Tea drinking and afternoon tea

[catherine at cator-manor.demon.co.uk]

No: HPFGUIDX 21966

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., bbennett at j... wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Ebony AKA AngieJ" <ebonyink at h...> wrote:
> > 2)  Why does no one have tea in the books?  Heidi has a 
fascinating 
> > theory about this that I buy (she was a history major once upon a 
> > time), but why no tea in the wizarding world, yet house-elves 
wear 
> > tea-cozies and tea-towels?  This tea thing is really so much a 
part 
> > of the culture here that I immediately wondered about its absence 
> in the books.  Unless I am forgetting something...
> 
> I've missed Heidi's theory - could someone point me in that 
> direction? As for tea, I just assumed they have it but don't 
mention 
> it. Or maybe Harry just doesn't care for it, and since it's from 
his 
> POV...
> 
> Oh, well, when you're having your scone and clotted cream, Angie, 
> please think of me.


Are you talking about afternoon tea, or tea, the drink?  If you are 
asking why no one drinks tea - they do!  There are absolutely loads 
of examples.  They drink tea with Hagrid (Hermione is making some 
when she breaks the milk jug and finds Scabbers).  Ron offers to make 
tea when Hagrid is upset, and says that is what his mother always 
does in such circumstances.  Professor Dumbledore refers to tea - he 
conjures some up when he is telling Hagrid to come back to work when 
Rita Skeeter has revealed he is a half-giant.  In PoA when Buckbeak 
is seen to escape, Dumbledore asks Hagrid to make him a cup of tea 
(or brandy if he has it).  Hagrid makes tea when he fetches Harry 
from the hut on the island where the Dursleys have taken him.  
When Harry misses out on the first visit to Hogsmeade, he has a cup 
of tea in Lupin's office.  When they are at the Quidditch World Cup, 
they make tea, because Ludo Bagman has a cup and Percy offers a cup 
to Barty Crouch, who doesn't drink it....

These are the ones I can remember off the top of my head - I am sure 
there are more.  Perhaps in the American edition they drink coffee?

As to tea - afternoon tea.  Well, it isn't that common anymore.  Some 
people in the UK refer to their meals as dinner and tea.  What is 
more normal (I think - it's what I say anyway, and so does JKR) is 
lunch and dinner, with afternoon tea in between if there is 
time/inclination.  Perhaps one of the reasons they don't have 
afternoon tea in the books is because most of the time it is term 
time and they don't have the time for the extra meal.  One exception 
is Christmas day - they have Christmas dinner at lunchtime, because 
it is the main meal of the day, then later on, instead of dinner, 
they have a kind of "high tea" which is a more substantial version of 
afternoon tea.  This turns everything around - dinner is dinner when 
it is the most substantial meal of the day - hence them calling their 
evening meal on Christmas day tea, because it is much lighter.

If you managed to get to the end of that without getting confused, 
congratulations!

Hope it helps, Eb.

Catherine (maybe we could compare editions for tea references on 
Sunday ?!)