British Afternoon Tea or American fast food?

If I were asked this question, "do you prefer Afternoon Tea or fast food?" my answer would be short and quick: Afternoon Tea, of course!

Afternoon Tea is one of my favourite things in the world and I enjoy it immensely.

If you are wondering why I have capitalised both words in the title, Afternoon and Tea, the answer is equally simple: we capitalise both words because we refer to a specific meal and tradition rather than a general afternoon tea.

This is one important difference with fast food, which is not a proper noun, therefore, I don’t have to capitalise it in my title since I am using sentence case style to match the British spelling I am using to write this story.

Now that everything about the title is clear, let’s dive into one of Britain’s most delicious traditions: Afternoon Tea. (I can also use ‘dive into,’ it’s not exclusive of AI, you know)

Brief history of Afternoon Tea

Afternoon Tea has been popular in Britain for over a hundred years and an important part of British social culture. Today, Afternoon Tea is served to elevate an occasion such as birthdays and anniversaries but it’s also enjoyed as a delicious treat that is welcomed anytime. If you ask me, I don’t need to wait for any special ocassion. For me, any day can be made special by having Afternoon Tea.

If you come to London, I would recommend you feed two birds at the same time and take the Afternoon Tea Bus Tour. That’s a traditional red double-decker where you get served Afternoon Tea whilst enjoying sightseeing in London. It’s a double treat, indeed.

Although the history of tea goes back to many century ago, the Afternoon Tea, a deliciously great British tradition, has a relatively short history. It was first introduced by Anna, the seventh Duchess of Bedford, when in 1840 she made it more an occasion to add an extra meal to the day, something between lunch and dinner. This all started when the Duchess of Bedford found herself feeling hungry around 4 o’clock and couldn’t wait for dinner time.

Anna, Duchess of Bedford, would ask for a tray of tea, bread and butter (which was replaced by two slices of bread with a filling between them, an idea that came from the Earl of Sandwich), and cake. What started as the Duchess’ personal habit morphed into something more social when Anna began inviting friends to join her for her Afternoon Tea.

Quickly this became a rather fashionable social event during the 1880s, becoming also a favourite of Queen Victoria. Upper-class and society women would change into beautiful gowns, wearing gloves and hats for their Afternoon Tea, usually served between four and five o’clock.

Class and etiquette was part of any social event. Dressing up to attend the dinner table or Afternoon Tea was an opportunity to take care of personal appearance for oneself and for others.

As time went by, what was served for Afternoon Tea changed into the selection of finger sandwiches, sweet treats, scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam, and cakes we enjoy today. What began as a simple individual habit became an occasion for socialising, quite similar to dinner.

For the next portion of the story, we have to quickly teleport (yeah, one day deep into the future, the technology will exist) ourselves across the Atlantic Ocean and land where all started. Unrelated, but I love classic cars like this one below.

Perhaps not totally unrelated since cars played such an important role in the coolness of the American society back in the 1950s. Cars were certainly an important element in the success of auto-cinemas and fast-food drive-throughs.

Brief history of fast food

Some trace the modern history of fast food in the United States to 7 July 1912, with the opening of a fast-food restaurant called The Automat in New York. The Automat was a cafeteria with its prepared foods behind small glass windows and coin-operated slots.

In the 1950s, fast food was viewed as pure American with chain fast food franchises seen as an extension of the popular American Diner. The fast food explosion of the 1950s began with McDonald’s.

It’s hard to imagine fast food without drive-through windows. I recently watched an amusing video about Donny T “working” at a drive-through McDonald’s in Pennsylvania; he was handing in bags packed with high-calorie meals and sugary drinks to his supporters. It was utterly entertaining.

Anyway, I mentioned that only to bring to your attention that drive-throughs are still a thing in 2024; they have existed since the 1930s, and many drive-in restaurants back then had some form of drive-up window.

However, the speaker systems commonly used to place drive-through orders didn’t come into use until the 1950s. The double drive-through, used by many busy fast-food restaurants, debuted in the 1980s. Interesting, right? I think so.

It means that in only five years’ time, there will be (or should be) a big celebration for the 100th anniversary of drive-throughs.

I hope someone is paying attention and preparing something big over there in the U.S., in the land of fast-food and drive-throughs. You could do your part and alert your favourite drive-through, if that’s your thing and there is one near you. Who knows, they could give away one extra fat fry, just like Donny T did for his supporters. (he really packed one extra which was fatter than the rest)

Perhaps you have heard some stories of drive-throughs, if you are based in the U.S., perhaps your parents told you some stories from the old days of classic cars? Those were the days of the glamour of the 1950s. Even if we were not around, we have seen the movies that have made us love the cars and fashion and music of the '50s. The days when life was perhaps not perfect, but it was simpler and people had more time to enjoy themselves. Perhaps you were a teenager, or a child back then?