If you consult an English Dictionary, you will find that "tea" can be a drink or a meal.
High Tea is a (usually cooked) meal served in the early evening, when the children come home from school, in place of a somewhat later dinner or supper.
Otherwise, "tea" means Afternoon Tea, normally taken in the late afternoon, consisting of cake and a pot of tea - most often the black English breakfast tea. Popular cakes include crumpets and teacakes - the latter containing dried fruit. Both are eaten hot (the teacakes sliced), with butter.
The Queen, however, of Afternoon Teas is the English Cream Tea, a cornucopia of scones (small, round cakes made from flour, milk and a little fat), jam - most commonly strawberry jam - and thick, clotted cream (ideally, the famous, rich Devonshire clotted cream), again with a pot of tea. You slice the scones, spread a thick layer of jam on each half, and then a thicker layer of clotted cream on top of the jam. Two scones per person will probably suffice. On balance, this mini-feast probably excels even the Great English Breakfast as Britain's finest contribution to the pleasures of the table.
There are tea shops (or Olde Tea Shoppes) in many of our villages, so you can combine this delight - perhaps enjoyed in a typical English garden on a hot summer's day - with vigorous country walk, to burn off any extra calories absorbed.
Although we live in an increasingly global market, good scones, crumpets, teacakes, clotted cream, lemon curd, rhubarb crumble and other English specialities are usually difficult or impossible to find outside their country of origin - so make the most of them whenever you have the chance.
High Tea is a (usually cooked) meal served in the early evening, when the children come home from school, in place of a somewhat later dinner or supper.
Otherwise, "tea" means Afternoon Tea, normally taken in the late afternoon, consisting of cake and a pot of tea - most often the black English breakfast tea. Popular cakes include crumpets and teacakes - the latter containing dried fruit. Both are eaten hot (the teacakes sliced), with butter.
The Queen, however, of Afternoon Teas is the English Cream Tea, a cornucopia of scones (small, round cakes made from flour, milk and a little fat), jam - most commonly strawberry jam - and thick, clotted cream (ideally, the famous, rich Devonshire clotted cream), again with a pot of tea. You slice the scones, spread a thick layer of jam on each half, and then a thicker layer of clotted cream on top of the jam. Two scones per person will probably suffice. On balance, this mini-feast probably excels even the Great English Breakfast as Britain's finest contribution to the pleasures of the table.
There are tea shops (or Olde Tea Shoppes) in many of our villages, so you can combine this delight - perhaps enjoyed in a typical English garden on a hot summer's day - with vigorous country walk, to burn off any extra calories absorbed.
Although we live in an increasingly global market, good scones, crumpets, teacakes, clotted cream, lemon curd, rhubarb crumble and other English specialities are usually difficult or impossible to find outside their country of origin - so make the most of them whenever you have the chance.
