I’ve had a few fancy meals in my life, but one meal in particular always seems fancier than the rest. Honestly I don’t think I’ve ever had a great fancy breakfast, but I’ve had a few fancy lunches and dinners. However, the meal that’s always fancy no matter what is high tea. I’ve had high tea in small cafes and I’ve had high tea in super fancy hotels, and each and every time it’s felt elegant and fancy. It’s really the only meal where I feel like I’ve stepped into an episode of Downton Abbey.
For those unfamiliar with this meal, it generally takes place in the late morning or early afternoon. As you might have guessed, the drink that goes with this meal is tea, however I’ve seen a few afternoon teas that offer fruity alcoholic drinks as well. The food is almost always delivered on a tall tower of plates and almost always consists of foods you eat with your hands (I’ll get more into that in a minute). Dessert is also almost always included with your tower of plates, so everything comes at once.
In general the idea of this meal is to sip tea, nibble on small hand held foods and talk with your friends. I think originally it was more of a social gathering than a meal, however today people also really go for the food as well. I also imagine that in the past this was a “simple” meal by the standards of those having it. In other words it was a simple meal for fancy people, but most people would still consider the food fancy.
While there are many different interpretations of this meal, most of the time there are certain things you always find available on your tower of plates. Just an FYI, most places do not let you order what you want, at most they might have a vegetarian and meat option but mostly you just eat what they give you. Fortunately it’s not just one food, there’s often a variety. The portions are also almost always small, so if you don’t like something you don’t have much of it to eat.
Probably the most common, and in my opinion important staple of this meal is scones with jam and cream (most often clotted cream). I’ve never had an afternoon tea that didn’t include this, this is also often the item where you might get more than one type of scone. More often than not you get the cream and jam separately and you’re expecting to put it on your scone yourself. Let me warn you, depending on where you are the order of how you spread your cream and jam can be very important. Ask your server if you have any questions.
The next most common part of this meal is the sandwiches. It’s not uncommon to get a few different sandwiches in your tower. It’s also not uncommon for the crusts to be cut off your sandwiches. While you can get any kind of sandwich, cucumber sandwiches are the most common. It’s another item that I can’t ever remember not getting in my high tea meal.
Sometimes you’ll also get small meat tarts or quiches as well. Other than the cucumber sandwiches, this is really the time for the chef to shine. I’ve been lucky enough to try some great local foods in this portion of my high tea meal, and best of all it’s just a bite so I can always sample more than one dish.
The top of the tower is where you find your desserts. The only thing I’ve found consistent about this part of the high tea meal is that the desserts will be super fancy and small. This again appeals to my love of tasting new foods, since they’re often only one or two bites.
I love a good high tea. It can be very expensive considering how much food you get, but it’s always an adventure. It’s also not always necessary to go to the most expensive high tea place. Some of the best high teas I’ve had are at small cafes that really care about what they’re presenting on the plate. I’ll be honest, even the worst high tea I’ve had was still pretty good.
