Afternoon tea ritual was first invented by Ann, the Duchess of Bedford. It was said that the Duchess was feeling tired during the time between the light breakfast and the heavy dinner. Ann needed a light snack to keep her energized until dinner.

Ann decided to enjoy a cup of tea along with light snacks like tea sandwiches or a piece of sweet cake. This was during 1700s. The Afternoon tea ritual began to become popular and was adopted throughout England.

There are actually 2 more extended versions of Afternoon tea: Low tea and High tea. Low tea refers to afternoon tea ritual for social elites. Although it’s called Low tea, the emphasis is more on the fine China and rare and expensive silverware. The tea wasn’t as important as the display of wealth and status.

The other version - High tea is most commonly adopted by working-class people. This high tea includes left-over from lunch and strong and full-bodied cups of tea. The high tea sometimes can be equivalent as dinner.

It doesn’t matter if it was about tea or not, afternoon tea is nice and pleasant experience. It becomes very difficult for each of us to take a moment during a day to enjoy a nice cup of tea and light snack. We are often relied on to-go coffee and fast foods to get us through the day.

On the other hand, many people in England are enjoying their afternoon everyday at about 3:00 pm. The tea houses and restaurants that serve afternoon tea are bustling with people during those few hours.

Restaurants and tea houses that serve afternoon tea aren’t yet so popular in America. I said YET because I hope that some day a version of afternoon tea can be created in America. This can be proved to be a bit difficult due to our boss’s expectation of working hard and working late.

But nevertheless, if anyone of us can spend about 20 minutes - 1/2 hours in a nice and quiet tea houses to enjoy a cup of tea with friends, the working environment probably can be a bit less stressful.

Can’t American be able to do this? I can’t be certain. The bills are coming and there are too many are out of jobs. I think an afternoon tea ritual probably has to start with the bosses. Only then, they probably can understand that their workers may need that 1/2 hours of peaceful moment to be more productive.

Mr. Pham has great interest in tea, herbs, and their health benefits. He has created Nature Healthy Tea to share his knowledge on simple yet healthy tea drink. Publishers are welcome to reprint this article provided this resource box is presented and kept intact.