# Mighty Is Rich: Is there such a thing as a teashop (restaurant) in England? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 25, 2010, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mighty-is-rich-is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-teashop-restaurant-in-england/530367 "2010-02-25T05:46:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Fake\_Tales\_of\_San\_Francisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8491ac/32.png) [@Fake\_Tales\_of\_San\_Francisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fake_Tales_of_San_Francisco)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mighty-is-rich-is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-teashop-restaurant-in-england/530367/41 "2010-02-26T02:38:23Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Moreover, the cup you are given is very apt to be paper, unless you are at a sit-down restaurant, and IMO the subtle flavors of good tea don’t stand up well to that. :eek: You drink tea from paper cups? That’s positively barbaric. And here I thought a coffee shop was dodgy if they served it in a stainless steel teapot. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mighty-is-rich-is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-teashop-restaurant-in-england/530367/42 "2010-02-26T03:31:34Z")
> [@](#): > > You can order tea just about anywhere in the U.S., but what you’ll get is a cup, full of hot water and a teabag on the side. What’s more, the teabag will be Lipton’s at best, in most places. Which makes worrying about the “subtle flavors” kind of moot. And if you’re _really_ unlucky, you’ll get something like United Food Services, which I’m convinced is made up not only of sweepings, but of oak leaf sweepings. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mighty-is-rich-is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-teashop-restaurant-in-england/530367/43 "2010-02-26T03:42:36Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > What’s more, the teabag will be Lipton’s at best, in most places. Which makes worrying about the “subtle flavors” kind of moot. And if you’re _really_ unlucky, you’ll get something like United Food Services, which I’m convinced is made up not only of sweepings, but of oak leaf sweepings. While i love a cup of high quality tea, i can live with Liptons. But the practice of placing a tea-bag alongside a cup of (often merely luke-warm) water is an abomination. As for drinking tea from paper cups: it’s less that ideal, but sometimes i want a cup of tea to go, and the china cup just won’t stay on the saucer while i’m driving. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mighty-is-rich-is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-teashop-restaurant-in-england/530367/44 "2010-02-26T09:14:47Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > I tried that and it didn’t make any more sense. I know what the words mean, but it doesn’t make sense (to me) to call tea “rich”. _Riche_ doesn’t always mean _rich_. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mighty-is-rich-is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-teashop-restaurant-in-england/530367/45 "2010-02-26T15:56:12Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > While i love a cup of high quality tea, i can live with Liptons. But the practice of placing a tea-bag alongside a cup of (often merely luke-warm) water is an abomination. > > As for drinking tea from paper cups: it’s less that ideal, but sometimes i want a cup of tea to go, and the china cup just won’t stay on the saucer while i’m driving. No matter what the quality of the tea was at the time it was purchased by the restaurant, be assured that it’s been sitting on a shelf in the back of the pantry since the place opened. Never order tea in a US restaurant that has been open more than two years. LOL! ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mighty-is-rich-is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-teashop-restaurant-in-england/530367/46 "2010-02-26T18:37:53Z")
> [@Fake\_Tales\_of\_San\_Francisco](#): > > :eek: > > You drink tea from paper cups? That’s positively barbaric. And here I thought a coffee shop was dodgy if they served it in a stainless steel teapot. Well I don’t; that’s why we only drink hot tea at home. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mighty-is-rich-is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-teashop-restaurant-in-england/530367/47 "2010-02-26T20:19:38Z")
‘High tea’ as a phrase is very old-fashioned. I don’t think I’ve heard anyone refer to it since one occasion in the 1970s and even then I’d never heard of it before. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mighty-is-rich-is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-teashop-restaurant-in-england/530367/48 "2010-02-26T20:30:11Z")
> [@runcible\_spoon](#): > > As an aside, my work schedule has caused me to start eating four meals a day, which I call breakfast, lunch, supper (around 4:30) and dinner (8:00 or 9:00). I’m American, though, so the only tea I have is with breakfast. What, no second breakfast? Horrors! ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mighty-is-rich-is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-teashop-restaurant-in-england/530367/49 "2010-02-26T20:54:47Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Capt. Ridley’s Shooting Party, the interesting thing is that I grew up on a farm (in northwest Ohio) and learned to say “breakfast - dinner - supper” for the three meals. From college on, though, I heard other people saying “breakfast - lunch - dinner” for the three meals and eventually changed over to saying that. What I was told as a young child when I questioned what “dinner” meant in such contexts, was that dinner was the main meal of the day, the one on which the person(s) cooking would devote the most effort. It could be in early afternoon, as in “The parson is coming after church for Sunday dinner” or in the evening. An evening dinner was preceded at noon by “lunch”, which if a full cooked meal was “luncheon”; an early dinner was followed by an evening “supper”. Others’ usage may vary, of course, but that’s Upstate New York 1950s usage. ---
