What about you? Do you observe the hallowed custom of elevenses? And if you do, tell us how you do it.

Elevenses, like afternoon tea, is a little detour in the day, a break from toil. The word, or something similar to it, appears in the OED as a bit of Suffolk dialect from 1849.Even today, though he is nearly 80 and lives an ascetic lifestyle on a meditation retreat near Oxford, he still loves stuffing his face with biscuits at 11, or, more likely, ten to. Workers who are happy and not distracted by hunger are more efficient. If you feel like your whole office might benefit from this ritual, let your human resource officer know about it. I do, but all I know how to do on it is Zoom. I have no idea how to use Excel, I don't know how to copy and paste anything. That's what I've got an assistant for. How do you watch Queer Eye and Next in Fashion? You know France from his work as a style savant on Queer Eye and competition show Next in Fashion. Now, in partnership with yogurt brand Noosa, he's working to bring the term from his native Britain into vogue.

As British food traditions go, elevenses are a relatively new one. The mid-morning tea break became popular during the rise of the industrial revolution. For the first time, Britain had a labor force working long, set hours in mills and factories. You're not having a biscuit for Elevenses, you're having a biscuit for Tea. But I don't mean tea. I mean, when we say, "What are you having for Tea?" we mean that time between lunch and dinner. I know it's insane. But at Tea time, we will have tea and biscuits that we dunk into tea. Sir: My father – born 1909 and an original idler – always insisted on these breaks, featuring tea and dunkable biscuits. I carry on this tradition, though it’s a morning coffee in my case.

The concept of elevenses has even made its way into literature. In the Middle Earth novels by J.R.R. Tolkien, elevenses are one of the seven daily meals of the hobbits, served between second breakfast and luncheon. Unlike Western Europe and North America, many countries in Central and Eastern Europe have a second breakfast as part of the daily eating schedule. Countries that observe a second breakfast include: Unlike brunch, they are not a full meal, rather a little something to keep you going until lunchtime. In school, our morning break occurred at 9:50 a.m. We had ten minutes to grab a soda, chips, or a candy bar from the vending machine. This added energy boost helped us make it through the day.

Many people have heard of the British tradition of afternoon or high tea. This is an afternoon break with tea, sandwiches, and scones to help with hunger before a late dinner. Elevenses are a similar tradition, except that they happen in the late morning. Sir: It’s funny you bring this up as I was thinking the other day about “elevenses” being a word I don’t really use any more. I certainly partook of elevenses as a child. Here are my theories on elevenses disappearance factors: I can't imagine why somebody would mention Elevenses in England because we just know Elevenses. If you ask a Brit, "Do you know elevenses?" it's like asking an American what the Super Bowl is. There was once an advert or, sorry, a commercial for this bar — it was a candy bar — but it was this "health" bar that they called Elevenses. They were just using the term that everyone knows.

Let’s make it a mission to bring elevenses to workplaces across the country. Everyone deserves the chance to step away from his or her desk for a hot beverage and pastry. That's it. My grandfather was a Brit like you and would use one single cup all day for multiple rounds of tea. In the beginning, tea was an exclusive beverage. As it was imported from China and India, it was expensive and generally only consumed by the wealthy upper classes. The lower classes mainly drank ale and gin in taverns.

Azuza - I've heard of a similar theory regarding eating several smaller meals throughout the day in place of three large ones. While some people may follow that to the letter, it's still important to watch the types of foods that are consumed. Several small meals of useless carbs and junk aren't much healthier.The entry also mentions “fours”: “RAYNBIRD Agric. Suffolk vi. 296 The name ‘fourzes’ and ‘elevens’, given to these short periods of rest and refreshment, show when taken.” Welcome to Small Talk, a series where we catch up with the internet's favorite Extremely Online individuals offline.