Continuation….

TEA FARE

Tea fare can be incorporated with many items. Generally, Afternoon tea involves bite-sized sandwiches, followed by a plethora of sweets, pastries and biscuits. For most afternoon tea ceremonies certain foods became popular during each seasons of the year. Fruit and berries were eaten in spring and summer, while heavier starch items were reserved for the colder months.
Placement of these items is also crucial to the construction of the ceremony. Food is generally placed on a three-tier curate stand, as follows, where scones are placed on the top tier, savories and tea sandwiches are placed in the middle and sweets on the bottom.
The protocol of placing scones on the top-tier is due to the fact that during the 1800’s when Afternoon tea first became popular, and modern kitchen conveniences did not exist, a warming dome was placed over the scones. The dome would only fit on the top tier. The savories and tea sandwiches, followed by the sweets were placed on the middle and bottom tiers respectively. At the progression of each course, service would be provided to remove each tier.
Traditionally, loose tea would be served in a tea pot with milk and sugar. This would be accompanied by various sandwiches (customarily cucumber, egg and cress, fish paste (bloater), ham and smoked salmon), scones (with butter, clotted cream ad jam – see cream tea) and usually cakes and pastries (such as Battenberg, fruit cake or Victoria sponge).The food would be often served in a tiered stand.
While afternoon tea used to be an everyday event, now a days it is more likely to be taken as a treat in a hotel, café or teashop that follows a similar three-tiered menu.

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