The Delicious World of English High Tea

When you think of English high tea, you may think of fancy places to have tea, wealthy people dressed up and tiny finger sandwiches.

Perhaps you may think of the Victorian era. In fact, this is really considered low tea which is held at 4:00 p.m. in the afternoon.

One of the things that represents a fancy afternoon tea to me is the three tiered serving platter that the cakes and scones are served on.

The Duchess of Bedford is said to have started the tradition of afternoon tea in 1840. The aristocracy of her time would eat dinner after 7:00 p.m. The Duchess was simply hungry and decided to have a light snack around 4:00 p.m. to ease her hunger and tide her over until dinner later that night.

Eventually she started to invite friends over for afternoon tea and a tradition was born.

Possible Tea to Serve

• Ceylon Teas
• Earl Grey
• Darjeeling
• Dragonwell

Possible Food to Serve

• Small finger sandwiches consisting of cucumbers (or whatever you like)
• Cakes
• Scones served with jam
• Clotted cream
• Cookies

In London, the Ritz hotel opened in 1906 and began serving afternoon tea and was the place to be seen in. It also is reported to be the first to allow unaccompanied women into the hotel.

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