afternoon tea: is it still done?

[BoldHighlander]

I've always wished to visit South Africa Mike.
Maybe "when" I do I can pop in for afternoon tea?

In South Africa the term “tea” as meaning a meal is generally something heard from immigrants or visitors.
Being invited for afternoon tea is quite an occasion (at least in our house). We get special eats for the occasion – cake, scones (not the same as American scones) and the like – and lay on the ancestral china (and silver, for those who have it).
But morning and afternoon tea are also routine, at home and at the office.
My daughter and her fiancé generally drink coffee instead, but we still refer to the occasion as tea.
My wife taught me to make tea and enjoy drinking it, but she sometimes takes coffee instead.
There are a few tearooms in the city where I live, but not as many as there used to be.
Dinner is a word used for the main meal, regardless of what time of day it is.
On Sundays and special holidays like Christmas it is usually (not invariably) in the middle of the day, but on week nights it is generally in the evening.
Regards,
Mike

[Mike_Oettle]

If you give us fair warning! And don’t forget to bring the missus.
Regards,
Mike

[Lachlan09]

Afternoon tea conjures up innocent pleasures of years gone by. Nowadays it's more likely to be morning (or afternoon) coffee. I tend to think having a special afternoon tea (cream-tea) with lemon tea and freshly-made scones with home-made strawberry or raspberry jam and Cornish clotted cream, is more of middle-class and upper-class origin, rather than working-class British. I can't remember my mum and the neighbours stopping off for afternoon cream-tea. We didn't have the luxury of have servants/maids and there was too much to do for housewives in those days as it was.

Though, back in the 1960's etc, if guests came around to our house at any time (and in many homes in Britain), out would come the best china, the guests would be ushered into the front/best room (if the house had one) and out would come dainty little triangular sandwiches of pan bread (crusts cut-off) with cucumber or meat paste or crab or salmon spread or tinned red salmon or sliced virginia ham from the butcher (for special guests), dainty little fairy-cakes and buttered scone with jam and butter (or sometimes thick cream).

Having said that, there are plenty tea-rooms and little private-run cosy establishments in the UK (esp the countryside) who celebrate the classic English Afternoon Tea. I recall a nice garden tea garden at a hotel near Ledaig, Argyll. I think the owners were English.

[starbkjrus]

Coincidentally, in the southern Appalachians, some folks refer to the midday meal as "dinner" and the evening meal as "supper", while just a few miles away other folks eat "lunch" at noon and have "dinner" after work in the evening. So, if somebody invites you over for "dinner", you might ought to find out what time they expect you.

Thanks for the replies so far.

Ahhh yes. When I was growing up (in North Western South Carolina) it was Breakfast, Dinner if large ie. Sunday, Easter, Christmas etc., lunch if light and always Supper.

The large 'Dinner's' were always at 1:30pm sharp

[sydnie7]

For some reason, this morning a lyric popped into [what is left of] my mind:

". . .Ti, a drink with jam and bread. . .Fa, a long long way to run. . ."

Yes, I know, they're out of order. Sorry if this earworm proves contagious LOL

[toadinakilt]

Being as I am somewhat obsessed with the UK and Ireland, I used to take tea once a week at 4:00pm at a friend's apartment during college. I think 6 or 7 of us would come. It was everything a silly romantic like me could hope for: sandwiches, tea, scones, jam, cakes...

There is a local tea parlor called the English Rose, run by several older British ladies. We like to go there when we can.

[BoldHighlander]

Ahhh yes. When I was growing up (in North Western South Carolina) it was Breakfast, Dinner if large ie. Sunday, Easter, Christmas etc., lunch if light and always Supper.

The large 'Dinner's' were always at 1:30pm sharp

This sounds exactly like my grandmother's phrasing for the various meals (she was originally from Seymour, Missouri).

[O'Callaghan]

Speaking as a Londoner originally, we always had breakfast, dinner and tea as the three meals of the day. Supper would only refer to a late meal close to bed time, and not a meal at the regular time. Lunch was a word we seldom used.

Afternoon tea is quite a different thing than our evening meal. The latter is really high tea, but we would consider that too pretentious. Afternoon tea, OTOH, which should not be called high tea, was mainly something for the ladies and small children, taking place in the middle of the afternoon, i.e. during the working day. Tea shops serve afternoon tea for tourists, who are on holiday anyway. And yes, AFAIK it still goes on.

Here is a link to a site about the Bristow cartoon strip, specifically to a page about Mr. Bristow's afternoon tea from the tea trolley at work:

http://www.guter.org/tea.htm

This is perhaps anachronistic, as at least as many people now drink coffee, but at one time everyone drank tea during their break.

[Lachlan09]

It’s a funny thing, but during the years I worked in Edinburgh from 1971-84, the first office I was in, young trainees like me made the coffees for the partners/senior employees. One or two chose tea, but normally coffee. It was a quaint “Bob Crotchet” type of office in Edinburgh’s regency period Queen Street (The New Town). When I went to my next firm, in George Street, they had coffee machines and we all took turns to get the coffee round in. (Some of the machine coffee left a lot to be desired).

But when I went to London to work in 1984, in the regency period Bloomsbury area (Bedford Square), I was amazed by the contrast. For as start, they had uniformed commissionaires at reception (usually in their 50’s) and acting as messengers. But when it came to coffee-time, they didn’t have coffee – it was tea !! Not only that, but tea-ladies came round with trays or trolleys (trolleys on the ground floor, trays where stairs were involved) and gave us all tea in the morning but a choice of tea or coffee in the afternoon. Senior partners always drank tea, usually with lemon, out of good china service. That process continued throughout my years there, though since the “old-school” partners retired around the millennium, coffee machines became de rigeur.

I will never forget our tea ladies though, especially our very own Maggie Wolfenden (God Bless her – she’s serving afternoon tea in Heaven nowadays). Maggie was central London born and bred and lived with her husband Nobby in the Regents park area. She used language which would make a welder blush ! She took a liking to me, even though I was a Sweaty (Sweaty Sock = Jock = Scotsman). She came on like a hard woman and she was always complaining, but she had a heart of gold and disguised her good deeds and compassion by making it sound like she was complaining. She’d buy chocolate digestives out of her own money, give me some with my coffee and then complain “I don’t know why I keep doin’ this you know, I’m bleeding barmy, me !”. When my wife was ill one time, Maggie said “I ‘ope she’s awright, poor cow !” She was a great source of office gossip and was not scared of the partners either. In one legendary occasion which has gone down in office history and was corroborated by the senior partner’s personal secretary (who witnessed the event), Maggie brought tea to the most senior partner once (best china, lemon slices, little tea-pot etc) and as she poured at the paler than usual brew, she lamented to the partner “Sorry if it looks like rats’ piss but you can’t get it right all the time”. The Eton-educated partner was not at all offended and later used the story to great effect in his social circle !

If Maggie had been American, then she would have been a feisty Noo Yawkah !

Having said that, in my experience I found that tea was more popular than coffee with Londoners, even young East Enders liked their “cuppa”, whereas urban Scots seemed to prefer coffee.

[fluter]

Coincidentally, in the southern Appalachians, some folks refer to the midday meal as "dinner" and the evening meal as "supper",

And in the coastal plain---at least if your mum was farm-bred.