Skip the tiny sandwiches, get a real meal
High tea and afternoon tea are not the same thing
This Mother’s Day there is no high tea at the King Edward Hotel nor the Fairmont Royal York. There is, however, afternoon tea with the pots of Earl Grey and delicate little cakes. The two terms are often used interchangeably, but high and afternoon teas are completely different meals. Depending on appetites and whether you’re more of a sweet or savoury person, you might actually ditch afternoon tea and have your mom over for high tea.
High tea is a more substantial, after-work meal, historically associated with the working class. “High tea is bulky mugs and not bringing out your finest china,” says Sonya Singh, Fairmont Royal York’s marketing manager and tea expert (she’s preparing to take her tea sommelier exam). “If you think of high tea, think of it as a meal with eggs, chicken, fish, meat pies, things that will make a fuller meal. Afternoon tea is more of a social event while with high tea you’re just trying to get a meal in.”
“High tea is like the savoury brother of afternoon tea,” adds Fabrizio Russo, food and beverage manager at the Milestone, a lavish centuries-old London hotel. The hotel recently added high tea service in addition to their already popular afternoon tea, albeit with the panache one would expect from a hotel literally around the corner from Kensington Palace. The meal starts with an amuse bouche of chicken noodle soup that’s more of a consommé; followed by salmon en croûte and welsh rabbit; sweet and savoury scones flavoured with cheese, bacon, truffle butter; and some sweet cakes.
Of course, high tea was not as fancy as the Milestone’s interpretation. High tea emerged around the time of the Industrial Revolution from the mid-18th century, Russo says. Workers were famished after a long day at the factories and their supper would be called high tea, typically eaten in the late afternoon or early evening.
Afternoon tea, on the other hand, is a light afternoon meal that came out of the mid-1800s to keep the upper class satiated between breakfast and dinner (Anna Russell, the Duchess of Bedford, is widely credited with being the first to throw caution to the wind and consume cake and tea when she darn well wanted it). In the U.K. there was also “dinner,” a more formal meal than high tea that occurs in the in the late evening among the upper class. “It was a different time. Literally,” says Russo. “The times determined what social class you were a part of. High tea is between 4 and 5 o’clock and dinner would be 8.”
As centuries passed, the idea of high tea fell out of fashion. The rise of restaurants and fast food allowed people to enjoy dinner anytime, anywhere. Employees now work well past 4 p.m. making it impractical to duck out for high tea. The novelty of afternoon tea struck, however, as hotels continue the tradition to let diners feel like royalty for the day.
Still, the high tea term stuck, says Singh, because people mistakenly associate the “high” moniker with “high society” or that you’re supposed to stick your pinky finger high in the air when holding a teacup (don’t do that, it’s rude).
The roots of the phrase “high tea” are more literal than that.
“The word high tea also stands for the high tables as well,” says Russo. “Before going home, workers would take high tea in what was the equivalent of the fish and chip shops back then — the pie, liquor and mash shops. Those shops wanted to pack as many people into it, so chairs were almost non-existent and you had people standing at high tables while they ate.”
In the event that Torontonians can’t fly across the pond to partake in the Milestone’s new high tea service, British gastropubs the Oxley and the Queen and Beaver actually serve what workers would have eaten at high tea. The Queen and Beaver has a separate supper menu with dishes such as chicken soup, pork chop and dumplings and corned beef and potato pie. Owner and British expat Jamieson Kerr says high tea wasn’t observed at his household growing up per se, but supper was a daily ritual.
“My father was an extremely good cook. He’d cook things like a slowcooked minced meat in a gravy with mashed or baked potatoes with peas, shepherd’s pie, cottage pies, a lot of things on toast like baked beans, tomatoes and eggs,” he says. “My dad would be home at 5:30 p.m. and whip something up for 6.”
For him, supper meant quick bites and a lot of things on toasts: beans, sausages, tomatoes and eggs, and mashed banana with Nutella with sugar sprinkled on top (his kids love that one).
So this Mother’s Day, ask your mom what she really wants. Some might go for the champagne and macarons but others would probably love you more for roast beef and pudding. karonliu@thestar.ca