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Steeped in Tradition -- Tea at The London Ritz
Rate it! Votes (2) | Comments (0) By Kathy Bryant Photos: The Fine Folks at The Ritz Posted August 6th, 2007 FabulousFoods.com Recommends: The Fearless Diner: Travel Tips and Wisdom for Eating Around the World, by Richard Sterling, (1998, Travelers' Tales Guides)	The Fearless Diner: Travel Tips and Wisdom for Eating Around the World

When I picked up my bone china cup decorated with blue forget-me-nots and sipped Darjeeling tea at the Ritz in London, I was following a long tradition of tea drinking. It's a tradition so old that the British are actually come-latelies to it.

As with most things, it seems, the Chinese were the first tea drinkers, beginning about 4,000 years ago. Called T'se (pronounced tay) in some areas and Ch'a (pronounced chah) in others, the Chinese exported it to Java and then Dutch traders took it to Europe and North America.

While in Europe, tay became "tea." Chah became the term for the tealeaves, compressed with oxblood into bricks that were transported via the caravan routes to Russia, India and Persia.

It was the Japanese who refined tea ceremonies, dating back 400 years, while the American tradition began about 1650 in New Amsterdam. Drinking tea was quite the thing to do in America, even though tea was scarce and expensive ($30 to $50 a pound).

Meanwhile, the first record of a tea table being made was in 1705, and teacups were not made in quantities until the middle of the 18th century.

Tea at the Ritz
So the Ritz, which opened in 1906, is new by Chinese standards, but its tea room, the Palm Court, has a history and legend all its own. It is perhaps here that the ritual of tea drinking in the English manner seems the most "civilized."

The Palm Court, a long, narrow room adjacent to the hotel's main corridor, combines the English Edwardian charm with the elegance of the French Louis XVI architecture and design. Sitting near the sculptured fountain in Echaillon marble and gilt figures and ornaments, I was transported to the turn of the century. It wasn't hard to imagine the people in their finery eating here (thanks to Masterpiece Theater and the like) and for a few minutes I could be Lady Someone or Other in from her elaborate country estate. Luckily for me, the wrought-iron-supported glass roof allows sunlight to stream in on the pastel furnishings and tea drinkers, giving us a soft, air-brushed look that's quite flattering.

Lady Diana Cooper remembers the Ritz as the first hotel where young women were allowed to go alone to tea. Romantic novelist Barbara Cartland has described tea the the Ritz in the years after World War I as, "A useful institution for the 'also-ran' men: one could meet men, without chaperones, for lunch and tea. So you had lunch with men you were keen on, and tea with the rest."

The Palm Court just misses being stuffy because the service is so friendly and attentive, but it's definitely a best-manners, dress-up place. As a bonus, there's an endless parade of people to watch as they hurry into the restaurant, or just stare at the hotel. You might even spot a celebrity or two.

With all this grandeur available, the seven varieties of teas offered, from traditional English to Ceylon Orange Pekoe, are almost anticlimaxes. But I was there to eat, so following my personal philosophy that food eaten out of town never turns to fat, I tasted everything: finger sandwiches, freshly baked scones with jam and clotted cream (my favorite) and delicate pastries that would've made Marie Antoinette swoon.

It's a good idea to book ahead, although they are trying to get rid of what used to be a three-month wait. tables can be reserved at 3:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. But you can arrive as early as 2 p.m. It's just that the people watching probably won't be as good then. And, after all, this historic spot for cafe society wouldn't be the same without society to watch.

Kathy Bryant, a free-lance writer based in Huntington Beach, California, writes regularly for the "Los Angeles Times," "Art and Antiques" magazine and London's "Interior" magazine, among others. She specializes in stories with a design or a food twist.

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