London
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“Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea,” wrote Henry James in “The Portrait of a Lady.” “Teatime” is a type of quintessential English phrases that stirs up photographs of steaming silverware pots being ferried throughout huge lawns and dished as much as characters straight out of “Downton Abbey,” politely nattering behind towering tiers of delicate gateaux and finger sandwiches.
But there is extra to teatime than cucumber sandwiches with “Downton’s” Dowager Countess of Grantham, and pots of tea on the ceiling with guffawing uncles in “Mary Poppins.” This is a complicated beast, awash with finicky rituals, a number of iterations and evolving etymology. Time, then, to placed on a brew and drink all of it in.
It started with a rumbling abdomen, or so the story goes. One afternoon in 1840, at round 4 p.m. Anna Russell, the duchess of Bedford, complained of a “sinking feeling,” in line with the British Museum. She was hungry — and there have been nonetheless 4 hours to go till supper time. Unwilling to attend it out, the peckish aristocrat requested her maid embellish her typical pot of tea with a scattering of snacks.
What these have been precisely is sadly undocumented, however maybe consisted of a little bread, butter, jam and biscuits. Afternoon tea had arrived.
Tea, the drink, had loved in a single day success in England too. When Catherine of Braganza came visiting from Portugal in 1662 in her new function as queen of England, she introduced along with her the every day behavior of taking tea. Until then, the drink had solely been taken as a drugs in England, however with Catherine’s seal of approval, it swiftly turned a quaffable trend accent for the moneyed lessons. Two centuries on, Anna Russell had raised the stakes for teatime. Whatever the unique snacks had been, they have been quickly augmented into a various roll name of candy and savory morsels. Sandwiches — reduce fussily into fluffy fingers — have been full of tomato, asparagus, shrimp, caviar or even oysters. Cake varieties included seed, Russian walnut, Dundee, currant buns, Swiss rolls, Battenberg and macarons. Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 novel “Rebecca” captures the scrumptious vagaries of the afternoon tea:
From the tasty throng, favorites emerged. One most well-liked sandwich filling was cucumber — typically peeled, sliced thinly and accompanied by cream cheese. Though cucumbers didn’t essentially take advantage of thrilling of sandwich fillings, they have been a standing image. If you could possibly develop cucumbers, it meant you could possibly afford an costly glass hothouse. In Oscar Wilde’s farcical 1895 play “The Importance of Being Earnest,” cucumber sandwiches are name-checked no fewer than 5 occasions.
Afternoon tea additionally gained the royal seal of approval from Queen Victoria. Her favourite strawberry jam and buttercream-filled cake was later renamed in her honor. The “Victoria sponge” stays one other darling of the afternoon tea.
Victoria sponge truffles have been rendered gentle and fluffy by the addition of newfangled single-action baking powder, which arrived in 1843, courtesy of the chemist and meals producer Alfred Bird. It was Bird’s baking powder, and one other, even extra revolutionary invention, particularly the steam practice, that served to popularize one other stalwart of the afternoon tea: the scone.
The “West Country” cream tea is mentioned to have originated at Devon’s Tavistock Abbey; staff restoring the broken abbey after it was attacked by Vikings in 997 C.E. have been rewarded by Ordulf, Earl of Devon, with servings of bread, clotted cream (an additional thick and unctuous full-fat cream), and strawberry protect. (You may argue that Ordulf had overwhelmed Anna Russell to the afternoon tea by some centuries.)
Over time, bread made manner for scones: plump, handheld truffles made with self-raising flour, butter, salt, and sugar, baked to a spongy consistency then cut up in two and heaped with the aforementioned jam and cream.
Nineteenth-century baking powder gave them a newfound fluffiness, and the railways introduced vacationers to the chic landscapes of southwest England, the place locals have been all too blissful to promote their cream teas to vacationers. The railways, after all, labored each methods, and by 1920 Rodda’s — which is nonetheless the main producer of clotted cream — was taking hefty orders from luxurious London shops Harrods and Fortnum & Mason. By this time, the cream tea and afternoon tea had already begun to fuse.
Afternoon tea was about greater than merely revitalizing oneself. It was a strategy to tune into the newest gossip, and to impress your social standing. As such, guidelines and rituals got here thick and quick.
Domestic luminaries just like the best-selling author Mrs Beeton dished out recommendation on the way to brew tea correctly — “There is very little art in making good tea,” she advised, earlier than cascading out one other 600 phrases on the method.
Other books, corresponding to Lady Constance Howard’s unashamedly prescriptive “Etiquette: What To Do and How To Do It” warned that, “Ladies intending to eat ice, cake, bread, etc. should take off their gloves, but gloves can stay on if one is only drinking without eating.”
