High Tea
noun, also written: high tea

- the early-evening meal traditionally eaten by Britain's working and lower-middle classes, typically consisting of a hot dish of meat or fish, bread and butter, cakes, and tea, served at a high dining table after a day's work; distinct from — and socially inferior to — the more refined "afternoon tea" taken by the upper classes around 3–4 pm.

- a British meal served in the late afternoon or early evening that is more substantial than afternoon tea and typically includes cooked dishes; often incorrectly used outside Britain to refer to an elegant afternoon tea service.

- a meal eaten in the early evening, especially in Britain, consisting of cooked food, bread, cakes, and tea; commonly confused with afternoon tea, which is a lighter, more formal occasion associated with the upper classes. 

Oxford English Dictionary, Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary, Merriam-Webster

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WORD ORIGIN

The word "high" has misled more confident visitors to Britain than almost any other adjective in the English language.

Book a "High Tea" at The Ritz and the staff will know immediately that you are not from these islands. The correct term for what The Ritz serves — delicate finger sandwiches, miniature pastries, scones with clotted cream — is "Afternoon Tea", or in older usage, "Low Tea". And low it literally was: served at low parlour tables or garden chairs, where ladies of leisure reclined between lunch and dinner.

The "high" in High Tea refers not to social elevation but to something far more prosaic: the height of the kitchen or dining table at which exhausted mill workers, miners, and factory hands in the north of England sat down after a ten-hour shift. High Tea was their supper. It arrived around 5 or 6 in the evening, it was hot, it was filling, and it had very little interest in being decorative. A slab of cold meat, a kipper, a wedge of pie, bread and dripping, all washed down with strong builder's tea — that was High Tea.

The Cambridge Social History of Britain (1750–1950) defines it plainly as a meal based on bread, butter and tea, extended by the addition of some kind of fish or meat usually cooked in a frying pan. Not a silver tiered stand in sight. The confusion arose as tea culture spread globally during the 19th and 20th centuries, with "high" being misread as "upmarket" — a perfectly logical error, but one that makes any self-respecting Lancastrian wince quietly into his mug.

The practical takeaway: if you are invited to High Tea in Yorkshire, do not expect cucumber sandwiches. Expect chips.

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HIGH TEA vs AFTERNOON TEA

Here is a quick guide so you never order the wrong thing in the wrong place:

Afternoon Tea (also: Low Tea): served 2–4 pm, light finger food, dainty pastries, tiered stands, linen napkins, associated with the upper class, hotel lounges and Jane Austen adaptations.

High Tea: served 5–6 pm, hot savoury dishes, bread, cake, strong tea, a proper table, associated with working-class northern England, miners, and people who have done an honest day's work.

When in doubt: if it costs £65 per person and comes with a dress code, it is almost certainly Afternoon Tea — whatever the menu calls it.

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SYNONYMS

builder's tea, early supper, evening meal, HIGH TEA,, cream tea, devonshire tea, full tea, tea break, tea time, tea tray, working man's supper

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:

"Few people would guess HIGH TEA to mean an early evening meal."

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THANKS to Annette for suggesting today's OWAD.

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