British people. I need clarification

[Steaktartar]

So how many different types of ' tea times ' do you have? Is high tea the fancy one with sandwiches and cakes? And just 'tea'? Is that lunch? Also how often do you have high tea? Someone told me everyday or as often as possible? Surely you can't eat cake EVERYDAY?

I had a very posh boss who told me off in my early 20s for calling dinner "tea". She definitely saw it as a relic of my working class background. I kept on doing it and she would roll her eyes at me every time. Snobbery aside, she was a wonderful, grand, exotic and rebellious lady to work for.

Loo is the posher way here.
Bog would be the more ruder way.
As in "M'off t'er bog" lol
confuses things even further, oops

@MovinOnUp I was addicted to Coffee Towers when DD was in SCBU in Ninewells!

I wonder if High Tea’s a East Coast Scotland thing?
You can get it in numerous places round here.

Also sorry for derailing på

I’m from the north

Tea- a drink
Tea- also another name for dinner

Afternoon tea- sandwiches and cake

High tea- the dinner you feed your kids when they come home from school before actual dinner time as they’re hungry after school
We also call it “everything on a plate” in our house and consists usually of a small selection of fruit, cheese, yoghurt, meat, crackers etc. Usually around 3:30-4pm (dinner would usually be around 6:30)

I call our evening meal tea. I'm a softy southerner but my grandad was from Yorkshire.

Going to breinge in here with the 'dinner school', which is a Scottish/Glaswegian expression I really love.

Oh god do not open the toilet/ loo debate. It leads onto what/pardon and that can get ugly

Pity any poor non native speaker trying to work this all out!

mrstswift we are trying 😁. Not very easy.

I gather there is a loo discussion somewhere 😁

But what is wrong with toilet?

Loo derives from the first flush toilet in France, installed at the Palace of Versailles and known as Le lieu Anglais.

The word "tea" has now lost all meaning after reading this thread

I'm originally from London, and in the 60s we always had high tea (though we called it tea) which was a hot first course, then bread and butter with jam or peanut butter, biscits or flapjack, and cake. A pot of tea next to my mother who poured it out - hence "I'll be mother" meaning "I'll pour the tea."

Here's The Who singing about tea

In my imagination High Tea is lobster patties, crab sandwiches, cucumber sandwiches, chicken liver parfait on melba toast, fingers of egg and cress, strawberries and raspberries with cream Maybe a scone or two and certainly a lemon drizzle cake.

And the best possible tea you can afford - preferably darjeeling or a really good Assam with lemon or milk. Served after badminton or a short game of cricket around 5.30pm before supper or dinner at 8pm.

I have done some of these .... and served lasagne for supper.

Don't get me on to kitchen suppers. Usually served by people with two kitchens. Or two or more dining rooms.

Just wondering whether anyone is sitting in her lounge......

bertrand don't get me started . You do this just to annoy us foreigners don't you.

I never have ‘tea’ unless it’s a cup of tea. For my family it’s dinner.

Tea - a hot drink
Tea - a northerners word for Dinner.
Afternoon Tea - cakes and sandwiches and tea in the afternoon out somewhere (cafe or restaurant)
Cream Tea - scones and cup of tea
High Tea - No idea, I'm not that fancy.

No one I know has afternoon or high tea unless out for a special occasion. Cream teas are usually purchased from tea rooms at National Trust type places.

My kids also ask for "Supper Tea" which is if we've not had Tea (dinner) and time is getting on and there isn't enough time to do Tea (dinner) and Supper (toast or cereal).

Supper Tea is usually toast, fruit, yoghurt, maybe a boiled egg, some cheese.

Has anyone mentioned the Australian thing of "Morning Tea," to add to the mix?

This is what it's called when someone brings cakes in to the office and you all eat one together with a cup of tea/coffee at the same time.

When I was growing up (Working class) we had three meals - breakfast, dinner and tea.

Dinner was usually school dinners, so that's why it was called dinner. And because it was the main meal of the day.

"Tea" was about 5pm and was lighter than dinner, sometimes sausages, sometimes rissoles (remember them? what were they?), sometimes corn beef hash followed by a cake if you were lucky or otherwise bread and jam.

I still call my kids' evening meal "tea" although they have packed lunches, and the evening meal is now the main one of the day, and they don't have it at 5pm any more. Old habits die hard!

No! We are not bringing the Aussies into this. It's confusing enough when we're just talking about British people.

Morning tea does sound quite sweet though. I don't think that we really have a name for it here.

Ny dad was Australian. We had something called Morning Coffee at 11.

Also is it still called morning tea if it's eaten in the afternoon?

It seems as if we had a lot of meals in the past. But we never- and I mean - never ate at any other time.