By participating in afternoon tea -- by making it, making time for it and enjoying it -- you’re participating in a very old tradition that is uniquely British, and it makes you feel like you’re a part of the British culture. Even when people disagree with each other about everything in politics or life, they know that they are bound together by a simple tradition of tea time and the rituals that come with it.
Pub life is definitely connected to the environment of London and the important role that public shared spaces play in a big city. Even when most people in the city don’t know each other, they can make friends or experience the character of a neighborhood by walking into the pub. Some pubs are even very old and connect not just neighbors, but generations of Londoners together. It is crazy to think that someone’s grandfather and father might have come to the pub they go to, and that they might bring their own child there some day.
Afternoon tea isn’t that connected to the environment of London, but it is connected to the history of the United Kingdom as a massive empire that had trade routes all over the world and the ability to bring in tea from India and China, even when there weren’t direct flights going to these countries every day. That history made it possible for the U.K. to grow and to become far more powerful than many other island nations. It’s also no surprise that tea has become very popular here over the centuries since it is delicious!
