Although afternoon tea was a cornerstone of sociability in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods, there is little information about its lived experience. Most discussions of tea in scholarly literature are based on information contained in advice books. Drawing especially from the reporting found in Saturday Night magazine, this article provides a more realistic understanding of how the rite was conducted in Toronto. Further, it argues that as a device intended to promote circulation in the modern city, tea was linked fundamentally to an emerging liberal order. As problems associated with tea became more pronounced with the growth of the city, the location of tea began to shift from domestic to commercial settings, and the scale of gatherings began to be much more intimate. While the lure of commercial culture undoubtedly pulled women downtown, they were also pushed there by the mounting inconvenience of a primary social ritual.
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