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?

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.

Rationing of tea? The horror!

I have always suspected as much, though, Dogsaresomucheasier. Such are the horrors with which aristocratic life is burdened, that I would never survive above stairs.

You'll find me down in the kitchen, next to the Aga, with a kettle always on...

And, I have to know now. What do they drink for the rest of the day?

Nothing and shrivel up?

Bracing cold water from the well?

Gin?

What is this horror of a “fish tea”?
It is either fish supper or chippy tea.
Fish tea sounds disgusting.

@MsTSwift or because young kids generally need to eat, you know, earlier so they can go to bed???

@PerkingFaintly GIN! Yes!!!

@MrsFezziwig far better a dish tea than a picky tea eh!!?

Fish not dish

High tea is only eaten by the Famous Five.
I'm pretty sure the four from the Adventure series did too. Usually in a farmhouse. There was always a large ham and crusty bread (freshly baked), salad (lettuce, cumcumber and tomato type). There would also be scones, jam (homemade) just churned butter, lashings of cream. And almost certainly an enormous cake. Possibly creamy milk too, not long out of the cow.

I'm quite confident as I really wanted to have the same. I'd have probably drank water or ginger ale (though think that was just the Famous Five, so I might not have as i also fancied Jack and wouldn't want to make him think I'd be hanging out with Julia.)

There are a lot of teas aren't there. Mind you there's a lot of meals.

Order can vary:
Breakfast
Elevenses
Brunch
Lunch
Afternoon tea
Cream tea
High tea
Dinner
Supper
Midnight feast

I have possibly missed some too.

Fish supper, not fish tea.

Tea time is the evening meal if you have a big dinner (in the middle of the day - eg a cooked dinner on a Sunday or school day).
If you have a sandwich for lunch, then your evening meal is dinner, not tea.

Dinner is a cooked meal, lunch or tea is a lighter meal.

Afternoon tea involves cake & sandwiches mid-afternoon but you wouldn't have that after dinner iyswim.

Ooh @RedForShort I forgot the midnight feast - the absolute pinnacle of food naughtiness.

I am willing to admit afternoon tea exists as tea and cake. I suppose you might possibly have cucumber sandwiches. At one time I worked in a well-known London hotel and used to hoover the Palm Court where they served it to tourists at ludicrous prices. If you're going to make a ceremony of it you need at least three kinds of cake and some tiny pastries and salmon sandwiches as well. A person might ask for a poached egg on toast or a rarebit.

But if you are working, you will not get home in time for such frivolities. Maybe at weekends if you have afternoon visitors. You will need a silver teapot and cake-forks, and bone china cups and plates. You will not use mugs.

If working, you might have a mug of tea and a biscuit at your desk and inaccurately call it afternoon tea.

Nobody has High Tea.

I was born South of the Trent so I have lunch and dinner, not tea.

Fish supper, not fish tea

Fish Supper is fish and chips take-away
Fish Tea is served at a table and includes peas!

Nobody has High Tea.

Speak for yourself! Not seen it offered in a while but I'm sure some places will still do it.

I've literally said I have what has been referred to here as high tea. I just didn't know it!

There's also the Sunday afternoon tea which is similar to normal afternoon tea with cake and tiny sandwiches, but may also include pork pie, hard-boiled eggs, lettuce, sliced ham, coleslaw, quiche and an assortment of additional relatives. Oh, and trifle.

I live with, what I consider a hobbit, and he seems to think its goes Breakfast,(7.30am) high breakfast(9am) brunch (10am), snack(11.30am), lunch(12.30pm), afternoon snack(1.30pm), high tea (at 3pm) tea (5pm) dinner (7pm) supper (9pm) Late supper (10pm) and then midnight snack (midnight)

At least he would certainly do the last 3 if he was still awake. I am not only dreading the summer holidays but when he hits teenage years

Tea is a drink.

Breakfast is when you get up.

Brunch is in between Breakfast and Lunch. 11am ish.

Lunch is 1-2 pm ish.

School Dinner - school kids have this at Lunch Time.

Afternoon Tea is cakes and sandwiches. Usually in nice/posh expensive restaurants/tea shops. 3pm - 4pm

High Tea - never heard of it. Although it's possibly Afternoon Tea but a bit more substantial with cold meats and salad etc.

Tea is a meal at home around 5pm. Kids generally have this after school.

Dinner is a more substantial evening meal which is generally later than Tea. Can be at home or in a restaurant. Any time between 6pm and 9.30pm (ish again sorry could be earlier or later, there really is no set time

And if you are still hungry after that lot, you can always have Supper ….

I’m not sure anyone uses “high tea” anymore

I do. I use it to mean an evening meal that you have to eat earlier than usual because you have to go out for the evening and there won't be any food where you are going. A pre-theatre meal would be a high tea, for instance. I just thought that was what it meant - I'm amazed by all these other definitions.

Breakfast
Elevenses
Brunch
Lunch
Afternoon tea
Cream tea
High tea
Dinner
Supper
Midnight feast
No Wonder the British are over weight...……….

We used to go for High Tea on a Sunday in a hotel, with my grandparents, when I was a kid in the 80s. Main meal, then a cake-stand, and a pot of tea. I am sure bread and butter was served before the actual meal. Or even toast. Surely not?

A cup of tea - drink.

Afternoon tea - small, fancy sandwiches and cakes, usually over-priced and under-whelming.

Tea (meal) - light meal if you have had a big lunch (eg, cheese and biscuits, scrambled eggs on toast), might actually really be “supper” as we tend to have this on a weekend after lunch out, about 9pm.

Evening meal - dinner

(Scotland)

I think a central problem here is that ‘the British’ really aren’t a unified people and one of the subjects on which we are least unified is what we eat when and what we call it, which is very much dependent on who you are and where you live.

So in my family (not actually British but ex-colonial in origin) we eat breakfast, lunch and supper. My husband’s family (middle class, north and midlands) eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, and where I grew up and now live (working class, northern) people eat breakfast, dinner and tea. My kids are confused, on the whole.

We always used to have high tea on holiday when I was growing up, lots of fresh bread and butter and picnic type food. It was the one time we could have jam (or lemon curd) on bread.

High teas are big business in my area of Scotland. Served usually between half past four to half past six and exceptionally popular on a Sunday. Have regularly gone out for high tea for the past fifty years. Unlimitless tea and toast accompany a substantial fork and knife meal, steak pie etc, then a cake stand of scones or pancakes with jam and two tiers of cakes like tray bakes and meringues. Yum! Costs around £13 for a good one but often cheaper.

Not RTFT but just wondered if High Tea is purely a Scottish thing? I have fond memories of High Tea with Granny in Scotland as a treat - main meal (something like fish and chips or macaroni cheese), bread and butter, scones and cakes all washed down with a pot of tea. No wonder I was a chubby wee thing!

I think the OP has gone for a tea break.