My Book

All over the world there are those who still imagine that the entire British nation stops for afternoon tea each day at around 3pm. And they could be forgiven for thinking this, when on a visit to the UK they will see a hotel lounge or restaurant full of people in the middle of the afternoon, every table sporting a three-tier cake stand, an elegant china tea service and perhaps even a glass or two of champagne.

Hotels in most major cities of the world serve their own versions of English afternoon tea. A visit to one of these establishments is very much on the priority list when finding yourself in cities with a British colonial past, iconic hotels such as the Raffles in Singapore (their tea is described as ‘exquisitely created to take guests on a cultural mind trip while enjoying the tranquillity of English afternoon tea’), the Mount Lavinia in Colombo, or the Mount Nelson in Cape Town, where you will ‘anticipate an indulgent feast with a live piano accompaniment’. Other countries who do not have British colonial links have their own equivalents of the English tea room, whether they be elegant French salons de thé, Viennese coffee houses or Russian tea rooms. But none seems to have the cachet of English afternoon tea. No less a statesman than Nelson Mandela once succinctly put it, ‘Afternoon Tea. Britain’s greatest export.’

This book covers many aspects of the afternoon tea experience, including its associated etiquette, and some surprising misconceptions about this, appropriate (and perhaps not so appropriate) dress, and the rise and fall of once essential tea table features such as the slop bowl and the paper doily.

But what is an afternoon tea without the steaming pot of flavoursome liquid that all the delicious edible treats pivot around? A steaming pot of coffee simply will not do. The comfort associated with tea drinking has transferred well into literature, theatre and films. It’s often been said that the classic wartime movie Brief Encounter, starring Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard, would have been a much briefer encounter if its two stars hadn’t lingered quite so long over those romantic cups of tea.

When tea drinking first started becoming popular in western Europe in the seventeenth century it was highly valued for its health benefits. Over 300 years later, in 1971, the much-loved London band The Kinks wrote a song called ‘Have a Cuppa Tea’, which laid out all its bodily advantages. Among the list of health benefits listed by the song’s writer Ray Davies were included, ‘It’s a cure for hepatitis, it’s a cure for chronic insomnia, it’s a cure for tonsillitis and for water on the knee!’ I think the insomnia item may have been a tad optimistic as the song was written before we knew to forego caffeinated black tea for a cup of camomile before retiring.

So, let’s start this delicious journey at the very beginning, some 5,000 years ago and discover how we humans came to drink the refreshing and irreplaceable beverage of tea.