We have a small place called The Peony Tea House located in a very old house downtown. They serve a high tea and ive always wanted to go there...life always seems to get in the way and i havent been there yet. But my friend teaches culinary arts at an alternative high school and they do a high tea once a year. I went 2xs and it was all i expected it to be and more. I think part of the allure of tea is the ritual associated with drinking it...from the tea pots to the sugar cubes.
Im not very picky about what tea i have...i love them all.

High tea is an early evening "supper". Dishes commonly served are things like shepherds pie or creamed fish on toast, mainly taken by children and the laborers who must have an early bed time.
Scones and finger sandwiches are what might be served at an afternoon tea.
I like Darjeeling tea, with lemon. I haven't had a tea party in a long time, but I served an assortment of cookies and bars (lemon bars as I recall) and egg salad sandwiches and....what else....cucumber sandwiches. As the afternoon would get toward 5 and guests were still there I would bring out a bottle of sherry.
Oh yeah....a tea party can be lots of fun!
Linda C

I'd like to attend Linda's. That sounds perfect. I really love English bakery goods, including crumpets with those holes, steeping on top of the cup... so I'm just sure I'd be pleased as punch to have any of it.

As mentioned before, I have a bunch of teas I like but a teaparty for one is no fun and in our burg people think you are funny if you ask for hot tea in a restaurant. Would love to have afternoon tea, but I also would like to have afternoon coffee in a coffehouse in Germany or Austria.

Have a customer that teaches the Japanese tea ceremony. Her yard is all Bonsai pines and particular flowering fruit trees placed just so and trimmed to specific shapes. There is a Koi pond and a meditation garden with the raked sand. I have another customer that has giant bamboo that I cut and take to her occasionally for some of the decorations and uses in the ceremony. People study it for years.

I'm confused Rob - crumpets steeping on top of the cup?

As a teenager, a friend and I decided to hold a 'proper tea party' for a larger group of friends, in all the style our mothers would have known but no longer bothered with.

i.e. Hats. A lady Always Wore a Hat to Tea.

We borrowed lace tablecloths, my mother's finest china tea-set (inherited).

1. finger sandwiches
2. fruit loaf (buttered slices of this kind of loaf were a classic)
3. then you get the dainty cakes and stuff.

It was a riot (my mum came and loved it).

Linda's quite correct: 'high tea' was something for the workers, who had their main meal in the middle of the day, but needed something more substantial when they got home, so had tea and a hot dish, as well as the cake. (Also what you gave children who weren't old enough to have a formal dinner at 8.00pm)

So, 'high tea' is technically definitely not posh . . . :)

I had a friend who would hold tea parties in college. We would drag out our prom dresses or something very formal, make the guys dress up and have tea and assorted cakes etc. Then it was downhill formally from there because the alcoholic beverages came out. Lots of fun.