Underhill

The latest issue of Saveur magazine has an excellent article on afternoon tea, cream tea, and high tea, with accompanying recipes. Good background for anyone going to the United Kingdom.

elaine

thanks

Scarlett

Thank you!
Sighing~
There is just nothing taking tea in London

ira

Hi U,

>...excellent article on afternoon tea, cream tea, and high tea....<

So,like, how are they different?

elaine

sheesh, ira

afternoon tea takes place after noon, cream teas include cream for the tea, and high tea is served only in skyscrapers or airplanes

jv827

Hmm, I guess you learn something new every day. I thought high tea was the kind only available in Amsterdam...

elaine

No, it's available other places besides Amsterdam
It's just that in Amsterdam, it's legal.

ira

Thanks, elaine.

Can I have cream my afternoon tea or only lemon?

If I have the cream tea, can I have it with lemon, but not cream? Would that make it afternoon tea, even if I have it in the morning?

How much should I tip the server?

Underhill

Alas, Ira (as you know perfectly well, mon ami), the cream does not go IN the tea but ON the scone.

But I do know someone who puts cream in Chinese green tea. Ugh!

starrsville

ira, you can't have cream AND lemon in your tea - it will curdle!

High tea in Amsterdam sounds like a winner

Underhill

But for anyone who might not know, the cream talked about is clotted cream, kind of a cross between whipped cream and butter. Then there's Devonshire cream, often seen here in little bottles--it's a very thick cream but not the real thing. It used to be the closest we could come in the U.S. to clotted cream, but now the latter is, thankfully, available.

LoveItaly

Oh gads Ira, NO, NO, NO. I was about twelve years old when my mother dragged me to an afternoon tea. My friend's mother forced my friend to go also.

First of all I HATE tea. But no matter, it was considered going to a fancy tea part of ones training for both my friend and I.

So being very sophisticated young (but sullen) ladies we each had a cup of tea poured for us. And oh yes, had (or maybe we poured it I don't remember) cream poured into the tea. Then we put lemon in the tea.

Ira, you have never seen such a G*d awful curdled mess in all your life. To this day I still remember it! LOL.

Scarlett

Having a British grandmother, I had plenty of tea with milk as a child. But I too made that icky mistake of pouring milk into a cup of "Russian tea"...with spices and lemon..who knew??
Now in the South, it is iced tea or hot tea, in Portland I guess to blend in, it will be coffee!

elaine

For film buffs:
If you have your tea in a skyscraper in Amsterdam at 12pm, it will be
High Noon tea.

LoveItaly

Scarlett, LOL, good grief, isn't tea with cream and lemon the worst thing ever!!! Yuck, yuck and yuck.

And oh yes, coffee in Portland will be required! However if it is any relief to you my DIL in Portland drinks lots of tea, so I don't think you will get thrown out of the city.

rex

In the context of our "offering what we know" (about "local" destinations) - - I can't believe what I heard on the (local NPR) radio (affiliate WFPL) today...

.. now serving <u>high tea</u> <i><b>in La Grange, Kentucky</b></i> (at Irish Rover II) - - if I heard it right!

Who says you have to go &quot;across the pond&quot;!?



Best wishes,

Rex

Underhill

There's always DIY.

dsm22

I love tea, but had given up drinking it because of the caffine for a few years. Well, I am now re-addicted after going to England last year.

I was thinking, oh, just one cup of tea won't hurt. Yeah, well I am now taking two cups a day. Which is better than what I was doing, but still I am addicted again.

And that clotted cream!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my!
I was slathering that stuff on every scone I came across. It was so good. I wish I could find that where I live. I found the Devonshire cream, but it doesn't taste like what I had while in the UK. I had to drive 30 miles for it and it was almost $5.00 for a little bottle of it.

I was a charter subscriber of Saveur and I let it lapse after I got out of baking and catering. It was always a good magazine. I think I shall pick up a copy, thank you Underhill.

ira

&gt;.. now serving high tea in La Grange, Kentucky ... - - if I heard it right!&lt;

They probably meant afternoon cream tea.

GreenDragon

Oddly enough, in my little city of Gainesville, Florida, we had the honor of having a Victorian Tea House... they served lunch, afternoon tea, and high tea at dinner time, and it was delightful. The place was an old Victorian house converted into the tea room, with several highly decorated rooms. You could have meals as well as tea at noon (of course, high tea included dinner)... complete with tea cozies and multi-level trays of goodies to go with it

Alas, it was discovered such a small college town couldn't support such a place, and they went out of business.