High Time for a New High Tea

Say the words 'high tea' and it brings to mind images of well-dressed ladies sitting around chatting, fingers curled daintily around the handle of a white china cup, a spread of dainty treats presented on a three-tiered cake stand before them, in hushed tea rooms. It might seem a throwback to a more genteel past, but it has been fashionably revived for women to gather together, whether it be for a simple afternoon meal with a friend, or for that celebration those traditional 'new stages' of a woman's life. In Sydney, specialist tearoom cum restaurants are thriving, hotels offer high tea in an attempt to seem more classy, and even the odd occasional bar wants to get in on the action.

But what, really, is the appeal of high tea? Why has it taken off in the imaginations of modern women whose lives bear little resemblance to those original Victorian ladies who lunched?

A group of friends and I ventured to the Victoria Room for high tea last weekend. In a dimly lit room, perched on worn lounge suites of character, and over our pots of tea with porcelain plates held in our ladylike hands, I asked them for their opinions on the appeal of high tea. The answers varied between the novelty ("it probably wouldn't be as fun if the food wasn't served on the tiered stand," was one repeated idea), the heightened sense of femininity, and the atmosphere in the rituals and paraphernalia associated. Apart from this, it could be observed that most of our group had made some effort to dress above and beyond their usual casual style, with dresses and pretty tops more prevalent than normal, and that 95% of those present in the room were female. There is also a moneyed air about the whole rigmarole, considering the relatively hefty price tag, and the fact that all the places offering high tea in Sydney are located in or around upmarket urban areas. High tea, therefore, seems to highlight and segregate on the basis of two concepts: gender and class.

Food and food customs, such as events like high tea, hold symbolic cultural meanings beyond their physical intrinsic value, and these cultural choices - what we appeals to us and what we partake of and how we go about it - define for us and for others our understanding of our place in society. High tea as a meal has no intrinsic value that makes it more feminine or more high class, but the development of such a meal has been subject to social regulation that intertwined high tea with concepts of femininity and gentility. Dining rooms - in hotels, at restaurants - were one of the first places were women of better social standards were allowed to present themselves in public without the chaperone of a male relative. It allowed for these women to gather socially in public of their own accord, and to partake in social rituals in an adopted space of one's own (gender); in some ways the consumption of food, which would seem the main point of a meal, is more a secondary consideration in this case. And afternoon tea was introduced as the thing do for the upper classes during the era of industrialisation in urbanised areas of England, fitted in around 4 o'clock between a luncheon and a late-evening dinner.

What does that have to do with modern women and her penchant for high tea? In a egalitarian society such as we live in now, we might dismiss the idea of a clear-cut class structure and thus the symbolic nature of high tea, but the truth is that we continue to make choices in our lives that define for ourselves and for others the class we belong to and what we aspire to. Attending high tea could be seen as an aspirational cultural choice, demonstrating in public both the femininity of being a participant in such a female tradition, and also the ability to afford the time and money to enjoy such a meal as a sign of class status.

However, an investigation of the history of the term 'high tea' unearths an unexpected irony. High tea originated in Victorian times as very much a working class meal, eaten early in the evening after a hard day's labour, a substitute for separate afternoon and evening meals. The term 'high' referred the height of the table it was eaten at, in comparison to the low tables (similar to modern coffee tables) where afternoon tea was taken. Instead of dainty morsels for ladylike appetites - those scones, finger sandwiches and sweets served on the stand - the meal would usually consist of some meat and other hot filling foods for sustenance, along with copious amounts of steaming tea.

This is surely not the ritzy image that the hotels and fancy tearooms are trying sell with their glossy, hyperbole rich advertisements for the luxury of high tea. But if it has already become a fashionable past time, why not get ahead of the trend? I say we should return high tea to its hearty origins, and in the process make it a more inclusive meal. Let us strip away its class issues and bridge the gender divide; next time someone suggests high tea, invite all your friends, male and female, over for a good hearty meal of hot and cold meats, stomach filling sandwiches and cakes, and plenty of hot tea, of course, for everyone.