Special teaware was procured, and neatly scribed invites have been despatched out. Female friends arrived of their most interesting lace-trimmed tea robes, whereas males sipped from moustache cups to maintain their whiskers dry. While Asia already had centuries-old tea ceremonies, the Brits have been now steadily choreographing their very own protocols.
Before lengthy, afternoon tea had spilled out from the parlors of the aristocracy into the modern streets of London. The Langham Hotel claims to have been the primary to supply afternoon tea to the general public in its opulent Palm Court, in 1865. “In its earliest days, afternoon tea was a simple affair — typically just a few finger sandwiches and a sweet treat or two, designed to tide ladies over between lunch and dinner,” says Andrew Gravett, the Langham’s govt pastry chef.
Other resorts adopted swimsuit. Having opened in 1906, The Ritz obtained straight to work serving afternoon tea in its personal Palm Court. In “The Ritz London Book of Afternoon Tea,” Helen Simpson units the scene: “Takers of tea perch on rose-colored Louis XVI chairs at marble tables, sipping their steaming cups of Darjeeling or Earl Grey, while the belle époque nymphs look on in Olympian disdain.” There was a sense that teatime ought to be an event. Tea dances — or “thé dansants” for these being ostentatiously French about it — fused collectively the spectacle and romance of ballroom dancing with a good cup of tea.
The similar yr that the Langham served its first afternoon tea, literature’s most (in)well-known tea celebration was dedicated to paper. In “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” Lewis Carroll takes nice enjoyment of lambasting the rituals of an English afternoon tea — turning the entire affair into a surreal, endless carry-on. As the Mad Hatter sighs, “It’s always teatime.” The ebook secured “teatime” as a calling card of the British lifestyle, albeit in cosmically coruscating trend.
Yet already the very definition of “teatime” was in flux. While the center lessons shortly adopted their very own afternoon teas (within the sport of cricket, the tea break turned an integral a part of the sport, gamers pausing for cups of tea and slices of cake), the working lessons got here up with their very own spin on the afternoon tea — one which might apply an altogether completely different which means to teatime.
It’s not simply the lords and girls who’re depicted nibbling on scones and sipping lapsang souchong in “Downton Abbey;” down within the bowels of the manor, the servants collect for a much less lavish feast, one often known as “high tea.”
While tea, the drink, had began out as an impossibly costly luxurious for the English, 1784’s Commutation Act slashed import tax on tea leaves from 119% to 12.5%, making the beverage extra accessible, if nonetheless on the expensive facet. As Swedish author Erik Geijer claimed in 1809, “Next to water, tea is the Englishman’s proper element. All classes consume it.”
The rising affordability of tea coincided with the Industrial Revolution, which created a slew of recent jobs in factories and the development business, significantly by the Victorian age. “Some factory owners thought that an afternoon refreshment could increase productivity; the stimulants in tea, accompanied by sugary snacks, could give their workers energy to last out the day’s work,” writes Gillian Perry in “Please Pass the Scones.” While the higher lessons handled tea as a strategy to brag, staff genuinely loved it as a fortifying drink throughout what turned often known as their “tea break.”
But that wasn’t the one working man’s riff on the afternoon tea. The excessive tea — so known as as a result of it was served on dinner tables, versus low-level tea tables, and in addition as a result of it was consumed in the course of the late, or “high” level of the afternoon — turned a effectively earned respite for Victorian staff after a back-breaking day’s toil. Alongside steaming cups (or typically mugs) of tea, sturdy delicacies have been served: something from parsimonious slices of buttered bread, via to cheese, pork pies and hams. In Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations,” the narrator, Pip, recollects a “haystack of buttered toast” and the brewing of “such a jorum of tea, that the pig in the back premises became strongly excited.”
High tea discovered a foothold within the north of England, the place many heavy industries and coal mines have been located, though it was loved all through the nation: Thomas Unwins’ portray, “Living off the Fat of the Land, A Country Feast,” portrays a clamorous scene of rustic bliss during which hunks of bread, meat and cheese are devoured, and tea is heartily slurped — one lady doing so from a saucer.
Just as the upper echelons of Victorian, after which Edwardian, society stepped out to locations just like the Langham and the Ritz for afternoon tea, so “teashops” arrived on the scene for everybody else. In 1864 the Aerated Bread Company (ABC) opened its first tearooms, serving an reasonably priced menu that mixed the delights of afternoon tea with sturdier, excessive tea fare corresponding to chilly meats and pies.
But whereas afternoon tea was a showy stopgap earlier than dinner was served in a while within the day, the excessive tea was dinner. This explains why many English people (significantly these within the north) nonetheless discuss with dinner as “tea” — whether or not that’s a roast dinner, a curry or a “chippy tea.”
