Setting the Pinky Straight - a brief history of Afternoon Tea traditions
What could be a more royal experience than tea at a castle? At Wandering Vine at the Castle we honor this quintessential British experience with our Afternoon Tea every Saturday.
A Wandering Vine table set for Afternoon Tea - image by Moss Marketing Group
THE HISTORY OF AFTERNOON TEA
Are you thirsty for the story behind the Afternoon Tea tradition? Julia Skinner’s 2019 book: Afternoon Tea – A History (Rowman and Littlefield; https://www.amazon.com/Afternoon-Tea-History-Julia-Skinner/dp/1442271019) is a great source. In a teacup, tea was introduced to Europe by the Dutch East Indies Company in 1610, when the Dutch ruled the seas and international trade. The popularity of drinking tea in England is credited to Catherine de Burganza from Portugal, who married King Charles II in 1662. She was never crowned as Queen, because she was Roman Catholic, making her very unpopular in Protestant England. As was typical of the day, the marriage was about military and commercial partnership rather than romance. Curious that such an unpopular foreigner would establish such an essential component of British culture.
Historic UK (https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Afternoon-Tea/) and Guide London (https://www.guidelondon.org.uk/blog/food-drink/history-of-afternoon-tea-in-england/) explain how the practice of afternoon tea came to be such a British cultural icon. Around 1840 Anna, Duchess of Bedford is said to have begun the practice of having tea and cakes sent to her chamber at four in the afternoon, since dinner in the houses of the English nobility wasn’t served until eight in the evening. Her visiting lady friends would join her for this afternoon tea. As Anna was both a wealthy noble and a friend of Queen Victoria, it’s easy to understand how this practice quickly became quite fashionable.
Now that you know the history of the Afternoon Tea tradition, here are two common misperceptions to be aware of.
IS IT AFTERNOON TEA OR HIGH TEA?
While we commonly refer to this experience as High Tea here in the US, Afternoon Tea and High Tea are actually quite different. High tea was the term for the working class supper - around five or six in the evening. It is said that the meal was called “High” Tea because you sat at a high table for supper, whereas Afternoon Tea was served at a low table and so was sometimes called “Low Tea”. But, “Low T” means something quite different now for us here in the US, doesn’t it? So, we’ll stay with Afternoon Tea. While we focus on an authentic Afternoon Tea experience at Wandering Vine at the Castle, we do acknowledge that the time for tea now is earlier than the traditional British 4 pm, as we tend to enjoy our evening supper closer to 6 pm.
PINKIES UP?
Especially important is the “pinky problem”. While it seems to have gotten stuck in our cultural perception, extending your pinky finger while drinking tea is considered quite gauche and a definite cultural faux pas. Etiquette expert Emily Post was “adamantly opposed” to extending the pinky finger and considered it “improper and rude” (https://emilypost.com/advice/common-tea-questions).
There are many “urban myths” about how the practice of extending the pinky got started. Some have said it would have been the upper class trying to avoid touching the cup as much as possible, since the servants had touched the cup and the cup may not be clean. Unlikely explanation, given that the servants would have touched everything else including the cutlery and the food itself. Even less plausible is the speculation that extending the pinky finger was a discreet sign to potential “admirers” that you had syphilis. This gruesome disease was among the earliest imports from the New World to Europe, in the late 1400s and early 1500s, and it ravaged Europe for centuries. At times as much as 20% of the population of England and Western Europe was infected (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/may/17/syphilis-sex-fear-borgias). It’s very unlikely that women would have intentionally displayed a sign of their syphilis infection in polite society, and if the disease had progressed everyone could tell by the person’s appearance anyway.
Among the possible explanations, one seems quite likely. When tea first became popular in Europe and England, it was served in very small porcelain cups imported from Japan or China. The cups were so small you couldn’t get more than two fingers on them. Besides, the tea was hot and so were the cups, so you simply tried to burn as few fingers as possible. A German alchemist, Johann Friedrich Bőttger invented a new formula for making porcelain in the early 1700s, and the famous porcelain manufacturers of Europe and England soon were born. They made the teacup larger and added the handle (https://blog.teabox.com/teacup-got-handle). So ever since the 18th century it has been considered improper to extend the pinky when drinking tea.
ROYAL TEA AT THE CASTLE
Now let’s put those pinkies to their intended use - making reservations for Afternoon Tea. Come and enjoy this time-honored tradition at Wandering Vine at the Castle every Saturday afternoon from noon until 3 pm. Visit wanderingvine.com/events or call us at 913-379-1300 for more information and to make your reservation.
