High Tea - does such a thing still exist?

Oakdene

When I was in boarding school we would have high teat at 3:45 after school where in the summer we would have tea/coffee with bread & jam, marmalade, marmite etc & in the winter we would have a little soup or something warm.

caronc

Oakdene wrote: »

When I was in boarding school we would have high teat at 3:45 after school where in the summer we would have tea/coffee with bread & jam, marmalade, marmite etc & in the winter we would have a little soup or something warm.

Was this instead of an evening meal or more to keep you going until one? The High teas I remember were eaten a bit later and definitely fairly substantial affairs served a bit earlier than the usual evening meal and apart from maybe a biscuit before bed no ther meal would be eaten.

comeandgo

My mum takes us out for high tea every few months, fish and chips, gammon or salads with bread and scones, pancakes and a plate of fancy pieces and lots of tea. And it's reasonably priced.

caronc

comeandgo wrote: »

My mum takes us out for high tea every few months, fish and chips, gammon or salads with bread and scones, pancakes and a plate of fancy pieces and lots of tea. And it's reasonably priced.

What part of the country is this in sounds lovely? So pleased it is still a ongoing affair:)

Islandmaid

I was always led to believe that High tea was called so as it was eaten at the table when the menfolk arrived back from work, as most would have come back for their main meal at lunchtime and involved some hot savoury elements, it was taken by the lower classes when tea became more affordable, from the upper class afternoon tea, which was tea, sandwiches and fancies eaten in comfortable chairs to sustain between lunch at 12 and dinner at 8.

This is why 'posh' people have breakfast, lunch and dinner, and the others, breakfast dinner and tea.

Edit - Supper was a meal eaten by the upper class, when staff had their day off (how dare they) and left cold cuts, pies etc for the lady and gent of the house to help themselves

Whichever, both sound good to me

Oakdene

caronc wrote: »

Was this instead of an evening meal or more to keep you going until one? The High teas I remember were eaten a bit later and definitely fairly substantial affairs served a bit earlier than the usual evening meal and apart from maybe a biscuit before bed no ther meal would be eaten.

No this was to keep us going, we usually had until 4:15 to eat & drink then we would have our evening meal at 6pm.

We had a few chinese students who came over from China & Hong Kong & one of them thought marmite was chocolate spread & plastered it on his bread & preceded to wolf it down.... he stopped half way through & ran to the toilet :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

caronc

Oakdene wrote: »

No this was to keep us going, we usually had until 4:15 to eat & drink then we would have our evening meal at 6pm.

We had a few chinese students who came over from China & Hong Kong & one of them thought marmite was chocolate spread & plastered it on his bread & preceded to wolf it down.... he stopped half way through & ran to the toilet :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Sounds like what I remember as afternoon or after school tea. We quite often had soup after school in the winter instead of as a first course with the later main meal. I can imagine re the marmite ............

R34GTT

Our meals were Breakfast, Elevenses, Lunch, Tea, Supper.

caronc

R34GTT wrote: »

Our meals were Breakfast, Elevenses, Lunch, Tea, Supper.

We had breakfast, "play-piece", lunch if it was a school day and it was a pack up or dinner otherwise, afternoon/ after school tea, tea if we had dinner at lunch time or dinner if we had had lunch and supper (hot drink/biscuit). Confusing really. No wonder portions were smaller we were never more than a couple of hours away from a meal:D

lushlifesaver

A school my dad and I used to train the teachers at serves breakfast, lunch, low tea and supper. I haven't heard the term 'high tea' for sometime but when we were younger our evening meal was often referred to as tea and taken in the way described.


'low tea' is a baby version of what is now 'afternoon tea' as the school is squash and sandwiches in between social study (recreational activities of choice on a Saturday afternoon) and the evening meal but not served every day