Coffee is most often served at breakfast, mid-morning or after lunch or dinner. In Britain it is not usually served during a formal main meal. Traditionally tea took the place of coffee in the afternoon, with coffee being served again after dinner. An exception is iced coffee, which is very much a part of the summer social season and is served as an afternoon alternative to hot tea in such enclaves as the President’s Tent at the Chelsea Flower Show, White’s Club Marquee during Royal Ascot, and at tea on the Royal Yacht Squadron Lawn during Cowes Week.
Freshly ground coffee is preferable to instant coffee, other than very informally in the kitchen. While there is no need for private individuals to offer complicated espressos or a huge range of blends to guests in their own home, many people have invested in home espresso machines, either running on capsules or, more expensively, bean-to-cup.
A simpler, and less expensive, option is a cafetière, which provides a rich and flavourful coffee, while stovetop espresso makers, which use fine-ground beans, will produce a strong coffee and are quick and easy to use. Consider grinding your own beans in an inexpensive electric grinder; that will ensure that your coffee always tastes fresh. It is considerate to offer decaffeinated coffee.
Morning coffee should be served on a tray in cups with saucers and teaspoons on each. Mugs are only for informal use. Use warm cups, and provide warm milk and brown sugar.
If you are serving coffee to guests, serve it in coffee pot or a cafetière. If it has been made by using a filter or coffee machine, then decant it into a plain coffee pot. It is best not to serve coffee still showing any of the equipment used in its making, such as bags, individual filters etc, other than a cafetière. The cups should be breakfast-sized for morning coffee and deep enough to ensure that the coffee does not get cold too quickly. Servings should be generous.
After-dinner coffee is traditionally served in small cups also called demi-tasses. Traditionally only cream would have been on the tray but it is thoughtful to offer milk as well. Special coffee sugar and small coffee spoons should be used.
Coffee may be provided at the same time as others are having pudding or cheese. It is not considered bad manners to drink coffee while others are still eating. Small cups are more elegant and espresso or filter coffee, with milk on the side, are a more sophisticated and appropriate choice than large milky drinks after dinner.
A vast array of coffee beans are now available. Note that these are the top coffee-growing countries:
For many of us, everyday tea comes in a teabag, but if serving tea for a group it is worth brewing a pot. Loose leaf tea will taste best. A second pot with hot water in it should be provided in order to dilute over-brewed tea if necessary. Use one rounded teaspoon of tea per cup and leave it to brew for 2 – 4 minutes before pouring. Use water that has boiled, but is not actually boiling
The tea should be poured first (through a strainer if it is loose-leaf), and any milk, lemon or sugar added afterwards. In Victorian times hot tea was poured straight into the cup to test the quality of the bone china. Expensive china did not crack.
When serving lemon with tea, place a slice in after it has been poured. Never add milk to lemon tea; the citric acid in the lemon will make the milk curdle.
The tradition of afternoon tea, when tea was served at 4pm with cakes, savouries and sweets, was started by the Duchess of Bedford in 1840 and has remained popular ever since. The evening meal in her household was served fashionably late at eight o’clock, thus leaving a long period between lunch and dinner. The duchess would become hungry around four o’clock in the afternoon, and asked that a tray of tea, bread and butter, and cake be brought to her room during the late afternoon.
This pause for tea became a fashionable social event. During the 1880s, upper-class and society women would change into long gowns, gloves and hats for their afternoon tea, which was usually served in the drawing room between four and five o’clock.
Afternoon tea can be a stylish social event in its own right. It is also a useful way of ensuring that house-guests are well-catered for, especially if you are only providing a light supper.
Traditional afternoon tea consists of sandwiches (cucumber, smoked salmon, ham and mustard, or egg mayonnaise with chopped chives), assorted cakes and pastries, and scones with clotted cream and jam. Savouries are eaten first, followed by scones, then cakes. Smaller cakes will look impressive arranged on a decorative cake stand. Pile it high with butterfly cakes, cupcakes, macaroons and choux buns. Cakes should be either very small – for example mini éclairs – or cleanly sliced. Cake that needs to be eaten with a fork should not be served.
When having formal tea in the afternoon, it is usual to serve two kinds of tea: Indian such as Assam, and China such as Lapsang Souchong. Lapsang Souchong and Earl Grey are taken weak, with either a slice of lemon or milk. Separate hot water is usually served to dilute the tea. Black teas, such as Assam, are generally served with milk which is added after the tea has been poured.
The tea is poured by the hostess or a nominated pourer. If leaf tea is served, a tea strainer is used. The tea is handed out one cup at a time after being poured, rather than pouring a few and handing them out in one go. The milk jug and sugar is passed around and each person adds their own. Use the teaspoon to stir the tea (without clinking) and then place it back on the saucer. Cups are held by the handle – being careful not to raise the little finger – and placed back on the saucer between sips. Saucers remain on the table and are never raised when the cup is lifted up. Away from the table, for example in an armchair, the cup and saucer are raised together and then put down between sips.
Scones are broken by hand, not cut with a knife. As with bread rolls, the jam and cream is spooned on to the plate first, not directly on to the scone (unless the cream is runny, in which case it can be put straight on to the scone). It is traditional in Cornwall to spread jam on a scone before cream, whereas in Devon cream is traditionally put on first. County differences aside, it is generally considered that the most practical and neatest method is to spread the cream first, before the jam.
The National Trust provides thousands of scones for hungry visitors every day. This is its recommended recipe:
350g self-raising flour
50g butter, softened
50g lard, softened
100 – 115ml milk
Preheat the oven to 190°C/ gas mark 5. Grease two baking trays. Rub the fats into the flour, working as quickly and lightly as possible with cold hands. Add enough milk to give a soft, bread-like dough. On a floured board, roll out to a thickness of 1.5cm and cut into rounds with a 6cm cutter. Place on the prepared trays and bake for 15–20 minutes until lightly golden and well risen. Remove from the oven and lift on to a wire rack to cool.
