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Palace Scores With English Tea Ritual

One of England's most sacred social customs--pukka traditional Afternoon Tea--can now be enjoyed at Beijing's 5-star The Palace Hotel. Introduction of the ritual, a "first" for the hotel as well as city, has been beloved of the English upper classes and moneyed since the 1830s, when Anna, Duchess of Bedford, began serving friends with tea from a silver teapot into cups of the finest oriental porcelain.

Guests were also given dainty snacks such as small cakes, crustless finger sandwiches and sweets. The duchess started the custom to compensate for what she called "that sinking feeling at that time of day", pangs of hunger due to the many hours between the traditional early lunches and late dinners of the time. Her innovation quickly caught on among other grand hostesses, and continues today, though often in less formal settings such as England's High Street teashops.

Fast-forward more than 170 years, and guests of and visitors to Beijing's The Palace Hotel are finding virtually the self-same English Afternoon Tea in the Lobby. It is natural for the hotel to bring the custom to Beijing because guests at its sister hotels in the famed international Peninsula Group have long enjoyed Afternoon Tea, a highlight of which is warm buttery scones with lashings of strawberry jam and Devonshire clotted cream.

While English-style Afternoon Tea can perhaps be described as informal with ceremonial characteristics, it bears no resemblance to the formal Chinese Tea Ceremony. Explained The Palace's PR director, Cecilia Lui: "In the beginning, and apart from people having a bite to eat a few hours before dinner, Afternoon Tea was mainly a time to gossip and for hostesses to show off their prettiest teapots and chinaware.

"They also vied with each other to produce the most refined sweetmeats and elegant table settings. At The Palace we have extended this tradition by serving tea in the finest china cups, and tables are dressed in crisp white linen." All this is against the Lobby's backdrop of top boutiques which include Cartier, Dior, Hermes, Piaget, Prada and Tiffany--hardly the Duchess of Bedford's Belvoir Castle dining room, but luxurious for all that.

The Afternoon Tea also includes finger sandwiches of chicken, smoked salmon, egg and cucumber on brown and white breads; biscuits and savories such as warm Stilton and leek tart or scrambled eggs; and pastries and other goodies. Priced at RMB110+15 percent per person, Afternoon Tea is served from 2pm-6pm daily. Classical music is played during the final hour.