**Author:** ![runcible\_spoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc29f/32.png) [@runcible\_spoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/runcible_spoon)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mighty-is-rich-is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-teashop-restaurant-in-england/530367/50 "2010-02-26T21:34:48Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > What, no second breakfast? Horrors! Only on weekends. I do sometimes sneak in a muffin for elevenses, though. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mighty-is-rich-is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-teashop-restaurant-in-england/530367/51 "2010-02-26T21:47:53Z")
I’ve always understood “dinner” to mean the main meal of the day regardless of time, as well. Most of the regional variation I’ve seen has just been in which meal the main meal is, not what that meal is called. That is, in the places (mostly rural) where the noon meal is usually the biggest, they refer to breakfast-dinner-supper, and in the places where the evening meal is biggest, it’s breakfast-lunch-dinner. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mighty-is-rich-is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-teashop-restaurant-in-england/530367/52 "2010-02-26T22:29:41Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > I’ve read the book and I’m sure the “My Tea Is Rich” name was explained as a pun on “My Tailor Is Rich”, which is said to be a stock phrase in English textbooks at French schools. There’s a bit in one of the Asterix books, where Asterix asks his English cousin how much his tweed suit cost. The reply was “My taylor is rich.” I always thought that was a strange line but now I finally understand it. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mighty-is-rich-is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-teashop-restaurant-in-england/530367/53 "2010-02-26T22:55:24Z")
> [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](#): > > It’s more a regional thing now than a class one. In Northern England and parts of Scotland “tea” is the evening meal and “dinner” is what you eat at midday. In the rest of the country the two meals are called “dinner” and “lunch”. Nobody calls it “high tea”, just “tea”. Actually, plenty of people do. I’m one. So is [Terry Pratchett](http://www.lspace.org/books/apf/wyrd-sisters.html) \* - [p. 25/25] “‘How many times have you thrown a magic ring into the deepest depths of the ocean and then, when you get home and have a nice bit of turbot for your tea, there it is?’” Nanny’s ring story is a well-known folk tale that goes back as least as far as Herodotus, but has also been used by e.g. Tolkien and Jack Vance. More interesting is that at least one non-Brit over on alt.fan.pratchett had some trouble making sense of the implied connection between the concepts of ‘turbot’ and ‘tea’. What he did not realise was that ‘tea’ is the term the British tend to use for any meal taken between 4.30 and 7 pm, which may therefore include a nice, juicy turbot. \* ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mighty-is-rich-is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-teashop-restaurant-in-england/530367/54 "2010-02-27T11:09:50Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Actually, plenty of people do. I’m one. > > So is [Terry Pratchett](http://www.lspace.org/books/apf/wyrd-sisters.html) But that quote calls it “tea”, not “high tea”, which is exactly what **C R’s S P** said. I grew up (and still live) in Hampshire, southern England, and we always called our evening meal “tea”. You’d be out playing football in the street and your mum would call you in for tea. For some reason I call it dinner now, though. I think it’s the influence of what everyone else called it when I moved away to university and lived in London for a time. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mighty-is-rich-is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-teashop-restaurant-in-england/530367/55 "2010-02-27T11:17:32Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > But that quote calls it “tea”, not “high tea”, which is exactly what **C R’s S P** said. D’oh. Posting while tired, I misread what **C R’s S P** said as _Nobody calls “high tea”, just “tea”._ I missed the “it.” ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mighty-is-rich-is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-teashop-restaurant-in-england/530367/56 "2010-02-27T15:17:19Z")
Although I grew up saying “breakfast-dinner-supper,” dinner was not the main meal. Supper was. I lived on a farm, but that wasn’t our main income. My grandfather could make a living off our farm. My father couldn’t. My father worked at a factory from early morning to mid-afternoon. Sometimes he would then do work on our farm late in the afternoon. Sometimes he work at it on the weekends. Sometimes he would work on it on vacations from the factory. In any case, when I grew up, supper was the main meal. I don’t know, but it’s possible that when my father was growing up, dinner (i.e., at noontime) was the main meal. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mighty-is-rich-is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-teashop-restaurant-in-england/530367/57 "2010-02-27T16:44:54Z")
I interchangeably refer to my evening meal as dinner or tea, and often in the same sentence. I think it comes from the culture clash of having working class parents and going to a ‘posh’ private school. Or maybe it’s being brought up in Birmingham but living in London. Either way, I’d never call it supper, because that would make me sound like a nob. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mighty-is-rich-is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-teashop-restaurant-in-england/530367.md?page=2)