(no subject)

[naath]

Replying to myself *grin*



In my vocabulary "tea" is a drink and never a meal, although I am aware that it is used for the evening meal I think that that would be "high tea" (but I still call it "dinner", almost invariably). And if I suggested "tea" I would mean the hot drink made with water and tea leaves (I would *not* mean anything cold, and Americans who use "tea" meaning "Iced tea" confuse me greatly), I would anticipate that some people would request other drinks if offered tea so in the broad sense "tea" is an offer of non-alcoholic beverges with the added information that I am set up to provide tea.

On the other hand "afternoon tea" is, in my vocabulary, a light meal. It's not something I eat often. It serves to fill the gap between brunch and dinner, especially if dinner will be eaten late; I'm not sure you could eat it if you were planning on breakfast, lunch and dinner unless perhaps lunch was taken early and dinner planned to be light and late.

It ought to consist of small, delicately flavoured sandwiches (cucumber is a must IMO), scones (however you pronounce them) with cream and jam and small cakes and/or pastries which are served with tea (dammit!) but you could have coffee or some other beverege if tea is not to taste of which there ought to be a selection (Sebastian reminds me that Champagne is a nice accompaniment, also), I prefer white teas (that's not 'with milk', but I can't describe flavours well) or Early Grey with lemon with afternoon tea.

It's not something I would serve because it's all very fussy and I'd probably do it Rong and besides I don't have a cute cake-stand thingy to serve it on. My experience is that it can be found properly done only in inordinately expensive hotels (tea shops that serve delightful tea and cake IME tend to fail at providing sandwiches of the correct delicateness). I haven't found anywhere to buy it in Cambridge (which is probably good for my wallet).

Which is not to say that there is anything at all wrong with drinking tea and eating cakes, biscuits or, indeed, anything you might want to eat (except, er, people - don't eat people). Tea-and-cake is an excellent plan, sign me up *grin*. Indeed it is not to say that the many people who use "afternoon tea" for tea-and-cake are *wrong* about the language, damn slippery thing that it is. It's mostly to say that if I were attempting to plan an outing including same that I should, clearly, take care to not use language that will confuse people.

Comments

[lnr]

Actually I noticed at Dan and Lucy's wedding that the Royal Cambridge Hotel does afternoon tea. I'd be surprised if some of the others didn't too. I've yet to find an excuse though: afternoon tea always feels like a holidays and celebrations sort of meal, not any everyday one.

[chess]

Hmm, I have 'high tea' filed in the same box as 'afternoon tea' (although possibly connoting a more elaborate affair with polite sandwiches and crisps in little baskets and things) - the evening meal 'tea' as in 'teatime!' is always just 'tea' without any modifiers.

I am also tempted by a digression on the subjects of the ethics of eating people, especially in the circumstances a) consent, b) them dying of causes other than your action or negligence, and/or c) desperation, but that would probably be impolite :).

[naath]

I think "high tea" is less formal than "dinner", but don't have any notions as to what might be served at it.

[siliconshaman]

I think it sounds like your concept of afternoon tea and mine are congruent... with the exception that I use tea to also mean evening meal in general. [interchangeably with dinner, although dinner indicates a posher/more formal meal.]

[hatter]

If somehow you happen to end up in london around the correct sort of time though, I'd be more than happy to take you somewhere that'll feed us tea and cake and sufficiently delicate sandwiches. Any excuse for tea and cake is a good excuse, frankly, but a good excuse is even better.


the hatter

High tea

[cesy]

I tend to think of high tea as involving more cakes and more substantial savouries than afternoon tea. Cucumber sandwiches would not necessarily be required at high tea, but buttered toasted crumpets would. High tea would usually be an hour or two later than afternoon tea, and you couldn't eat dinner after high tea - with afternoon tea, you could have a late dinner after, but with high tea, you could only have supper.

But as you say, both of these meals tend to be for special occasions rather than the norm.