Afternoon Tea At Cambridge A Great Experience

During my visit to Cambridge City this May, we were just passing through St. John Street around 3 pm, we saw signboard La Patissier , suddenly I remembered recommendation of a friend of mine to visit this place for Afternoon Tea. Before that I did not have any idea how elaborate afternoon tea can be. When we enquired, we were told that they have the best package of British Pound 25.00 for two.  Initially I thought it to be  a costly affair. But once the order executed and tray arrived, then we realized what afternoon tea means, a big pot of tea accompanied with oven-fresh  scones, cup cakes, buns, pastries, sandwiches, variety  of jams, jellies, cheese, butter, clotted cream and honey. Enough to miss your dinner.

 Thereafter, we come to know about long tradition and history of afternoon tea, that most quintessential of English customs is, perhaps surprisingly, a relatively new tradition. Whilst the custom of drinking tea dates back to the third millennium BC in China and was popularized in England during the 1660s by King Charles II and his wife the Portuguese Infanta Catherine de Braganza. But it was not until the mid 19th century that the concept of ‘afternoon tea’ percolated in British High society..

Legend goes like this,  Anna was the seventh Duchess of Bedford. The Duchess would become hungry around four o’clock in the afternoon. The evening meal in her household was served fashionably late at eight o’clock, thus leaving a long period of time between lunch and dinner. The Duchess asked that a tray of tea, bread and butter (some time earlier, the Earl of Sandwich had had the idea of putting a filling between two slices of bread) and cake be brought to her room during the late afternoon. This became a habit of hers and she began inviting friends to join her.

It caught like wild fire, the pause for tea in between lunch and dinnerbecame a fashionable social event. During the 1880’s upper-class and society women would change into long gowns, gloves and hats for their afternoon tea which was usually served in the drawing room between four and five o’clock.

Traditional afternoon tea consists of a selection of dainty sandwiches (including of course thinly sliced cucumber sandwiches), scones served with clotted cream and preserves. Cakes and pastries are also served. Tea grown in India or Ceylon is poured from silver tea pots into delicate bone china cups.

Nowadays however, in the average suburban home, afternoon tea is likely to be just a biscuit or small cake and a mug of tea, usually produced using a teabag. Sacrilege!

London’s finest hotels  such as the Claridges, the Dorchester, the Ritz and the Savoy, the  Harrods, the Fortnum and the Mason serve afternoon tea in a great style, serving variety of brews including Darjeeling, Ceylon, Assam Borgang, China Black, Cigar blend, Chocolate and   an array of green and white teas. Champagne is also a part of the ritual.  To experience the best of the afternoon tea tradition, one can indulge with a trip to a quaint tearoom in the west part of UK. The Devonshire Cream Tea is very famous  and consists of scones, strawberry jam and the vital ingredient, Devon clotted cream, as well as cups of hot sweet tea served in china teacups. Many of the other counties in England’s west country also claim the best cream teas : Dorset, Cornwall and Somerset.