What is afternoon tea?
A bit of an old-fashioned sterotypical “English” tradition that (apparently) used to happen in upper middle class households until about 1960. Basically serving up tea and cakes with company (stereotypically the local vicar or another important local figure) in the sitting room. Its doubtful whether this tradition ever really took place that often (certainly I know of no-one who’s ever had afternoon tea!), but it seems to have found its way into the general perception of British culture that a lot of people have (perhaps in the same way people associate cowboys with Texas) It really doesn’t happen anymore, if it ever did, and we tend to use the phrase in a rather disparaging way to take the mickey out of people we perceive as posh or old-fashioned. Most workplaces will have a mid-afternoon break where workers will have a drink (just as likely coffee as tea) and maybe a biscuit, but we call it “tea break” not “afternoon tea”. Some old-fashioned “tea shoppe”s still advertise afternoon te
