Afternoon Tea

Clearly you have been watching too many episodes of Downton Abbey. Anyway, afternoon tea is a posh (aristocratic/top 0.1% of the population) snack (as we non-aristocrats would call it) between lunch and dinner that was accompanied by a cup of tea. We regular British people drink tea and eat snacks whenever we feel like it – 8 a.m., 9 p.m., 2 a.m. In my house while I was growing up, we would have a big dinner at lunch time (weekends mainly) and then tea later. This would consist of a sandwich and a piece of cake or a biscuit that we ate in front of the telly.

I grew up in the North of England, so it may be different elsewhere, but that is my experience. I would like to put forward the case that “Yes, we do!” Times have changed, tastes have changed but afternoon tea still exists. Children come home from school at 4pm. Mum/Dad will make them a drink and something to eat. Maybe a sandwich, maybe some cake, maybe a cup of tea… Mum/Dad will probably join in. What do you call this..? Afternoon tea! I go shopping with friends/family to the town centre. We’ve looked in all the shops and now we need to sit down and think about which shops to return to for those final purchases. Look at that, it’s almost 4pm. It may be that we sit down for a capuccino and a couple of macarons but I can only think of one way to describe this Afternoon tea.

We’re in the office. Boring! We’ve more or less finished for the day but the clock says no (it’s 4pm). Someone puts the kettle on and we sit down for a chat about the next few days. Ooh someone found a box of cupcakes… Wow! We’ve just had… afternoon tea! We may not be using flowery teacups. We’re not dressed like characters from Downton Abbey either. We may not sit there for two hours.

But do we still stop at 4pm for a drink and something to eat??? YES!