The phrase "a high tea" is correct and usable in written English.
It is typically used to refer to a meal or gathering that includes tea and a variety of food, often served in the late afternoon or early evening.
Example: "We enjoyed a lovely high tea at the hotel, complete with scones, sandwiches, and pastries."
Alternatives: "an afternoon tea" or "a tea gathering".
A high tea served by reservation four days a week in the park's Westbrook manor house was a particular pleasure, she said.
She still hosts soirees to benefit the Lost Nation Theater — though someone else handles the punchbowl — and she arranges a high tea each March that supports a college art gallery.
Even a totally gross, quite scary salmonella outbreak linked to a high tea served at Melbourne's the Langham, which sent 44 women to hospital, has not been enough to turn people off.
Convivial meals are taken house-party style, with younger ones given a high tea and then whisked away for DVDs and popcorn, leaving grown-ups to play at being lords and ladies for the night.
So at a recent luncheon meeting of the Westminster Abbey chapter, Ms. Summer discussed plans for a high tea April 17 at her home in honor of the marriage of Prince Charles to Camilla Parker Bowles.
The festival also presents a High Tea event to enjoy along with the screening of the documentary When the Queen Came to Town, which recalls the Queen's 1954 visit to post-war Australia.
Muted and mindful, the film is a high-tea version of "Imitation of Life," in which the woman who desperately wants to pass is driven mad by her desire to be a grand white lady.
The food ranges from small snacks ($1.75 to $4.95) to a Russian high tea service from a samovar ($11 including such treats as tea toasts with caviar) to entire meals (tea, appetizer, main dish and dessert are around $20 a person).
What can be said about them is that they own London's Ritz Hotel, still the great place to have an English high tea; Littlewoods, a $1.3 billion a year retailer; and Monte Carlo's Hotel Mirabeau.
The festivities include a Victorian lamplight house tour, a Victorian high tea, concerts and carriage rides.
We've done a replica of an English high tea, for example.
