Afternoon Tea


In the early 1800s, people only ate two meals a day: breakfast and dinner.  According to tradition,  Anna, the Duchess of Bedford was a fashionable lady who kept getting hungry between meals.   So she had her servants bring her some tea and little cakes at five o’clock to help her last until dinner.  Anna had so much fun brightening her afternoons with tea and cakes that she started to invite her lady friends to join her, and thus began a great English tradition.

At first afternoon tea was only "taken" by aristocrats, but over the years it became more common, and the tea's accouterments got more and more interesting.  By the 1900s ladies got all dressed up and made an event out of meeting for tea, and it eventually became so popular that public tea-rooms started popping up.  Now, you will find them everywhere!  To accompany your tea, usually you can choose from biscuits (cookies),  small cakes, toast, little sandwiches and other dainty things.  Personal favorite? Crumpets. mmmm.

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