bed tea

plural bed teas · alternative bed-tea

1. IndiaPakistancountableuncountableA serving of tea shortly after awakening in the morning.

   His cap and white gloves were perfect whether he was delivering the bed tea at 8am or bringing me a china hot water bottle just before midnight.

   1996 April 13, Justine Hardy, “Travel: That elusive, smart and affordable hotel is only just around the corner”, in The Independent", UK, retrieved 24 Mar 2014

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   The day was pretty fully taken up by a well-defined routine: 6 a.m. chota-hazri (bed tea and some fruit); seven to eight, riding, bath, then breakfast at nine. . . .

   1955, S. K. Kirpalani, Fifty Years with the British, published 1993, →ISBN, page 92

   Bed tea or chota hazari (small breakfast), as we used to know it when I was a child in Calcutta during the last days of the raj, is one of the luxuries of my life in India.

   1991, Mark Tully, No Full Stops in India (1992 Penguin edition), (Google preview)

   You'll be woken each morning with a tray of cookies and ‘bed-tea’, which is made using leaves plucked from the plantations outside your window.

   2013 June 6, "India's Top Romantic Resorts: Glenburn Tea, Estate Darjeeling, India Times (retrieved 24 March 2014)