What is 'high tea'?

[JoyceBarnaby]

I'm watching the hairy bikers and the theme this week is apparently 'high tea'.

They've had beef stew, sausages and pies so far - which don't really say 'high tea' to me. But I don't really know what does!!

Any thoughts?

I thought 'high tea' was the tea the children had at about 5pmish.

My gran often served high tea when I was little. To her it meant having something simple but savoury first, like cheese or baked beans on toast or an omelette or cheesy pancakes (thinking about it there was a definite cheese theme!) followed by cakes and biscuits. A normal tea to her was jam or honey sandwiches and then the cakes and biscuits. My gran's high teas were lovely!

When I was a child high tea on Sunday was something more substantial than afternoon tea but not a fully cooked meal. My mum would lay on a selection of salads, cheeses and cooked meats, plus a cake for afters. This is merely my experience of it - my mum was German born so this may not have been traditionally British.

yeah i agree, high tea was normally taken around 4 or 5pm as a light snack in between luncheon and dinner

certainly not beef stew, sausage or pie!!!

Yes, much as I love the hairy bikers (and I do!), I think I agree with all of you!

They are having cakes & biscuits now, so perhaps they will redeem themselves!!

Since moving to Scotland I've discovered high tea up here is very different from English afternoon tea. It's served at about 5pm.

Randomly, it starts with a few rounds of buttered toast, then a main meal which is typically something with chips, followed by cakes and scones.

My grandmother's version involved bread, ham/other cold meat/cold sausages, salad, maybe cold boiled eggs (yick), possibly a cold pie/quiche/tart or savoury scones and then cake/tart/biscuit, fruit salad, trifle or similar.

More substantial than afternoon tea but a cold spread.

I've seen it a few times in seaside cafes and it's fish, chips and peas, bread and butter on the side, a dessert and a pot of tea.

when i think high tea i think tea in proper china, with sandwiches thinking smoked salmon or tuna and chives, cut quite small and tiny cakes/biscuits or scones.

To me it is eaten around 4-5pm. There would be salad, cold meats, cheeses, maybe quiche, potato salad, followed by (a cup of) tea and cake. My PIL do this a lot, it's sort of a lighter early dinner. They would then have supper around 9pm, maybe soup or sandwiches.

Agree with pointydog. Ericorandrew, what you've described is afternoon tea.

High tea is different to nursery tea, which is what my nana fed us at around 4pm (the adults eat later and seperately) until we were around 12 or 13.

A quarter of a ham sandwich, small amount of crisps, maybe a mini sausage roll and a slice of cake, followed by yogurt, then maybe ice cream and jelly or blancmange, and weak tea by the bucket.

:D Not very filling, but I can't taste a white bread ham sandwich (with a thin spread of marg) without smiling, and still sometimes make the meal for myself :)

This thread has really confused me

What does this mean for the "tea" we used to go to my granny's for, which involved cake and crumpets and cups of tea?

High tea to me is either ham salad or fish & chips, with bread and butter and a pot of tea on the table, followed by scones/cakes etc.

I'm Scottish.

I had high tea once in scarborough, looking out over the beach and sea. Was lovely. Graham Greeney/Orwell overtones.

I used to go to the Mount Royal Hotel for high tea with my Granny in Edinburgh.
Felt very posh - delicate little sandwiches followed by cakes and scones with cream.

That was afternoon tea, ovary, no?

High tea is more downmarket. Unless it's a special offer for pensioners at a posh hotel

High tea is afternoon tea with extra protein- so tea and cakes but also maybe a cold meat pie, prawns, eggs- so you don't need to eat again later.

For High tea, my mum's bf who lives in Northumberland serves a substantial cold meats/pie/etc and salad with lots of bread and butter and then cakes / biscuits / scones, etc. About 5 or 6pm

Afternoon tea is a pot of tea and cups and saucers and little triangle sandwiches and cupcakes, etc. Served about 3 or 4pm.

Tea was a main hot meal and pud when I was a kid. Served at 5pm, having had my school dinner at 12 and an after-school snack on getting home. No wonder I was a little porker

shineon, that's what we had, supper being a piece of toast, not a poncey dinner party like what we have down here in the Big Smoke

Shineon is spot on! It's the tea that the kind farmer's wife would make for the Famous Five and they would just eat and eat and eat to bursting point.

Probably ham, cheese, homebaked bread, one of those long pork pies with boiled egg in the middle, tomatoes and lettuce from the garden and possibly young carrots, more hard boiled eggs, fresh milk to drink, cake, scones, gingerbread etc.

It is most deffo NOT fish and chips! :)

It is fish and chips in some parts of the country though.

Look at this fine old Scottish hotel high tea menu.

Maybe the balmy southern ingerland of blyton had boiled eggs, garden veg and gingerbread but the further north you go it's far more likely to be fish and chips or steak pie with lashings of bread and butter on the side.

A cuppa after a snort of coke?