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?

Is this for a book or similar OP? You might have more luck if you tell us a bit about your character/where they're from and we can tell you how they might be likely to use the word tea.

We use tea for dinner in Scotland sometimes. And occasionally dinner to mean lunch..😂

You can actually get high tea at a lot of hotels in Scotland. I think our local one you pick from a set menu (e.g fish and chips, steak pie, macaroni cheese etc) then you also get toast, pots of tea or other hot beverage, then the wee stands scones like in an afternoon tea.

The names derive from the height of the tables on which the meals are served. Low tea (also called afternoon tea) is served on a low coffee table. High tea is served on the full height dinner table.

High tea at 11

In my world tea is a drink of tea, sometimes involving cake to be enjoyed at any time between early morning and before bed, or a school-child’s early evening meal. Afternoon tea is a celebratory meal in a hotel with a posh cake stand, sandwiches, cake and scones. Cream tea is a drink of tea with a scone, jam and clotted cream eaten in Devon and or Cornwall on holiday. Apparently there is some debate about the order of the cream and jam.

In my slightly aristocratic mils world it is a drink that can only be served, in a pot, between the hours of 3-5 pm with cake after a bracing afternoon walk intended to tire out children.

To me its an outdated term though you can have a cup or tea and in some places a late dinner around 5pm or later is referred to as tea.

Apparently there is some debate about the order of the cream and jam
This is a whole other thread! But there’s no debate: the thickest one goes on first.

@DinoEggz

Thanks, you learn something every day!

Mmmmm tea and cake.

Any of this making sense op?
What do you think?

Sandwiches with a cup of tea and a crescent of crisps is a thing of beauty. Followed by cake and more tea of course.

I bet that's all cleared it all up beautifully for the OP.

Afternoon tea is just a holiday treat.

Working class people call lunch ‘dinner’. They also call dinner ‘tea’. Northerners do likewise.

Middle class people from the south call lunch ‘lunch’. They also call dinner ‘dinner’.
The catering and hospitality industry does likewise.

Posh people call lunch ‘lunch’. They also call dinner ‘supper’.
Everyone else thinks this is a ridiculous affectation and laughs at them.

‘Afternoon tea’ is an occasional treat, with sandwiches, scones and cakes. A ‘cream tea’ is similar, but without the sandwiches and with extra cream on the scones. The correct pronunciation of ‘scones’ causes endless debate.

There is no such thing as ‘high tea’.

We all drink tea. The correct way of making and pouring tea causes endless debate.

All clear? Good!

Growing up in East of Scotland we had high tea on the weekends. On Saturdays it was always macaroni cheese with bread and butter followed by biscuits, cake, fruit etc. that you helped yourself to until full. Served with a giant pot of tea, of course.
Weekdays we had afternoon tea after school, usually tea and toast, possibly a cake or biscuit after. When Dad got home we had dinner.
There were certain meals we had on the same day each week.
There were tea breaks at set times mid morning and mid afternoon at work for the first few years when I was young, not sure when that stopped being a thing.
Either a tea lady cake round with a trolley or you went to the cafeteria and got tea, usually biscuits and buns available.
I love a pink bun with a strong cuppa.
Yes, cake every day. My teeth have a lot of cavities but we weren’t overweight as kids like some are now.

Hobbits would approve of this thread!

I had an aunt who would serve high tea until well into the 1990s, it was very English in tone. The first course would be cold, usually sliced ham with salad (lettuce leaves, sliced tomato and cucumber, no dressing but sometimes salad cream.) Occasionally wedges of pork pie might appear, instead of ham.
The second course would be fruit salad and cream followed by cake.
Hot tea (the beverage) would be served throughout the meal.
This would be a late afternoon meal, around 5-5.30 pm.
After this you might have supper - a hot drink like tea or cocoa plus biscuits or toast at about 9 pm.
Afternoon tea is generally taken at about 4 pm and consists of dainty sandwiches, fruit scones and cakes, the drink would be tea.
Cream tea is tea served with scones, cream and jam.
In our house, solidly MC London/Southeast, meals would be breakfast, lunch and dinner, the latter at about 7-7.30 pm.
To generalise, tea as a name for the evening meal served around 6 pm is often seen more as a northern term.

When my kids were little, their evening meal was at 5 and it was teatime. Now they're older and eat later it's called dinner.

Afternoon tea - yes cutesy cakes and teeny tiny finger sarnies. Cream tea=scones, Jam and CLOTTED CREAM and high tea is probs what I eat daily because if I don't have time for lunch so I end up eating something fairly substantial around 4pm which means I'll have supper at 8/9.

But I rarely eat cake and every day is different depending on my workload and schedule. Except for the eleventy billion cups of tea I drink (only with milk) each day, which is a given. Obvs

Yes, should explain, high tea replaces afternoon tea and dinner, supper etc. Served between 5 and 6 pm, nothing to eat after that until breakfast. Adults might have a dram before bed.
Also served at grannies houses too.
It meant that everything got cleared away and settled early for the night.

Based on the local restraunt of my youth.
High Tea was served before 6.30ish, hot main meal, scones and cake.

A la Cart / Dinner menu was served from 6.30 onward

My guess is High Tea has been replaced by lunch or pre-theatre menus.

But other teas.

Tea - the drink
Tea - evening meal, usually at home
Fish Tea - fish, chips and peas eating in a chippy.
Afternoon Tea - posh sandwiches & cakes.

@wellmet. He Scots have high tea. Usually around 4pm -4.30pm. Sandwiches & cakes.

Cream tea in Devon & Cornwall. Scones, jam & cream.

Tea to me (S/e Londoner) is a light meal around 6pm. A cooked meal at that time is dinner.

Not all Scots. High Tea isn't a thing in my area.

So to summarise a full day's food timeline:
Breakfast: 7-9am
Elevenses: tea (or coffee if you must) and a biscuit: 11am
Lunch (or Dinner): between 12/1:30pm depending on number of biscuits consumed at elevenses.
Afternoon tea (cutesy sarnies and dainty cakes etc): 3-4pm but only for a treat and not every day
High tea (only if you didn't have afternoon tea and had and early lunch/dinner): 5pm
Tea (only if you didn't have high tea, but also had a later lunch): 5:30/6:30pm
Dinner (if you had an afternoon tea but not tea or high tea): 7pm
Supper (if you had high tea only) 8:30/9pm

Fish supper on Fridays at teatime only and cream tea when you go on your holidays to somewhere with overpriced tearooms any time you want because it's your holidays.

There! Sorted!

The only time the term high tea is used outside Enid blyton books is wanky hotels renaming kids tea at 5ish so parents can shove them off to bed and start drinking

"There is no such thing as ‘high tea"."

Several posters before you would disagree.