Ok close your eyes (after you read this next part obviously) ...when I say High Tea what do you picture?
Silver tea service?
Flowery tea cups?
Teeny tiny cucumber sandwiches?
I think thats what most of us here across the pond picture! Is is wrong? Yes, but no...well kind of!
BT and AT...
Before the popularity of serving tea, Britains high society had 2 main meals, breakfast and dinner. Breakfast was served later in the morning, as the process of getting up and dressed was extensive. Dinner started out being a heartier meal served around noontime. When having a long dramatic meal at night became fashionable, noon dinner became skimpier. In the mid-1800's the Duchess of Bedford, Anna Maria Stanhope, is said to have started the trend of having afternoon snacks and tea around 4pm. First, secretly in her chambers then eventually inviting her friends along! No more victorian tummies grumbling! Inviting friends for tea quickly became popular among the society of London. This tea time would be served in the parlor or drawing room where there were low tables and low chairs, hence Low Tea!
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When the working class would have this tea it was adopted as more of a meal. Meat pies, sausage rolls, trifles are popular foods served at High Tea and of course vegetables and potatoes! Meat tea, as it is known to some, was also referred to as high tea because it is served the the higher dinner table.
Then why is it called High Tea?
We associate the word high with high society, we associate high society with fancy, we associate fancy with sterling silver tea service! Drinking tea with some form of ritual is practiced world wide, each culture having its own traditions. American High Tea has taken the elevated poshness of British tea time and blended in its own traditions. #biggerbetterfastermore !! The thing all tea times have in common?...Delicious tea of course!
Etagere and tea time
We have created our Low Tea and our High Tea to give our guests the best of all tea times! Our Low Tea is served like a fancy indoor picnic. Casual but bougie! Our High Tea is the perfect blend of dainty finger foods and hearty tummy filling cuisine. Our imagination is what has been the foundation of our Tea menus, we love creating unexpected flavors and bites that will blow your mind. Our tea times are sure to take you through the looking glass, through the wardrobe and over the rainbow to an experience that is all Etagere! See you at tea!
