the.com/afternoon tea
the aristocratic excuse to eat cake at 4pm and call it culture
means A light British meal taken in the mid-to-late afternoon, traditionally tea served with small sandwiches, scones, and cakes.
from A straightforward compound of "afternoon" (the part of the day "after noon") and "tea," the drink whose name traveled into English in the 17th century, likely via Dutch from a Min Chinese form of the word. The custom itself is famously credited to a 19th-century English duchess said to have grown peckish in the long gap before dinner — a tidy origin story that's plausible and oft-repeated, though the meal-name simply describes what it is: tea, in the afternoon.
- origin
- Invented by a duchess too hungry to wait for dinner
- tier order
- Eat bottom up: savory, scones, then sweets
- scone wars
- Cornwall and Devon disagree on cream-or-jam-first
- not high tea
- High tea was the working class dinner, not posh
- pinky myth
- Sticking your pinky out is actually bad manners
afternoon tea at claridge's — london luxury hotel's service since 1812, served daily in the foyer with finger sandwiches and pastries
high tea in yorkshire — traditional 5pm working-class meal in northern england, heavier than afternoon tea with meat and vegetables