
Discovering High Tea
Some years ago, I introduced a co-worker to Earl Grey tea; she was so delighted with this addition to her bag of culinary knowledge, that she began referring to me as her “guru of gastronomy”. Via a friend of hers, who worked at a newly opened office park, she garnered an invitation for herself and a guest (me) to a tea seminar being held at the newly opened flagship restaurant of said office park. A few days before the seminar, my hostess was called away on a family emergency, leaving me to attend the event solo.
The keynote speaker, a member of the Twining Tea family, made two statements that totally eclipsed the rest of the afternoon’s activities for me.
Statement I: Tips
At one time in London, just inside the doorway of most restaurants, there was a slotted box attached to the wall; on or near the box there was a sign announcing: “to insure prompt service”. This not so thinly veiled request for up-front money became the acronym “t.i.p.s.”, which morphed into the “tip” we leave today, at the conclusion of a restaurant meal.
Statement II: High Tea
In a totally unscientific survey, I asked some diner/traveler acquaintances of mine to define “high tea”. The general consensus was that “high tea” denoted a formal, late afternoon meal, which traditionally begins with a glass of sherry and proceeds on to fancy sandwiches, scones with butter and preserves, delicate cakes, and in season strawberries and clotted cream. Tea, freshly brewed using loose tea, never teabags, filtered through a tea strainer to catch any errant leaves before they reach the cup, is drunk throughout.
Prior to attending the seminar, my definition of high tea was in agreement with that of my interviewees. I might have added, based on my personal experience, that high tea is frequently taken in the lobbies of upscale hotels, or the dining rooms of upscale department stores and specialty shops.
The Twining representative soon disabused us of our clichéd notion of a proper “high tea”, explaining that, historically, “high tea” had nothing to do with menu or ambience, and was, in fact, simply a working class synonym for supper!
It took a few moments to digest that little bombshell, but after some contemplation it made sense. Imagine London on a wintry evening, a few hundred years ago, no streetlights, no sewers, and no central heating. The dark outside would be total, and unless you had candles, the interiors wouldn’t be much brighter. Under these circumstances, preparing a hot meal would be difficult at best; but as long as there was a fire in the fireplace, water for tea could easily be boiled. It suddenly made sense why, with rare exceptions, no hot foods appear on tea menus.
A further myth dispeller about “high tea” was that the adjective refers not to the meal, but to the actual height of the table at which it’s consumed. For some reason, I’d envisioned the “high” table being like a bar, until recently when I experienced a “Eureka!” moment while watching the marvelous 1951 film A Christmas Carol, with Alistair Sim. I’m assuming that in the film, the pictured rooms of poor people were based at least in part on research of the period; though the furniture was sparse, there always seemed to be a conventional dining table, which is “high” when compared to a coffee table or an end table.
For the upper classes, who could afford to illuminate their homes, afternoon tea was not taken at a “high” table, and served merely to assuage hunger until a later dinner. For the working classes for whom candles bordered on luxury, “high” tea was the evening meal.
The acquisition of this information, with its potential for yielding some excellent conversation starters, had made my attendance at the seminar worthwhile, and I looked forward to sharing my newly acquired tea trivia with the woman who’d invited me to the event. Unfortunately her family emergency necessitated her moving out of the area; after one cycle of exchanged Christmas cards, I never heard from her again. I read that the office park where the seminar had been held was to be converted into residential condominiums and an assisted living facility, and the flagship restaurant sank into oblivion upon the expiration of its lease.
Just when I thought I was clear on the whole concept of teatime, I spotted a sign in the window of a small restaurant in London, near the hotel where I was staying, proclaiming, “High Tea served all day!”
Johanna – Thank you for once again clarifying this often repeated misinformation about “High Tea” vs. “Low Tea”. I think it is often confusing to people because it seems that “High” would be associated with the upper class and “Low” with working class people. Thank you for also clarifying that the afternoon “Low Tea” of the upper classes was served at low tables such as coffee tables or end tables, while the early evening “High Tea” main meal of the working class was at the main (or high) dining table.
This appears to be one of those inaccurate bits of information, like the quick and easy 30 second decaffeination myth, that continues to get widely disseminated from one person or website to another.
Hi Johanna and Sandy,
Seems that you attended an interesting lecture.
While I would not dispute the Twining family’s experience with tea, I would like to know more about the evidence for the origin of “tips.” There is still much discussion about the veracity of “to insure prompt service.” Snopes traces the use of the word to the early 1700s, and it does not come from the mentioned acronym. I look forward to seeing any research that can further clarify this matter.
I’m also interested in Sandy Bushberg’s comment on the “decaffeination myth.” Wikipedia references a couple of semi-scholarly articles advocating a 1-5 minute steeping of tea leaves removes a significant portion of the caffeine in loose leaf tea. Have you found better research that sheds more light?
Thanks for keeping us straight,
Jason
Hi Jason –
What I was talking about was the “30 second” myth – the idea that you could remove 80% of the caffeine from tea with a 30 second rinse.
Most of the newer research out there seems to indicate that you can extract roughly 50% of the caffeine in a cup of tea with a 3 minute infusion. If you want to remove 80%, you are going to need 6 minutes and upwards of steeping time to do that. The problem with that is 2 fold; 1. do you want to start enjoying your first cup of tea after it has already been steeped for 3 or more minutes?, and 2. the research we had commissioned also showed that the polyphenol content was extracted at roughly the same rate and percentage as the caffeine – if you are looking for health benefits from your tea, you will lose at least 50% of it with the loss of the important polyphenols.
No disrespect to Twinings, but I have a teabag of Twinings English breakfast split open with the insides laid bare on an display plate next to our loose Leaf English breakfast with our business card above that. It says “Which do you think tastes better?” ;)
Nice article! Always so much to learn here from so many interesting people.
Also wanted to mention two other items:
I really like Lavender Earl Grey and especially with lemony things, hot or iced.
Secondly, re: tips: We have a clear glass jar for tips and it is filled every day with bills.
My husband asked me if I noticed the $10 tip someone had left the other day (remember
that we are a ‘coffeehouse’ format, so that’s good, I believe). People are very generous
when they feel truly served and receiving what they pay for. On a busy night of the big
game of the year a few weeks back (we’re near a high school), someone asked for iced
water and then proceeded to help themselves while my husband went to get it, but that
has happened only once and with an out-of-towner here for the game, we believe.
Sorry, one more thing. Has anyone brought up that Starbucks is about to launch its’ new line
of tea and tea-infused drinks with a January 3 promotion called ‘Tea Time at Starbucks’? Not ‘high tea’ to be sure but, being the snoop that I am, I read the StarbucksGossip.com and see they will be having an Earl Grey and Rooibos latte, as well as changing their current Matcha recipe, and will be using loose leaf in silk bags. I’m hoping to get the local media interested in a promotion we would like to do, offering a dollar off all of our tea lattes with proof of purchase by the customer of a Starbucks tea latte so they can compare.
Sandy awhile back had talked about sharing information on tea businesses here, and I, for one, would love ideas for promotions. We have about 7 Starbucks literally around our shop, ringing us within 2 miles in any direction and another independent coming in soon about a mile away,
so promotion is important.