Discovering the Heritage of St. Regis Through a Cup of Tea: Afternoon Tea
- 7분 전
- 5분 분량
An afternoon tea tradition born in New York society in 1904 has travelled across more than 120 years to become a little tea party for children in Bali—a charming way for the heritage of St. Regis to be passed on to the next generation.
St. Regis is a brand shaped by rituals—traditions repeated day after day, and carried forward over generations. Champagne sabrage to mark the beginning of the evening, the Bloody Mary reinterpreted to reflect the character of each destination, the Midnight Supper, and Afternoon Tea: these rituals, still practised at St. Regis hotels around the world today, offer guests a glimpse into the distinctive lifestyle and culture of social gathering that have long defined the brand.
To understand where this all began, we have to go back to New York in 1904. That year, John Jacob Astor IV, son of Caroline Astor, opened The St. Regis New York. At the time, the hotel represented an entirely new expression of luxury, combining cutting-edge technology with the splendour of New York society. It offered innovations remarkable for the era—including a private telephone in every guestroom—while bringing the culture, customs and standards of service associated with New York’s upper society into the world of hospitality. To this day, St. Regis continues to interpret this legacy of 1904 as an essential part of its brand identity.
But look back one generation further, to Caroline Astor herself, and the origins of this heritage become even clearer. One of the defining social figures of New York’s Gilded Age in the late 19th century, Caroline Astor gathered leading figures of her time—from artists and politicians to prominent businessmen—at her celebrated social occasions, and her name became virtually synonymous with New York high society. The exclusive circle she admitted into her social world became known as “The 400,” and through occasions ranging from intimate gatherings over tea to midnight suppers and grand galas, she helped shape the rituals and conventions of New York society. It is within this history that St. Regis today traces such signature traditions as Afternoon Tea and the Midnight Supper.
Afternoon Tea remains an important ritual at St. Regis hotels around the world, although each property reinterprets it through the culture and character of its own destination. The form may change, but the essence remains the same: creating a leisurely moment in the afternoon when people can sit together, with tea and food as a medium for conversation and connection. Rather than simply reproducing the conventions of a traditional English afternoon tea, St. Regis carries forward a way of life rooted in the social culture of New York’s Astor family—a time to gather, to converse, and to share the same place and moment together.
The same is true at The St. Regis Bali Resort, which opened in 2008 and is now approaching its twentieth anniversary. Today, St. Regis places experiences for travelling families—and especially its youngest guests—at the heart of the brand through its global “Family Traditions” programme. This goes far beyond simply creating a kids’ club stocked with a few toys. The idea is to allow children to experience the culture and playfulness of each destination, as well as the heritage of the hotel itself, in ways that speak to them at their own level. In doing so, the entire family is invited to discover the culture and values of the place they have travelled to, while children encounter them through the simple pleasure of play.
I was particularly impressed by thoughtful details such as the selection of children’s books curated beside the check-in counter. The kids’ club programme also included experiences such as visiting the resort’s own garden and planting seedlings themselves—small but meaningful ways of turning the destination into something children could touch, explore and remember.
Perhaps the most quintessentially St. Regis experience of all is the “Tiny Afternoon Tea.” Rather than simply scaling down a conventional afternoon tea for children, the entire experience has been designed from the outset with young guests in mind. Recognising that children are not always inclined to sit quietly at a lounge table for an extended period of time, the resort brings the entire tea experience directly to the guestroom or villa instead. A charming teepee is set up either in the villa garden or indoors, creating a little world entirely of their own.
Even for me, simply looking at the spread felt strangely therapeutic: lollipop cakes, animal-shaped cupcakes, towers of doughnuts, milkshakes and hot cocoa, all arranged within this playful little setting. It was less an afternoon tea made smaller for children than the St. Regis ritual reimagined through their eyes.
That evening, a St. Regis teddy bear was waiting on the bed. Our children each picked out a favourite book, settled into their little world with tea and sweets, and spent the afternoon reading, talking, and sharing stories together.
Having experienced it myself, what I appreciated most was that the idea was never that “children should learn to imitate the culture of adults.” A traditional afternoon tea can, after all, be a rather demanding experience for young children. They may be expected to sit quietly in a public space for a considerable length of time, drinking tea and formally following the etiquette of the grown-ups around them.
This experience did something different: it preserved the heritage while simply lowering the perspective to a child’s eye level. For both me and my children, it was an easy, sweet and genuinely happy time. Without having to be taught or instructed, they were able to experience one of the most meaningful ideas behind the ritual itself—the simple cultural habit of setting aside time to be together.
Among the expressions St. Regis uses to define its philosophy is “Live Exquisite.” Yet this is not simply about adults indulging in beautiful experiences. At the heart of its Family Traditions is the idea that the people we love most can discover a new destination together and create moments that will remain with them long after the journey is over.
If Caroline Astor once invited people into her home to drink tea, share dinner and build relationships, the modern St. Regis brings that same idea back to our most intimate circle: the family, creating the space—and the actual time—for people to simply be together. When you think about it, how many of us now sit at the same table while scrolling through separate screens, inhabiting separate worlds? Sitting down for tea, negotiating over exactly how many of those adorable doughnuts the children are allowed to eat, laughing and talking together—paradoxically, these simple moments may matter more now than ever.
Perhaps this is also how a brand survives for generations: not by mechanically preserving the traditions of 1904, but by continually reinterpreting and adapting them to a new era, a new place, and the people experiencing them. Who could have imagined that the afternoon tea of New York high society would, more than 120 years later, be transformed in a villa in Nusa Dua, Bali, into a tower of doughnuts, milkshakes, and a tiny teepee for children?
And yet, at its heart, something remarkably simple remains unchanged: people sitting together, sharing time over something delicious. It is the transformation of this seemingly ordinary time into a beautiful memory that ultimately matters. The Tiny Afternoon Tea at The St. Regis Bali Resort felt like a charming and intelligent way for a heritage luxury brand such as St. Regis to pass its traditions on to the next generation.
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