This is Toni's day but she, very sadly, has had to go to a family funeral so I've decided to step in and finish yesterday's rant. Only I'm not ranting today.
Instead, I thought I'd talk about high tea. There's no low tea. The opposite of high tea is "afternoon tea" if you're low and "tea" if you're high.
There, now you understand it, right? One picture of a bit a high tea and we're done.
Oh all right then. I'll say a bit more.
High tea is the meal working-class people used to eat at six o'clock, aka dinner. It starts with a main course (like the fish and chips above) and carries on through scones and jam to cakes, all served with many cups of tea. It got its name because it's served at a high up table where you tuck your knees under and get noshing.
So what's this?
This is what you eat at three or four o'clock (in advance of eight o'clock dinner) sitting in comfy chairs balancing everything on your knee as if you did the juggling elective at finishing school. Posh people call it "tea" - because it's the only kind of tea in their lives and they don't need to differentiate it. Unposh people call it "afternoon tea" so they know it's not high tea, since they do both.
So how is it that if you google "high tea" you get 400,000 pictures of afternoon tea then? (Cos you do.) Well, isn't language a funny old thing? It's started to fall apart because, in the US, where neither version of tea is part of the common culture, "high" = the working-class meal and [crickets] = the posh meal is too counter-intuitive for the meanings to survive.
Even Harrods and the Savoy have set up their websites so that if you key in "high tea" you get straight to afternoon tea. It would be really daft to leave their many US visitors unable to find out what's on offer and when it's served. But do the words "high tea" actually appear anywhere on the hallowed websites? Heaven forfend. Snobbery is brilliant harmless entertainment when you don't care, but it must be hard work for posh people, eh? And only a few wee cucumber sandwiches to keep their strength up too.
I'm thinking somebody was high when they set about naming all these things.
Posted by: Karen in Ohio | March 09, 2016 at 11:15 AM
Oh my god. I feel class raped. I had high tea at Le Orangery, but really it was just hipster tea! Damn! Well, tea is a lot more pleasant than eating an American Snickers bar and a Go Girl!
Posted by: Jesse loren | March 09, 2016 at 11:55 AM
So do you put the milk in first at "high tea"?
Loved this blog.
Posted by: Elaine Viets | March 09, 2016 at 01:38 PM
Ha! Funny! Reminds of when I worked for a while at a caf in London. I knew nothing of making tea. I will never forget the faces on the people in the line when I plopped a teabag into a mug of water, stuck the mug in the microwave, and proceeded to hand out microwaved tea. They probably thought I was related to the heathens who dumped the tea in the Boston Harbor! (and you don't want to know about the riots that nearly started when I made the hot cocoa with water instead of milk...!)
Posted by: Susie Calkins | March 09, 2016 at 10:05 PM
Love it. Many years ago I treated myself to high tea at the Ritz in London, and spent the time watching a young Indian (shoot, what do I call him? Rajah? He had a gorgeous turban.) at another table entertain two doting elderly ladies who hung on his every word.
Posted by: Sheila Connolly | March 21, 2016 at 06:54 AM
EDIT: a friend of Donna's just made the excellent point (on Facebook) that the non-posh people who actually eat high tea, or something like it, don't call it high tea. They call it tea.
Posted by: catriona | March 21, 2016 at 09:57 AM
Just when I think I've got you Brits straight, I find I'm completely wrong...again.
Posted by: Maria Hudgins | March 21, 2016 at 02:53 PM