Tea Time

British social life and tea have been intertwined for so long that it has become almost impossible to think of the one without immediately calling to mind the other.

What would we do on Sunday afternoons without tea in the garden or around the fire, neat sandwiches and scones piled high with strawberry jam and spoonfuls of thick clotted cream? What would Victorian and Edwardian nannies have fed to their young charges up in the nursery if banana sandwiches and sticky gingerbread and cupfuls of milky tea had not been the children's favorite meal? What would get us going in a good mood each day if not an early morning 'cuppa? How would exhausted workers satisfy their hunger at the end of a long day without a robust "high tea'? How would the progress of a cricket match be measured without the teatime score? And how could unions have secured the statutory 'tea-break' without the significance and importance of tea to all British workers?

Say the word "tea" and the memory fills with images of picnic teas, birthday teas, Wimbledon teas with strawberries and cream, warm soothing cups of hot sweet tea administered in times of shock, Mad Hatter's tea parties, mugs of tea and a gossip over the kitchen table, Lyons Corner Houses, village teashops with low beams and willow-pattern china, and hotel lounges with chintz armchairs, tuxedo-clad waiters and dainty porcelain cups and saucers.

Teatime is so British that its oriental ancestry is often forgotten. Introduced to Europe by the Dutch and the Portuguese in the early 1 7th century, the herb slipped quietly into England in the 1650s, unannounced and barely noticed. Like a timorous guest, it attracted little attention except from those who recognized its unusual qualities and took the trouble to get to know it better.

The prices made it an indulgence available only to the very wealthy. At between £6 and £10 a pound, it was well beyond the reach of footmen and maids, unskilled laborers and farming folk, and even the aristocracy bought tiny amounts at a time. In palaces and country mansions, quarter- or half-pound measures were guarded carefully in fine Chinese porcelain jars and displayed on shehes in private closets alongside the fine porcelain tea wares that were used in its brewing and serving.

The liquor was served particularly as a digestif after the main meal of the day, which began at midday and ended at three or four o'clock in the afternoon. As soon as the last dishes of food had been consumed, the ladies withdrew to a closet and left the men to their pipes and bottles and loud conversation. Well away from such masculine indulgence, the ladies prepared tea and gossiped quietly together until the men were summoned by a servant to join them for a refreshing bowl of the brew.

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