Afternoon tea
British tradition of afternoon tea is a custom as much rooted in Britons as green tea ceremony in Japanese. Even if this habit can be hardly credited to only a person, it is commonly due to a woman: Anna, 7th Duchess of Bedford. In the early 1840s, the Duchess often became hungry before dinner time (8.30-9.00 pm). So she used to have a small meal in the mid-afternoon. She began inviting guests to join her for a cup of tea and some sweets and savouries in the afternoon, in order to fill the long gap between breakfast and late dinners. The ritual caught on in England and North America and soon became an afternoon tradition that remains today. Modern afternoon tea at trendy tea salons and cafés feature a wide variety of quality teas and fine finger foods.
In 1842, a well known actress named Fanny Kemble first heard of afternoon tea. In a couple o years she set the whole complex of rules and etiquette surrounding the social customs of women visiting each other for tea.

Just one tip before leaving such a wide argument as tea - with the promise to go back on it in the future. It concerns a very way of drinking tea very popular today: iced. As many of the most enduring inventions, iced is due to a necessity turned into virtue. An Englishman named Richard Blechynden was unsuccessfully promoting tea at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. You see, the sweltering southern heat did little to attract patrons to hot tea, so Mr. Blechynden added ice cubes and the crowds loved the new brew. Ever since this fortuitous discovery, ced tea has continued to grow in popularity.

Davide Morena