I've written about my afternoon tea habit a few times before, and probably will continue to write about it, but what even is afternoon tea? Most people see it as a posh event for special occasions, but you can tailor it to your lifestyle and make it a tradition of your own!
What about the history of afternoon tea? The tradition originated in England in the 1800s. The seventh Duchess of Bedford, Anna, would take a small meal around four o'clock because the formal dinner would not be served until eight o'clock. Her usual afternoon tea consisted of tea, bread and butter, and cake, and all of those elements can be found in afternoon tea services around the world. (For more information about the history of afternoon tea, check out this article!)
The most common arrangement for a fancier afternoon tea consists of three courses of snacks. There will be one tray of savory snacks, one of scones with clotted cream and jam, and the last tray has sweets and cakes. This kind of afternoon tea is a meal in itself and not for every day, but it can be modified for many different occasions!
My afternoon tea routine started when I was in high school. I would come from school at about three thirty in the afternoon and be hungry and a little tired, so tea and a snack was the perfect thing to get my energy back up to do homework and tide me over until dinner later. My sweet tooth gets the best of me most times, so I love to have something sweet with my tea. More often than not, shortbread is my sweet of choice.
Shortbread is a great snack to have with tea because it's simple. You can add all sorts of fun ingredients to it, like my vanilla chai shortbread recipe, or do the quick, classic version that consists of just three ingredients. Butter, sugar, and flour make up a delicious and simple cookie that can be made to be crispy or soft, and if you choose to dip it in tea or coffee, it will soak up that flavor!
Basic shortbread is super easy to make and most people probably already have all the ingredients. You will need:
1 cup of butter
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup of sugar
I strongly recommend making sure your butter is completely soft when you begin, it will be much easier. An electric mixer will cut down the prep time even more, but mixing by hand is not too strenuous. Combine all your ingredients into a bowl and mix until combined. Preheat your oven to 350F, then start shaping your dough. It doesn't flatten and spread like normal cookies, so either shape it into a log, chill it, and then cut into rounds, or roll it out flat to your desired thickness and cut it out with cookie cutters or any other mold you have. I like using molds because they give you a really uniform shape, so I used a heart-shaped cookie cutter for these.
Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and pop them in the oven for a minimum of ten minutes, you're looking for the tiniest bit of browning around the edges. If you like crispier cookies, you could go up to fifteen minutes. Let them cool for a few minutes on the tray and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool all the way.
Now for the other part of afternoon tea, the tea! Formal afternoon tea services will pair their tea flavors with the snacks that are served, but for everyday, any flavor will work. I usually try to take my caffeine tolerance into consideration, four o'clock is a little later in the day and I don't normally have trouble sleeping if I drink black tea that late, but that is something to take into account if you are more sensitive to caffeine.
Black tea generally has the most caffeine, followed by green tea or any sort of rooibos. Those are great if you want a pick me up in the afternoon, but herbal teas don't normally have caffeine and they still have a lot of flavor. Earl grey is a staple of mine, it's black tea blended with the oil of a variety of orange called bergamot. I like to make it sweet and add milk, but anyone can tailor it to their taste.
This habit of mine has become something that I really enjoy. It's so nice to have a little break in the day to unwind a bit and enjoy something that's so simple. For me, the little things make all the difference. Of course, you can even substitute a cup of tea for coffee, but then you can't exactly call it afternoon tea. This sort of routine is great for everyday, and it takes care of my afternoon tea cravings in between the opportunities to go to a posh one.
I hope you all enjoyed this post and learned a little something along the way, thank you so much for reading!
xx, Hannah
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