The great British tradition of afternoon tea in London

When did afternoon tea become a ritual?

Anna Russell, the 7^th Duchess of Bedford, introduced to the wonderful idea of English afternoon tea in around 1840. The duchess would become hungry around 4pm, so she often asked for a tray of tea, bread & butter and cake to be brought to her room. This became a habit of hers and she started inviting friends to join her.  A ‘pause for tea’ soon became a fashionable social event. During the 1880s, society women would change into long gowns, gloves and  ornate hats for their afternoon tea, which was usually served in a formal drawing room between 4 – 5pm.

Choose your tea

Here are just a couple of our favourite teas, which come highly recommended. Firstly, our Royal Breakfast blend, which includes teas selected from the misty hills of Sri Lanka and the lush estates of Assam in India. Its classic and robust flavour is best enjoyed with milk. The Staunton Earl Grey is another classic, discovered in China in the 1700s by George Staunton, an officer in the East India Company. It blends the finest neroli and bergamot oils to create a distinctive Earl Grey with a wonderfully fragrant aroma.

Milk or tea first?

Originally, European teacups were made of soft-paste porcelain, so milk was added first to prevent heat cracking them. Once hard-paste porcelain was discovered, this was no longer necessary and it became a sign of wealth to pour the milk after the tea, to show guests that you had the finest teacups.  For me, adding milk before tea allows the two to infuse better, while adding it after means you can better control the flavour of the tea more.