Image by Melk Hagelslag from Pixabay
Tea
my cup of tea: something one likes or excels. “I see already that storytelling isn’t my cup of tea.”
a storm in a tea cup: a small event that has been exaggerated out of proportion.
tempest in a teapot: same meaning as above.
tea party: 1. a social gathering in the afternoon at which tea, cakes, and other light refreshments are served. 2. a US political movement that emerged from a series of conservative protests against the federal government in 2009.
afternoon tea: Afternoon Tea is a tea-related ritual, introduced in Britain in the early 1840s. It evolved as a mini meal to stem the hunger and anticipation of an evening meal at 8pm.
tea and toast syndrome: The ‘tea and toast syndrome’ refers to malnutrition in seniors due to their lack of desire or inability to prepare and/or eat proper meals, relying instead on simple fare such as tea and toast.
tea ceremony: an elaborate Japanese ritual of serving and drinking tea, as an expression of Zen Buddhist philosophy.
read the tea leaves: to look at the tea leaves in the bottom of a cup for a sign of what will happen in the future.
coffee
wake up and smell the coffee: (informal•North American) become aware of the realities of a situation, however unpleasant.
coffee talk: Informal conversation among friends or acquaintances, of the kind that occurs in a casual gathering where people sit together and drink coffee.
coffee table book: a large, expensive, lavishly illustrated book, especially one intended only for casual reading. When I first encountered coffee table books, I didn’t know what they mean. I was quite serious at reading them and to my surprise, they were not as interesting as I thought despite the beautiful pictures.
cake
piece of cake: something easily done
You can’t have your cake and eat it: You cannot simultaneously retain your cake and eat it
tea cake or coffee cake: It’s said that a tea cake doesn’t have tea in it and a coffee cake doesn’t have coffee in it. They are just regular cakes, I guess.
cakewalk: (informal) an absurdly or surprisingly easy task.
nutty as a fruitcake: mad or crazy
sell like hot cake: something that sells very quickly.
cakes and ale: Simple material pleasures; fun or lively enjoyment in general. The phrase first appeared in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night
the frosting (icing, cherry) on the cake: something that makes an already good situation even better.
Haoyan Do 
Japanese tea ceremony is famous, but Chinese and Korean ceremonies are just as beautiful.
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That’s true. Each culture and even each person has a tea “ceremony”. LOL. Let’s celebrate life with tea.
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Oh, I love this, especially storm in a teacup!
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Hahaha, me too. I’ve seen storms in many tiny teacups and how they influenced our life.
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Great post! I love, love, love tea time … always a must when I’m in England. Those lovely scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam, those little cakes and sandwiches … can’t wait to go back … giving me the idea to prepare high tea for myself at home one of these weekends … coffee and cake? Preferably “Häferlkaffee” (coffee with lots of milk) and Austrian cakes, of course 😉
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Wow, you make my mouth watering. Yes, go back there and post some photos of your high tea. I am wondering what the difference is between cakes in England and cakes in Austria, but it makes me hungry.
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Next year I’ll be back in England, one Austrian cake pic should be in my Vienna post 😉
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My mouth is watering right now just reading this. Love your post about your daily life and the differences between Germans and Austrians. They are very funny.
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In Victorian times, they had morphine tea parties
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I’ve always thought people during the Victorian times are not as docile and proper as we tend to think of them. Now morphine might be the reason –it can keep people in line.
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Well, drugs that are illegal today were readily available in Victorian times
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I heard about one or two being used, which seems to be very strong sedatives by today’s standard.
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Made me think of the book “Coffee, Tea or Me?”
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Hmmm. That piques my interest. Is it a good book?
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It was a a popular book from about 50 years ago allegedly written by a couple of flight attendants about bizarre and racy incidents in their line of work. In reality it was ghost written by a professional writer. The title became a catch phrase for awhile.
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I googled it and it is said to be an uninhibited memoir of two airline stewardesses. It seems to imply that tea and coffee cause the uninhibited behavior. Hmmmm, I am wondering…
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I’m hungry now. I love cake. And tea. And coffee.
Good ones.
Let’s have ‘high tea’ some time. 🙂
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I’ve never head high tea before, but google tells me that it is a phrase to use. How wonderful. That’s a great additon.
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LOL. That’s a great addition to the list of cake phrases. Thank you very much.
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Very interesting list. The coffee table book reminded me of an episode of Seinfeld where Kramer published a coffee table book that was a coffee table.
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That’s so true. I vaguely remember that episode for which Kramer get on the morning show to talk about his “invention”. Seinfeld is so fun and I’ve always wanted to re-watch it again.
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You should- it’s even better when you re-watch it because you get all the stuff you missed before.
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Hahaha. That’s so true. Some of the episodes are so good….
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I’d never heard of “tea and toast syndrome”. That’s quite sad. 😢
Great list, as always! 🙂
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