What?

There are different kinds of tea parties?

It wasn’t until I started researching for my tea party that I learned that there are more than 2 kinds of “tea” to have. In fact, depending where you are in the world and what traditions you follow, you have loads of options!

Since most of us here are North American and operate on somewhat more relaxed standards than some of our European friends, I’ll talk about the kinds of tea parties most people host around here.

First up, is High Tea. You may have heard about this one. In a nutshell, it’s basically what we would call dinner. There would be full on entrees, tea, sweets, cakes and more. A big meal that is often served in a formal setting with lots of rules and lots of work!

A lot of places like to say they serve High Tea, but if there isn’t some kind of fancy chicken/beef/fish dish being served, it ain’t High Tea!

What most people are familiar with is the afternoon tea. It is sometimes called Light Tea, Victorian Tea, Low Tea, Cream Tea, etc. It’s all pretty similar, but there are three main types of afternoon tea:

Cream Tea

This is one where tea and scones with cream and jam are served. Hence the “cream” part of the title. Now when they say cream, they don’t mean the type you put in your coffee, they are referring to clotted or Devon style cream. It’s made from cow’s milk and is cooked down to a thick, wonderful creamy consistency, and is used as a spread on the scones. Sooooo goood.

Light Tea

This is the most simple tea, in which a pot of tea, some little cakes or cookies and maybe some sweet breads are served. It’s light and casual and is sort of an afternoon break rather than anything fancy.

Low or Full Tea

This is sort of a combination of the above, plus sandwiches! Low or Full Tea is the next step down from High Tea. Tea sandwiches and savoury fingerfoods are served along with the traditional scones and cream, petit fours, sweet breads, etc. with the tea. It is much more substantial than a snack, but not the full-on meal that High Tea would provide.

This one is best held in the late afternoon (around 3-4pm maybe) so that your guests can go home and still have a late light dinner if they chose to.

So what kind of tea did I have for my party?

Well, if you saw the photos you would know that I offered a Low or Full Tea, since I had sandwiches, sweets, petit fours, scones AND cream.

Now, if you’re planning to host a tea party, you can do it any way that you want. Mix up the menu items, create your own theme and rules! I didn’t have matching china, so I went ahead with a more whimsical theme with brightly coloured tea cups, cute mini spoons and creamers/sugar dishes. As long as you can create some sort of cohesive theme (mine was whimsical/eclectic) to pull everything together, you’ll have a great atmosphere.

For more information on hosting a tea party, menu ideas and proper etiquette, here are a couple of sites I used:

Tea Party Guide

About.com: Hosting an afternoon tea party