Wellyopolis

January 10, 2006

Time for tea

One of the small disappointments I have with American life is the absence of that fine Commonwealth social activity called morning tea. (At which you discuss cricket ... except in Canada).

Really, morning tea is nothing more than a 10-20 minute break in the workday when people take a break and have a drink or snack, and converse with their colleagues. Right now, American readers are probably wondering what could be less exciting. What makes morning tea different than a coffee break in an American workplace is that at morning tea [nearly] everyone takes a break at the same time, and gathers in a common space to have a drink or snack. Tea itself is not compulsory, in fact I would assume that in the Antipodean coffee paradise that is Australasia more people now drink coffee at morning tea than tea.

This linguistic imprecision is probably what confuses Americans about morning tea, and the other forms of "tea" that are taken in the Commonwealth. I was trying to explain all the tea distinctions to my wife the other day, and have to confess that she had a point when she said "that doesn't make sense!" Well, neither does silly mid-wicket (another story). Let me see if I can explain it concisely.


  • If you say you are "going out for tea" or that "you will meet for tea" this will likely refer to a traditional English-style afternoon tea (tea or coffee, scones, cucumber sandwiches, floral decorations on the china, etc ...). Thus, when talking to people who don't live with you about social engagements tea means afternoon tea.
  • "Tea" without any qualifiers can also refer to the main evening meal (dinner). If you were to dine out for this meal it would be "dinner," but eaten in with just your normal household it is "tea." If you were invited around to someone's house for tea, and expected to arrive after 6pm you could reasonably assume it was for an evening meal "tea," but not a very fancy one. If it was fancy it would be called "dinner."
  • In the morning, before a reasonable morning tea hour, if you were to refer to "tea" in conversation ("When are we going to stop for tea?") it would be morning tea.
What's not clear about that? Quite a lot, it seems.

Posted by robe0419 at January 10, 2006 5:26 PM