It all started so innocently …
Venturing eastwards on a bicycle tour, two East Anglia Bylines colleagues suggested meeting up in Suffolk for a meal one afternoon. Ah. It quickly became evident everyone had a slightly different concept of what the meal called ‘tea’ should contain and when it should be served.
Let them eat cake – or even honey
Should we partake at 3pm, as implied by Rupert Brooke?
“Stands the Church clock at ten to three?
“And is there honey still for tea?”
[The Old Vicarage, Grantchester, R Brooke, 1912]
Indeed, should honey be included? Surely not in sandwiches?
Growing up in rural Hertfordshire, tea meant the main meal of the day. It should be eaten around 5 to 6pm and my Suffolk friends and neighbours agree. Not so, say other members of the East Anglia Bylines team. Some agreed with Brooke it should be at three, others opted for 4pm.
What food should tea contain? Should it be just cakes, or should there be sandwiches too? What about scones? And should there be hot food? Would this non-tea drinker be allowed to have coffee? The East Anglia Bylines WhatsApp group buzzed. Photos were exchanged. Menus from smart hotels were quoted. Arguments ensued.
High, afternoon, cream or just tea?
A friend of my grandmother grew up at the end of the 19th century, “downstairs” in a grand country house. She knew the difference between the various types of tea served in the afternoon. Sometimes I helped her prepare afternoon tea. Then three hours later, when back home, I ate my own tea.
So here is my understanding of the various types of tea :
- High tea: A proper meal, usually served around 4pm or a little later. This includes hot food, often a pie. Here please note that only savoury pies have leaf decorations. Sweet pies must have a plain pastry top.
- Afternoon tea: Served around 3pm. The menu is delicate sandwiches and small fancy cakes, along with tea to drink. Etiquette dictates that the tea should always be strained into cups from a teapot. Milk was poured into the cup first, then the tea then sugar lumps added with tongs.
- Cream tea: Scones with jam and cream, tea or coffee as you wish. Perhaps sandwiches available too. Served sometime mid-afternoon.
- Tea: Weekday main meal of the day. Eaten around 5-6pm.
Going upmarket
Celebrating her birthday, our editor-in-chief was treated to high tea at Fortnum & Mason. Their menus epitomise the difference between high and afternoon tea. The crux is indeed a light meal versus sandwiches, with both offering scones and patisseries.
These days vegetarian and gluten free options are on offer. Cafés often go the extra mile with a savoury afternoon tea offering a twist on the traditional scone.
Other extremely smart London establishments are available: The Savoy offers both afternoon and high tea favourites, but The Ritz and Claridge’s have just afternoon tea on their menus.
Another colleague piped up. “There is nothing more substantial than afternoon tea in modern Singapore,” she says. “It’s a delightful blend of Asia and great cakes. Lost the sandwiches about 20 years ago. Now it’s seafood and elegant patisserie.” However, I contend that this is high tea, not afternoon tea.
The origin of afternoon tea is believed to be comparatively recent. In 1840, Anna, Duchess of Bedford, found the gap between lunch and dinner unpleasantly long. She devised a light meal of tea, bread and butter, and cake. This caught on among her friends and became a social event in its own right.
There were other types of tea in the 19th century, too. Mrs Beeton listed in the contents to her cookery book, under “Tea” menus that included: “at-home”, “high” and “family”.
The scone controversy
Scones are now a staple of both afternoon and cream teas. My childhood afternoon teas, however, never contained anything as crude as scones. Everything had to be refined and delicate.
The cucumber sandwiches were made with white bread sliced as thinly as possible, then buttered, put under greaseproof paper and rolled with a rolling pin to make them even thinner. The cucumber was skinned and sliced, again thinly, so the resulting sandwiches were no thicker than biscuits. Zero nutritional value, of course. Delicacy was all that mattered. Salmon was another filling, also meat paste (it was the 1950s).
The major schisms in the team came on the topic of scones. Oh, the arguments. There are almost as many views as there are members of the journalistic team.
Firstly, there is the pronunciation. Should ‘scone’ rhyme with ‘cone’ or ‘gone’? Should the scone be plain, fruited or cheese? Butter or no butter? And most contentious, do you spread cream on first or jam on first? Then there is the question of what type of cream – clotted or double cream? Should fresh strawberries be offered as posh cafés do? Must it be strawberry jam or your own preference? The only thing everyone agreed on was that no-one wanted jam and cream on cheese scones.
The classic battle is between the Cornish and Devon ways with jam and cream. Both seem to agree the jam should be strawberry. The big debate is whether it should be cream first and jam on top as in Devon, or jam followed by cream when you venture even further southwest? Things got quite heated with Mr Pecksniff finally declaring: “Everybody knows that trying to spread jam on cream is absurd.”
Battle lines were drawn. Our genteel team tea is developing into a bun fight.
The Suffolk way
Until three years ago there was a wonderful establishment in Aldeburgh, called Cragg Sisters Tea Room. By the time we moved to Suffolk the Misses Cragg were no longer in charge, but their ethos lived on.
The first time we visited, I ordered a cream tea and was surprised to be offered a choice of jam. I asked whether the Suffolk protocol was jam first or cream first and was told: “However you like it, my lovely”.
So, there you have it, the Suffolk solution to the tea controversy: however you like it, my lovely.
This article was written to celebrate Afternoon Tea Week. This quintessentially English tradition takes place every year in the second full week of August. This year, it’s 12-18 August.
