The graceful ritual of afternoon tea is one of life’s most rewarding nicities. Whether it be a romantic tea for two, a genteel gathering of dear friends, or the cozy privacy of tea for one, taking tea is the most special or circumstance, a gracious, opportunity to gently sweep aside the demands of everyday life in favor of more indulgent pleasures. Indeed, every aspect of the tea table’s unique ambience establishes it as a world apart from the so-called real one. The perfect hostess spares no effort to create fanciful bite-size refreshments, each a perfect tea companion. As the tea kettle whistles its cheery song, a favourite teapot resides hospitably amidst a welcoming array of fragile porcelain teacups. Tea is poured, again and again, seemingly endless fragrant cups of it. Departure lies in the distance.

"Won’t you stay a little longer," the hostess urges, "and have another cup of tea?"

Tea in the Boudoir

Tea drinkers have Anna Duchess of Bedford (1788-1861) to thank for instituting the delightful ritual of afternoon tea around 1840.

Necessity was the mother of invention. Aristocrats of the day ate an early breakfast, a scant midday snack, and dinner around eight o’clock. Not surprisingly, the hugry duchess experienced a late afternoon "sinking feeling" To combat it, she slipped into her boudoir around five o’clock to indulge in a pot of tea with small cakes and sandwiches. Soon she was sending cards to her fashionable friends, urging them to share this plesant interlude.

 

One Lump of Two?

When sweetening tea became fashionable in the late 17th century, sugar bowls and tongs became part of the tea equipage. Sugar was sold in large paper-wrapped cones that required special tools for chopping of chunks and for nipping them into more wieldy lumps.

In 1877 sugar merchant Henry Tate introduced neatly cut cubes of sugar. By the 1920’s it was fashionable to embellish sugar to great effect with pretty frosting flowers.

 

Lovely Linens

Crisply starched fine linens add to the magic of tea parties. For generations perfect hostesses tucked away their treasured tablecloths, doilies, and napkins in linen cupboards made fragrant with lavender sachets. Small napkins initially used at the court of Louis XIV when coffee or hot chocolate was served, were being called tea napkins by the late 1600’s. The luncheon napkins used at today’s teas came into fashion in the early 1900’s.



Links To Tea Rooms & Information On Teas

Lady Judith ~ My Tea Room

 

  Formal Parlor

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