Tea (meal)

Tea is an umbrella term for several different meals consisting of food accompanied by tea to drink. The English writer Isabella Beeton, whose books on home economics were widely read in the 19th century, describes meals of various kinds and provides menus for the "old-fashioned tea", the "at-home tea", the "family tea", and the "high tea".

Teatime is the time at which this meal is usually eaten, which is mid-afternoon to early evening. Tea as a meal is associated with the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth countries. Some people in Britain and Australasia refer to their main evening meal as "tea" rather than "dinner" or "supper". The use of "tea" also varies by social class based on social class, and "tea" can also refer to a light meal or a snack.^{[clarification needed]} A tea break is the term used for a work break in either the morning or afternoon for a cup of tea or other beverage.

The most common elements of the tea meal are the drink itself, with cakes or pastries (especially scones), bread and jam, and perhaps sandwiches; these are the pillars of the "traditional afternoon tea" meals offered by expensive London hotels. Other types of both drink and food may be offered at home.

The timing of the "tea" meal has moved over the centuries in response to the migration of the main meal, dinner. Until the late 18th century dinner was eaten at what is now called "lunchtime", or in the early afternoon; supper was a later and lighter meal. Dinner remains a midday meal in some regions. Gradually, dinner began to migrate, amid much controversy, until by about 1900 it arrived at its present timing, in most places, in the evening. At first, the "tea" meal was often in the early evening, some three or four hours after mid-day dinner; another version of the tea meal was even later, after a supper and before bed.

In 1804 Alexandre Balthazar Laurent Grimod de La Reynière wrote (in French) about afternoon tea in Switzerland:

Towards five o'clock in the evening, the mistress of the house, in the midst of the sitting-room, makes tea herself, very strong and barely sweetened with a few drops of rich cream; generous slices of buttered bread accompany it. Such is the Swiss Tea in all its simplicity. In most opulent houses, however, coffee and light pastries of all kinds are added, many of which are unknown in Paris, preserved or candied fruits, macaroons, biscuits, nougat, and even ice cream.

Observance of the custom originated amongst the wealthy social classes in England in the 1840s. The ritual was invented by the seventh Duchess of Bedford, Anna Maria Russell, one of Queen Victoria's ladies-in-waiting, in around 1840. Due to increasing urbanisation and industrialisation, wealthy English people were having their evening meal later and later, but still eating lunch at midday. The Duchess became despondent at the void between the two meals, and its consequent 'sinking feeling'. She therefore asked that some tea, bread and butter and cake be delivered to her room late in the afternoon, and "an afternoon ritual was born".

The Oxford English Dictionary provides citations dating back a century before this, in reference to tea as a social gathering. The earliest is from Jonathan Swift's satirical etiquette guide, A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation (1738), "Whether they meet..at Meals, Tea, or Visits". John Wesley and Harriet Martineau also are quoted. Philosopher Thomas Carlyle and his wife Jane Welsh Carlyle invited guests for 7 pm to their teas in the 1850s, although "afternoon tea" before dinner was also becoming established by this time.