“Oh dear,” said the seventh Duchess of Bedford one day in 1840. “I have that sinking feeling again. It must be four o’clock!”

The seventh Duchess of Bedford was a woman named Anna Russell. She lived at the same time as Queen Victoria, who was her good friend. The duchess used to say she had a “sinking feeling” whenever she got hungry. It was fashionable to eat a late dinner in Victorian England. At four o’clock, lunch had been a long time ago and the duchess’s next meal was far away. So the duchess asked for a tray of tea, bread, butter, and cake. That must have hit the spot, because the duchess asked for the tray again. Soon, afternoon tea became a habit. She invited her friends to join her. By the 1880’s, wealthy women all over England joined in the afternoon tea craze. They dressed in long gowns, gloves, and hats just to go to the drawing room for tea! This elegant tea culture is what many Chinese people have come to love.

The British tea-drinking tradition is still going strong. These days, the average British person drinks three and a half cups of tea per day. Around 70 million cups of tea are made in Britain daily—and that’s just before 11 a.m.!