Handpicked experience · Bali
Bali, Indonesia
A ritual invented in the 1840s because dinner had drifted too late, served on a terrace among rice fields in a country whose own everyday drink is coffee poured straight onto grounds.
Find true solace as you spend an afternoon indulging in premium savories at the Chedi Club.
Indulge in the sumptuous and sweet 3 tiered afternoon tea items served by the restaurant.
Marvel at the relaxing view of the breathtaking rice paddies on your premium comfortable seats.
A custom with a traceable origin and a specific reason for existing
The distinction between two things usually confused
A terrace among working rice fields rather than a hotel lobby
Food prepared in advance to a set service window
A small property rather than a large hotel operation
Close enough to town to reach without a day's planning
An afternoon tea booking at The Chedi Club in Ubud, taken on the terrace of a small hotel set among rice terraces a short drive from the town centre.
The custom is younger and more specific than it looks. It comes from the 1840s, when the fashionable dinner hour in England had drifted later and later, leaving an unbearable gap after a light midday meal.
A duchess began asking for tea and something small to be brought to her room in the late afternoon, then started inviting friends, and within a decade the private habit had become a social occasion with its own dress, furniture and etiquette. Everything on the stand in front of you exists because somebody was hungry at five o'clock and well connected enough to make that everyone else's problem.
The two get used interchangeably and mean almost opposite things.
Afternoon tea is the light, elaborate one: small sandwiches, scones, pastries, taken sitting in a low chair at a low table, which is where the alternative name low tea comes from. High tea was a working meal eaten at a dining table — a high table — early in the evening, and it involved meat, pie and bread rather than cake.
So a hotel advertising high tea is usually advertising afternoon tea and reaching for the grander-sounding word. Knowing which is which is quietly satisfying and takes nothing away from the cake.
Indonesia grows and drinks a great deal of both, but the everyday hot drink here is coffee, prepared by pouring hot water straight onto grounds in a glass and letting them settle, which is why a local cup is finished before you reach the bottom.
Tea served in this style, in porcelain with a stand of small food, is an imported ritual performed carefully. That is not a criticism. It is worth noticing that it is a performance of somebody else's tradition, in a place with a robust one of its own.
Book ahead. Service runs to a set window in the afternoon rather than all day, and a small hotel does not have unlimited covers.
The setting is open-sided and the surrounding fields are working ones, which means insects towards dusk and the possibility of rain arriving with very little notice.
Dietary requirements are much easier to accommodate with notice than on arrival, because most of what appears on the stand is made in advance.
Dress is relaxed but not beachwear; this is a hotel restaurant rather than a café.
Open it to pick a date and work out the price.
What the fare covers, and what to budget for separately.
The practical detail, and the answers people actually ask for.
Nineteenth-century England, at a moment when the evening meal had been pushed so late that the afternoon became unmanageable without something in between.
An aristocrat with the standing to make a private indulgence into a social form, once she began inviting others to join her.
No, almost the opposite. This is the light, elaborate version eaten in low chairs, which is why it is also called low tea.
A working evening meal eaten at a dining table, with meat, pie and bread rather than cake.
Because it sounds grander. Most places advertising it are serving afternoon tea.
Coffee is. It is served unfiltered in a glass, so the last mouthful is always sediment and nobody drinks it.
Only as something to notice: a carefully performed version of somebody else's tradition, in a place with a strong one of its own.
Yes. Service runs to a set afternoon window and a small hotel has limited seating.