Lynn Smythe
Afternoon Tea Party
January 9th 2008 18:32
Cup of Green Tea
Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, 1865
Types of Tea Parties
Anna the 7th Duchess of Bedford (1788-1861) is credited with starting the habit of taking tea in England in the mid 1800's. During the 19th century in England dinner was served as late as 7 or 8 o'clock at night. The Duchess began to have tea and snacks served to her in the hours between the noonday meal and the late dinner hour. She invited a few of her friends to join in on these afternoon celebrations and soon the habit of taking tea spread throughout England.
Afternoon Tea
Afternoon tea is sometimes also called low tea. It is served in the living room or parlor on a low table like a coffee table which is surrounded by sofas and lounge chairs. This tea is not meant to be a full meal but rather a way for people to relax with friends and family while having a light snack. Finger foods such as scones, cookies, and finger sandwiches are served so that you can carry on a conversation with your guests without worrying about huge plates of food. Afternoon tea is typically served sometime between 1 o'clock and 4 o'clock in the afternoon.
High Tea
High Tea is traditionally served sometime between 4 o'clock in the afternoon and 6 o'clock at night and is often offered in lieu of dinner. It is served at the high dinning room table thus the name high tea. A variety of hearty dinner foods such as meat, bread, potatoes and cheese are served along with the tea. Traditional high tea foods include cold meats, pickles, poached and hardboiled eggs, cheese on toast (Welsh rabbit) along with a variety of cakes, custards and other sweets.
English Tea Rooms
English tea rooms originally served tea from around 3 o'clock to 5 o'clock as taking tea became more popular with the common people. Today modern tea rooms offer tea throughout the day from midmorning to the traditional tea times mentioned above. British tea shops generally offer three types of tea:
-Cream tea usually includes tea, scones, jam and clotted cream.
-Light tea usually includes tea, scones and sweets.
-Full tea which usually includes tea, savories, scones, sweets and desserts and other foods as would be served at a high tea.
Host a Tea Party
Every year or two my daughter and I like to host a tea party at our home. The very first tea party we hosted occurred on a Super Bowl Sunday while the neighborhood dads were at the neighbors house across the street watching the game. We invite moms and their daughters to attend and call it the Girl's Club Tea Party. We ask that everyone come in their favorite dress-up clothes. We place a large trunk of my daughters extra dress-up clothes in our living room and let the girls play dress-up throughout the duration of the party. We use our digital camera to take photographs of each guest in their favorite outfit and print out the photos during the party to hand out as party favors at the end of the festivities. We can also upload the photos to our computer and e-mail the photos to any guests that provide us with their e-mail address.
I put my daughters plastic tea set out on a small table for the girls to play with. The girls can have fun playing with this set and still feel like they are part of the festivities without your having to worry about them accidentally breaking your delicate porcelain tea service pieces. We put out water, sugar and lemon slices along with the tea set so the girls can pretend to serve each other tea.
I usually offer three varieties of tea during the parties I host. I like to serve a flavored black tea such as vanilla bean or black currant, a flavored green tea such as lemon ginger and a caffeine free peppermint herbal tea.
My complete article including recipes for food to serve at your tea party, Afternoon Tea Party, can be found on the Associated Content website.
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