High Tea History

Video Transcript

In this clip we'll talk about afternoon tea. Another sport of tea dear. But of course, thank you. I'll also take some of the sweets please. Oh excellent. What is the story with these tiny little sandwiches and cakes? It all started with Lady Bedford. In the 1800s Lady Bedford, usually right in the afternoon around four or five o'clock, would get these hunger pains because the time between lunch and dinner was just too long. In those days lunch was typically served at eight o'clock so she was wondering how she could tide herself over to dinnertime. One afternoon she asked her servant to prepare a light sandwich with her cup of tea and she took it in the boudoir. Well, not only did it help her to bridge the time between lunch and dinner, but she also thought it was a nice little break, and before long she invited some of her friends to share in this ritual and the rest, as they say, is history because it didn't take much longer before more and more friends came together, and what started as just a sandwich and a cup of tea became a tradition that is now well known and practiced all over the world. So high tea is really just taking afternoon tea to the next level right? Well, that's where you're mistaken because high tea is really a misnomer or it's really misinterpreted. High tea is what the working class people had. High tea was when the factory worker came home after a day of work and sat at a kitchen table, which was usually a high table, having pot roast and a good pot of tea. Now what you are referring to is the low tea because low tea, as Lady Bedford had it and her friends, was served on low tables in a boudoir, nice china, sweets and tiny little sandwiches.

Community Members who...

• Favorited this Video
• Rated This Video

Thumbs up or Thumbs down? Be the first to rate this video!

Top Tags