The service I describe probably does count as "High Tea", since regular tea is generally just a cup of tea and maybe a biscuit. Once sandwiches and cakes are added, it becomes a kind of meal; an event ,like those served at such hotels as the Ritz. Hardly anyone ourside of the aristocracy served tea on that scale. The film director Terence Young once told me about being invited to tea at Buckingham Palace. He was still in awe, years later. "Cucumber sandwiches as thin as razor blades."
It tastes better than it sounds, in fact. What the science fiction writer William Gibson calls "mystery meat" - the main consistuent of sausages etc - can taste suprisingly savoury, no doubt due to all those delicious chemical additives. Incidentally, Anglophones sometimes refer to "pate de foie gras" as a luxury food. However, it's only foie gras trimmings mashed with pork fat - a kind of up-market luncheon meat - and correspondently shunned here.
Thanks, Helen. And to answer your question - no, coffee drinkers would definitely be disappointed. It would be like going to a Jewish temple and demanding holy communion.
Is there a difference between the 4:15 train tea service and what is sold us tourists to London as "High Tea"? I have found the little sandwiches to be a bit too sweet and the tea a bit ordinary. But that may have been the Tourist Treatment.
Just read your post while drinking my tea— French Breakfast, which I’m drinking in the late afternoon. How gauche of me!
What a treat it must have been to take that train that offered a tea service on the way home! Love train travel anywhere, especially if it has a dining car!
The service I describe probably does count as "High Tea", since regular tea is generally just a cup of tea and maybe a biscuit. Once sandwiches and cakes are added, it becomes a kind of meal; an event ,like those served at such hotels as the Ritz. Hardly anyone ourside of the aristocracy served tea on that scale. The film director Terence Young once told me about being invited to tea at Buckingham Palace. He was still in awe, years later. "Cucumber sandwiches as thin as razor blades."
It tastes better than it sounds, in fact. What the science fiction writer William Gibson calls "mystery meat" - the main consistuent of sausages etc - can taste suprisingly savoury, no doubt due to all those delicious chemical additives. Incidentally, Anglophones sometimes refer to "pate de foie gras" as a luxury food. However, it's only foie gras trimmings mashed with pork fat - a kind of up-market luncheon meat - and correspondently shunned here.
Thanks, Helen. And to answer your question - no, coffee drinkers would definitely be disappointed. It would be like going to a Jewish temple and demanding holy communion.
Well then I would take tea.
I loved reading this John. How I wish I had experienced that afternoon tea in the Edwardian carriage. Reading this was the next best experience:)
Is there a difference between the 4:15 train tea service and what is sold us tourists to London as "High Tea"? I have found the little sandwiches to be a bit too sweet and the tea a bit ordinary. But that may have been the Tourist Treatment.
Just read your post while drinking my tea— French Breakfast, which I’m drinking in the late afternoon. How gauche of me!
What a treat it must have been to take that train that offered a tea service on the way home! Love train travel anywhere, especially if it has a dining car!
I hope you had a delightful birthday!!
Cheryl Mueller
Meat paste sounds dreadful 🪥Pâté much more civilized.
I’m not a tea drinker but completely appreciate the ritual. Could i have requested coffee on that train?