Afternoon tea is one of the most representative food cultures in the UK. Its historical origins are older than fish and chips.
The UK is one of the first countries in Europe to drink tea and popularize tea culture. British afternoon tea is the most Western European tea drinking ceremony and has been widely spread around the world with the development of British colonies.
Nowadays, we can easily find British-style afternoon tea in first- and second-tier cities in China. Going to the “Leeds Hotel” to have an authentic British-style afternoon tea has become one of the must-visit items when traveling in the UK. Tea is also a popular souvenir when shopping in the UK. Today, we will look at the British tea-drinking culture, which is considered by many people to be a “noble ritual”.
Tea originated in China, and the Chinese began to cultivate tea trees more than 6,000 years ago. Lu Yu (728-804) of the Tang Dynasty wrote in the “Book of Tea”: “Tea is a drink that originated from Shennong and was heard by Duke Zhou of Lu.” By the Western Jin Dynasty, tea gradually became a popular drink among the people in China.
There are three words for tea in English: tea, cha, chai. These three words are translated from the Chinese word “tea”, but the pronunciation of the original dialect is different. Tea translates from Hokkien, cha translates from Cantonese, and chai is a variant formed by the northern pronunciation flowing through the Persian region and integrating with Persian.
Tea is an authentic imported product in Europe, and the history of tea drinking in Europe is much shorter than that in China. The first recorded tea shipment from a European country was in 1607, when the Dutch East India Company shipped a shipment of tea from Macau to Java. Two years later, the Dutch purchased the first shipment of tea from Hirado, Japan, to Europe.
Although tea is now the second most consumed drink in the UK after water, and 63% of British people have the habit of drinking tea every day, the British first tasted tea later than in places such as the Netherlands and Portugal. In fact, it was the Portuguese Queen of England who introduced tea drinking into the British lifestyle.
In 1663, King Charles II of England married the Portuguese princess Catherine of Braganza. Among the queen’s dowry list, there were several large boxes of beautifully packaged tea, which aroused the curiosity of the British. Not only is the box itself an expensive and heavily carved item, but the “hay” contained in the box is a rare item that many British nobles have never seen.
The tea carefully cared for in this valuable box was an expensive luxury drink in Europe at that time.
Ever since Queen Catherine started selling tea in the British court, drinking tea has become a popular activity among the British aristocracy. Whether it tastes good or not is a secondary matter, but the most important thing is that it is expensive. How can a noble miss out on something that can reflect high-end style?
Slowly, the British people fell in love with drinking tea, becoming another popular drink after coffee and hot chocolate. The British’s demand for tea was so great that they even built express ships specifically to transport tea between Britain and the East, one of which can still be seen at The Cutty Sark, the seaport of Greenwich, England.
Tea is still an expensive thing, but the common people can’t help but like tea. They can’t afford fresh first-hand tea, so they drink the leftover tea leaves after the nobles have boiled them twice. This shows how popular tea drinking is.
By the time of the Regency in the early 19th century, the prince Regent himself loved all things Chinese and built a beautiful Royal Pavilion in Brighton to display exquisite hand-painted silk wallpapers from China. The free-spending Prince Regent’s love of all things Chinese made tea drinking even more popular.
This was also the era of Jane Austen. Her novels reflected the British people’s love for tea. Tea drinking scenes can be seen everywhere in the novel. The great Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott of her generation also liked to drink tea. He even said: “Thank God for tea. What would this world do without tea? How does it exist? Glad I wasn’t born before tea.”
During the Regency era, the nobles gradually formed their own fixed tea time, which was the time when the family gathered in the living room to play games or read books during breakfast and after dinner.
One day, the Earl of Sandwich felt hungry while playing cards, so he asked his servant to bring bread, ham, and tea. The Earl had an idea and invented a new way to eat it, sandwiching the ham between two pieces of bread, taking a bite, and drinking it with hot black tea. Oh, what a delicacy in the world. The Earl of Sandwich went down in history as the unintentional invention of the “sandwich”.
The whole of Britain likes to use porcelain tea sets for drinking tea, but Queen Victoria is an exception. She likes to use silver tea sets. In fact, the Queen was the first person to drink tea from silver tea sets.
In fact, in terms of taste, it is better to use porcelain tea sets to make tea. The Queen not only loves to drink tea, she also likes to invite people to drink tea, and even likes to pour tea to her guests. It is said that the Queen always says with a friendly face: “Shall I be mum?”
Time rushed to the mid-19th century. At this time, an important part of British tea drinking culture was born, that is, the famous British afternoon tea.
The tradition of afternoon tea began in 1840 with Anna, the seventh Duchess of Bedford (1783-1857). Since dinner was usually around 8pm at that time, to relieve her hunger before dinner, she ordered tea, bread, butter, toasted waffles, and cakes around 3pm.
After returning to London, the Duchess continued this custom and invited her lady friends to her home for tea and snacks. They found that this “At home” tea was a very good social event. Everyone could get together to drink tea, eat and chat while gossiping. Thus, the British aristocratic British afternoon tea was born.
The traditional British afternoon tea includes sandwiches, scones, fruit bread and muffins, followed by exquisite cream cakes and snacks.
British afternoon tea was born in the aristocratic circle. At this time, afternoon tea was not just as simple as drinking tea and eating snacks. It gradually developed into a social event for the aristocracy.
Since it is a formal social event, it must have a certain sense of ritual. Therefore, tea gardens specially used for afternoon tea and tea robes specially used for afternoon tea also sprung up quickly during this period.
During the Edwardian period, as the desire to travel increased and the feeling of being “at home” gradually faded, it became more popular to drink tea at 4pm in the new tea room of a luxury hotel. The Ritz is Britain’s most famous afternoon tea hotel. At Fortnum & Mason, a high-end store where aristocrats like to shop, afternoon tea is also served, often accompanied by light music and sometimes even a little dancing.
The “tea dance” became a phenomenon that lasted until well after World War II, before fading away. Subsequently, tea rooms dedicated to drinking tea also gradually emerged, such as the famous Bettys Tea Room in Yorkshire, which has hardly changed since its opening in 1919.
In British afternoon tea, the concepts that are often talked about are the so-called Afternoon tea and High tea, both of which can be translated as afternoon tea. However, in English there are two completely different ways of drinking tea. The Duchess of Bedford we just mentioned invented Afternoon tea, and what is High tea?
High tea refers to a dinner with tea that the working class had at 5-6 o’clock in the evening. For workers in the newly industrialized country of the United Kingdom, tea time had to wait until after get off work.
By that time, tea was often served alongside heartier dishes that were much more than just tea and cake. Workers need food after a day of hard work, so dinner after get off work is more about hot, filling food, and it is indispensable to pair it with a pot of good strong tea to restore the sluggish spirit.
Because workers often sit on high-backed dining chairs and drink tea and eat at higher dining tables, this way of drinking tea is also called High tea. It is a contrast to the aristocracy who can sit comfortably on a lower sofa and drink tea leisurely on a low table (so Afternoon tea is also called Low tea). Today, many working-class British families still call dinner tea.
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