Afternoon Tea - how can anyone eat it all?

They are typically bite sized and usually it's scones plus 3 small cakes

BINGO

Gah! You beat me to it @sprigatito😆

Oh good, another eat-shaming thread.

I love afternoon tea! The key is to a) pick a good one and b) don't have lunch - or possibly even breakfast beforehand.

The best afternoon tea I ever had was one of the 5* London hotel ones. It was unlimited finger sandwiches brought out on platters - you selected some and they came back with more until you told them otherwise. There was a delightful selection of scones and cakes - but if you didn't want to finish it all, they gave you what was left in a nice box to take away. So if you were wanting more of the savoury stuff you could fill up on the finger sandwiches (they were amazing btw - never knew a sarnie could taste that good!) and take the sweeter stuff home for later. Equally if you wanted to focus on the cakes etc... you could have a couple of the sarnies and ask for a few more to take away so you could crack on with the cakes etc. You got your money's worth and the tea selection was fabulous.

The cakes etc... are usually quite small, sometimes you also get a little dessert type of thing or some chocolates or what not as well. It varies from venue to venue. It's meant to be a couple of leisurely hours with some delightful bites of food and nice tea or coffee. It's not intended to be a functional snack or meal.

Ultimately - no - you don't have to eat it all in one sitting and any decent afternoon tea venue will give you anything left in a nice box to take away. Equally, I will never judge anyone who does eat it all at the time and enjoys every bite!

Post a pic - I love to look at cakes.

Nope but I go to Fortnums and they'll offer to pack to leftovers for you. Very often they'll even ask if there's a cake I like and they'll give me new ones to bring back.

I've got the Father Ted scene in my head now - "this toy cow is small....... that real cow is faaaarrr away....." 😂

🤣🤣🤣

@CharityShopFinds for how many people is that afternoon tea designed?

2 people.

Also I just remembered that we didn’t eat the scones. Apologies to the scone maker because they looked lovely but we had no room.

Well, this thread hasn't disappointed so far. If it were a bit later in the day, we could make it a drinking game. Take a drink every time someone mentions too many carbs, the obesity crisis, we've lost sight of what a normal [fill in the blank] is, scoffing, guzzling, etc.

I must be a fat bastard because I've never struggled finishing anything haha. But most places let you take things home - any restaurant/cafe really!

@CharityShopFinds for how many people is that afternoon tea designed?

Tbh afternoon tea seems like a fancy way to justify wild over-indulgence. Totally fine in moderation or special occasions

It usually is a special occasion or treat for people. If I’m going out for a treat I’m not looking to get my five a day and daily requirement of potassium. I want to eat whatever I wish. I’ll worry about what I’m eating another time.

I don’t think most people are getting fat on Afternoon teas considering that they aren’t a daily event for the majority.

They are not full size cakes unless you are doing afternoon tea right!!!

I cant decide if some of these posts are real or satire 😂😂😂

@sprigatito thank you! I wanted to get in there first.

YANBU, I was thinking the same thing yesterday. Even though portion sizes are smaller than a full meal, it's still a huge amount of carbs to be eating in one sitting. Eg for breakfast you would never eat 5 rolls in one sitting but all the sandwiches, scones and cakes would easily add up to that.

Saw a random Tiktok for the Dinosaur Afternoon Tea at the Amsterdam Hotel yesterday, which seems designed with children in mind (??). It looks delightful but the sugar content seems off the charts. After the cakes & scones, you get a tin of chocolate cake crumbs and you have to dig through that to find chocolate dinosaurs.

Tbh afternoon tea seems like a fancy way to justify wild over-indulgence. Totally fine in moderation or special occasions but it's definitely not normal to normalise the amount of calories served (or judging by the replies here, expected to be consumed) in one sitting. That's why half the country is obese.

BINGO

Don't forget that all the six foot rugby teens have 'hollow legs'

It probably works out to be a little over one sandwich and a large piece of cake each (maybe a bit more) if you put it all together in a normal size portion.

it seems like more than it actually is I think but yes as others have said you can take home what you can’t manage, just take along a little bag to pop the box in if you’re not going straight home.

I've been to loads of afternoon teas and have never known anyone to finish it. We all take a few things home with us. The staff will be prepared with boxes.

We've lost sight of normal-sized food portions. And obviously a restaurant is going to want to ensure you don't leave still hungry so will over-feed rather than under. If I was going I'd not eat beforehand and obviously wouldn't need an evening meal later on in the day. Take your Tupperware or let them bag it up if it's too overwhelming to work your way through

I have eaten most of the big London afternoon teas and some of the smaller ones. It’s all about the prep.

If you replace a meal and don’t eat before, you can eat it over a couple of hours. Because I hate missing meals I don’t manage to starve myself before completely. At the most I leave one tiny cake or half of one scone.

I am a small person, low bmi with a healthy appetite. Afternoon tea is my desert island meal.

Why question what others can eat? How dull.

That’s why they give you a box. Personally I’ve never been able to finish an Afternoon tea while at the venue but what you receive varies hugely. Some are very generous but others are much less so.

People have varying appetites(Mine certainly certainly isn’t small) but I don’t see why some couldn’t and shouldn’t finish theirs especially if you can take your time.

This is the last Afternoon tea I had.(Not my pic but exactly what we received for 2) and we took about a quarter of it back and ate it later that evening. Others are much less generous with portions.

Skip lunch?

I hate afternoon tea. It's at the wrong time of day and I'm just not hungry.