Spot of Tea
Tea parties appear for many of us as clear as day from either movies or stories, but how do you make sure you don’t get it wrong?
A dear friend of mine told me the other day that she was going to a fancy tea party, or as she called it “high tea”.
To the woman of today I will say, there is a grand difference between high tea and afternoon tea that should be remembered whenever you are joining such a party.
And most importantly, you do not wanna be the one that offended the hostess by using the wrong description, do you?
I thought not, so let me explain the difference and how to correctly behave depending on which type it is.
First and foremost, the difference would be best. You see, High tea and afternoon tea does share common ground as for time and the basic build.
Afternoon tea was the events for the rich and noble, served in fine china and with an assortment of small finger sandwiches, scones with jam and clotted cream, and small deserts, mostly in the form of cake. This high society event had been started by the seventh duchess of Bedford back in 1840.
She would find herself getting slightly hungry around 4 pm, and since dinner wouldn’t be served until 8 pm, she requested for a tray of tea, bread and butter, and cake to be brought to her room around 4 pm.
With time, she would invite her fellow ladies of the higher society to join her, to which it became a permanent daily event in the higher class.
High tea on the other hand came a bit later. As the lower classes started to notice the higher ones new “trend”, they too decided to find a way of staying better energized by creating high tea. this would sometimes consist of a stew and some bread served with tea or even just bread, meat and cheese with tea.
The name coming from the fact that their tea normally would be served at higher tables, whereof the afternoon tea would be a smaller low tables as to keep the elegance and class.
Sometimes high tea would even be served standing, also building to the idea of high tea.
My friend is American, which isn’t the country of origin for neither tea party types, so they do tend to mix then up, but she will be sure to share her new found knowledge with her fellow ladies and I do hope that if any of you aspire to host such a party this glorious summer, do remember the one from the other.
I will see if a etiquette during afternoon tea post can make its way in soon.
Until then remember to enjoy every moment and stay safe.
Kisses,
Micala.
