"Tea" often conjures a very casual side of life from sipping while reading or chatting with friends or guests. However, Chef Uber tells us the snobbery pomp but the perfect and refined side of tea.
Table Setting
It is mandatory to have a table cloth! Usually it is hand embroidered, laced or starched white. The table cloth should flow down to the ground. The table cloth creates the ambience and perfectly emulates the British snobbery. It also makes the difference between a café and an elegant tea setting.
The serving accessories should be elegant and delicate; (preferably silverware) they should be perfectly in line with the symmetrical seating. The tea cups should be always positioned at the right side of the plate and the teacup handle should be pointed right (handle out).
Having a centerpiece is always welcome but should never obstruct the view of the guest sitting opposite to you. A little arrangement of fresh flowers can be just ideal. Make sure the flowers are light fragranced and would not obstruct the smell of the food and tea. Having a similar color scheme to all accessories is worthwhile.
Chef Uber tells us that the rule when it comes to the food is that it should be not more than two bites and preferably one bite. The whole point here is elegance and one should not be stuffing food into the mouth! It should be held by only three fingers and generally the food should not be messy to eat. Make sure that chicken bones or prawn tails do not contain in the food as it is not easy to eat elegantly.
According to Chef Uber the high tea should be served first with finger sandwiches, and then the hot and cold savories followed with the scorns with clotted cream and finally cookies and biscuits.
Each item should be served with a nice accompanying tea (see the recommendations of bojoon.com as below)
Serving
Chef Uber further specifies on how the tea pot should be held in order to ensure that each tea cup is equally brewed to ensure the last poured tea cup is not brewed stronger than the first poured cup. Chef Uber explains number of ways one could do this:
Hold the teapot in one angle so as not to perturb the tealeaves for when the tealeaves are resting it does not brew as much. Thus, avoid changing the angle between pouring and moving on to the next cup.
It is advisable to use a tea strainer to prevent the tea leaves from poring into the cup.
Keep all the cups in a tray and pour. This prevents the time lag between taking the teapot from one setting to another.
Pour the tea into a warmed decanter, straining out the tealeaves and use this decanter to pour out into the cups.
Chef Uber points out the simple cup of tea have many different cultural connotations. Sri Lankans for instead loves their tea with lot of milk and sugar and the Sri Lankan yard-tea (known as yara tae) is a signature of its own. For the true tea connoisseur, murdering the tea with milk and sugar would surely be close to blasphemy laughs Chef Uber, but it is worth trying it in different stages. For a start try out the plain tea, then allow a little milk and then some sugar and enjoy a tea Sri Lankan style. Ginger tea and spiced tea are also Sri Lankan's specialties.
Finally, Chef Uber urges to explore the many different flavors of tea in Sri Lanka. With over 4% of the land devoted to tea - from the tip of the misty mountains to sun-baked golden beaches - there is a cup for every food and mood!
