Secrets of recreating a five-star festive afternoon tea at home

We consult the pros on how to tablescape and source all the ingredients for the perfect afternoon tea over Christmas

Rasa Alisauskaite, assistant food and beverage manager of The Gallery at Adare Manor, with a tiered cake stand, the essential centrepiece for the afternoon tea table. Picture: Paul Lehane

Afternoon tea is a 200-year-old ritual indulged in by lovers of a porcelain cup with tea streaming from a china pot, and dainty treats, sweet and savoury, that we have Anna, Duchess of Bedford to thank for.

Back in the thick of the Victorian era when lunch, as we know it today, didn’t exist, poor Anna complained of a sinking feeling mid-afternoon which she remedied with tea and a bite, later inviting friends round to join her.