Have a real "high tea" for Labor Day!

September 4, 7:29 PMSan Jose Tea ExaminerElizabeth Urbach

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Public-domain-photos.com image.  Evening meal.

When many Americans – even professional tea room owners -- use the term “high tea,” they are referring to an elaborate meal of tea, scones, cream and jam, with lots of dainty sandwiches, desserts, and even champagne. Many people do this because they have the idea that “high tea” means “high class” and “low tea” is for the “lower classes;” others think that “high tea” and “low tea” are the same things. Unfortunately this is not only incorrect but confusing, because many people are familiar with the correct wording!

In upper-class and middle-class houses in the 19th and early 20th centuries, tea was served, along with delicate treats, from tea tables (now better known as “coffee tables”) in the drawing room or parlor, the most ornamental room in the house. The tables were low to the floor, to complement the height of the settees (otherwise known as “couches”) that were part of the furniture of the room, which were low because they were supposed to be more comfortable for ladies to sit in. This kind of tea became known as a “low tea” after the table it was served from, and it was a genteel social occasion. Because “low teas” were mostly enjoyed by women who had leisure around 2 p.m. for entertaining, they are also known as “afternoon tea.”

The working classes of the era had to be much more practical and careful with their time and money. Tea itself was an affordable, and common, grocery item for almost every Victorian household, but for the lower classes, nobody was free to sit around in the middle of the day drinking tea and eating cakes. The working day ended around 5 or 6 p.m., especially for farm workers who left the fields when the sun went down, and everyone would return home, starving for their evening meal. The mother and daughters would set out substantial, economical foods, especially a roast or meat pies, cheese, bread, boiled vegetables, and often some kind of fruit cake, and put it all on the dining room or kitchen table. Everyone sat down to the main meal of the day, accompanied by mugs of steaming tea. Because this meal was served at a high dining or kitchen table, designed for people sitting in regular chairs, it became known as “high tea,” or just “tea” for the working-class families who looked forward to it all day. Cream, pastries, and bonbons were expensive and perishable, and were reserved for major holidays, so a “high tea” was a real meal more than a social occasion, intended to replenish calories used up during a day of hard manual labor. Here are some typical foods that appeared on a family’s dinner table:

Tea with milk and sugar
Bread and butter
Cheese and fruit
Meat pie 
Roast ham or beef with Yorkshire pudding
Boiled vegetables
Fruit cake or pound cake
Fruit tart or treacle tart
Bread and butter pudding, or jam roly-poly

It took – and still takes – a lot of hard labor to build and keep the state of California and the city of San Jose going from day to day, and it is worth our time on Labor Day to remember those who do the hardest work – and to rest and relax if we are some of those people! – by enjoying an old-fashioned “high tea” like our 19th century counterparts did!

NOTE: this article is copyrighted to its original author. If you would like to link to this article or re-post it somewhere else, you need to include a title and correct byline, with a link back to this page, along with my permission. You can contact me at southbayladiesteaguild@yahoo.com. Thanks!