The afternoon tea waned in the course of the battle years with the nation below rationing, however has since rallied. The current day may even be one of the best time for tea since its inception. The Langham and The Ritz proceed to serve afternoon tea, as does nearly each different respectable lodge throughout the UK. While the category boundaries surrounding afternoon tea have been stripped away, it stays a deal with. “Afternoon tea is the perfect way to mark life’s special occasions: birthdays, anniversaries, proposals,” says Gravett, the Langham’s pastry chef. “It strikes a beautiful balance: A delicious dining experience set in often lavish surroundings, with just enough theater and ceremony to make every guest feel like royalty, if only for a couple of hours.”
Afternoon tea was at all times in regards to the optics to some extent — flaunting what you needed to your fellow grandees — nevertheless it now has a far better viewers. “With the rise of social media, the visual presentation of afternoon tea has taken on far greater importance than ever before,” says Gravett. There at the moment are Sherlock Holmes-themed afternoon teas and Shakespeare afternoon teas; Indian afternoon teas and sushi afternoon teas. There are afternoon teas on double-decker buses, steam trains and British Airways planes.
And, after all, there are “Alice in Wonderland” afternoon teas — plenty of them.
The style grows curiouser and curiouser by the day. Indeed, there’s a complete marketplace for themed afternoon teas for teenagers: Paddington, Peppa Pig, “Jurassic” (full with steaming volcano). Warner Bros. Studios (owned by the identical mother or father firm as NCS) provides a Harry Potter-themed tea with “Dumbledore’s sherbet lemon macaron” and an edible Golden Snitch. London’s Science Museum’s afternoon tea will get youngsters slurping jelly from petri dishes and scooping “soil” into their mouths.
Then there are the boozy teas. A “Winemakers Afternoon Tea” at 28°-50° in London’s Marylebone switches the Ceylon for Chianti. There are “teas” that ply you with cocktails, tequila, whiskey or Champagne. Even that Science Museum afternoon tea invitations children to create their very own fizzy drinks.
With many afternoon teas at the moment, the tea itself is solely optionally available.
The “traditional” afternoon tea stays king, after all, however even right here, the road has been blurred between this, the cream tea and the excessive tea. It’s not unusual for a day tea to function, say, cucumber sandwiches, scones with clotted cream, and savory pies. Anna Russell would barely acknowledge it — though you suppose she’d nonetheless merrily tuck in.
Tea: The scorching beverage brewed from the dried leaves of the tea plant, indigenous to China and India (assume assam and darjeeling). Tea was popularized in England within the seventeenth century among the many monied lessons, and by the nineteenth century had grow to be mainstream. Today, nearly three-quarters of Brits drink at least one cup of tea per day.
Afternoon tea: Originally a dainty array of snacks for the higher lessons, afternoon tea historically options a choice of sandwiches and truffles, served on a tiered platter with a pot of tea. The variations at the moment are infinite, and afternoon tea is a fixture of resorts, eating places and cafes throughout the nation. No longer reserved for the aristocracy, it typically comes with a steep price ticket, and is loved on particular events.
Cream tea: An afternoon tea which consists particularly of candy scones (historically plain or with currants), jam and clotted cream. Today, cream teas are served up and down the nation, however they’ve their roots within the southwest areas of Cornwall and Devon, that are famend for his or her manufacturing of superlative cream. An ongoing debate rages over whether or not the cream ought to go on the scone first (the Devon manner) or second (Cornwall). The late Queen Elizabeth II went with jam on top, the Cornish manner.
High tea: Originally the much less dainty, working-class riff on afternoon tea, loved by laborers. While excessive tea for the poorest may need merely concerned ingesting tea with slices of bread, in much less straitened excessive teas, just about something could be on the desk: hams, cheese, pies, truffles. The excessive tea has developed over time into dinner (nonetheless referred to by some as “tea”), although numerous parts of a excessive tea can now be discovered labored into high-end afternoon teas.
Low tea: Another time period for “afternoon tea,” although not one you see used a lot.
Tea break: Shorter affairs than the pomp and circumstance of afternoon tea, tea breaks are intervals of as much as quarter-hour that break up the working day, and contain a cup of tea with a biscuit. The tea break is interchangeable with the “coffee break’ or “elevenses,” so known as as a result of it typically takes place at round 11 a.m.
Teatime: A time period which will be interpreted in numerous methods. “Teatime” may discuss with a tea break or teatime throughout a cricket match. Yet due to the excessive tea, it might probably additionally translate as “dinner time.” As such, numerous “teatimes” throughout Britain won’t have the faintest sniff of a scone, cucumber sandwich — or certainly, a cup of tea.