaking Europe one finds "le goûter" or "le quatre heures", in other words, the 4:00 afternoon snack, often prepared for children who have returned from school hungry. There are many kinds, but generally this snack could be a baguette or roll with butter and jam or chocolate shavings or spread, or chocolate cookies, accompanied by hot chocolate, milky tea or milky coffee (café au lait). Goûter for adults may consist of fruit syrups in water or sparkling water, and light biscuits (cookies) or pastries. Although it never really went away, the custom is now becoming very trendy in France as a nostalgic wave of baby boomers recall their childhood gastronomic pleasures.

See also

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

External links

• http://www.bartleby.com/95/13.html "Teas and Other Afternoon Parties", Chapter XIII of Emily Post's Etiquette (1922)
• SBS Food story on high tea: http://www.sbs.com.au/food/article/4277/Featured_Foodie_Michelle_Milton