With the arrival of the cold season comes the desire to snuggle up and indulge in a tasty and appetising meal like a full English breakfast in front of a roaring fire. Today we will talk about this timeless classic: the English Breakfast, particularly the English Breakfast of Babingtons. A timeless tradition that has been taking place every day in our Tea Room since 1893.

The origins of the English breakfast

We can trace the origins of the “full English breakfast” back to medieval Great Britain, around the 14th Century, back to the time when in peasant houses breakfast was the main meal of the day capable of giving all the energy necessary for agricultural work. These first meals of the day were usually accompanied by ale, a type of weak beer.

Well yes. Before the arrival of tea in England in 1600, beer was drunk at all times, even in the morning.

During the Victorian era, a period of great wealth in the courts of English nobles, breakfast represented the perfect moment for the new bourgeoisie to give lustre to its social ascent.

Imagine, then, in sumptuous living rooms, parades of egg-based dishes, pork sausage, bacon, fried tomatoes and mushrooms, black pudding, pork crackling and toasted bread. All accompanied by a steaming cup of black tea. "Finally, no more beer for breakfast!" adds Chiara, co-owner of Babingtons with her cousin Rory Bruce and great grandson of one of the founders of the tea room.

Is English breakfast good for you?

Yes! Not just historically, but also modern times because breakfast is one of the key moments of our diet, often called the most important meal of the day. It serves to give the right rhythm to the day that ahead of us, both from a psychological and physical point of view. Skipping breakfast is therefore one of the most serious mistakes if you want to lose weight or keep your mood balanced.

A good and substantial breakfast gives us a firmer and more fulfilled mood, as well as providing energy, vitamins and proteins to face all the commitments of our day. If we add a cup of tea or a steaming herbal tea, we have the perfect start to a new day.

But is the full English Breakfast good for us or not? Our advice is to always take things in their right measures. It is true that English Breakfast contains all the ideal nutrients to start the day, but it is also quite calorific. That's why you should think of the English breakfast as a small gift to to yourself to indulge in when you have a desire and need for an energy rich meal. Especially on winter weekends, when the energy and the warmth of a rich breakfast are the perfect prelude to a day full of long leisurely walks and Christmas shopping. And at Babingtons, a historic Tearooms in Piazza di Spagna, you can enjoy a full English Breakfast before a long walk in the historic centre of Rome.

Babingtons English Breakfast ... another story!

At Babingtons English breakfast is served in all its Victorian splendour in the Tearooms at the foot of the Spanish Steps, where every morning you can experience the start of the day in all its traditional English glory.

Right here, at the dawn of the twentieth century, the story of English Breakfast in Italy begins.

The founders Isabel Cargill and Anna Maria Babington were in fact the first in Italy to introduce tea and typical English recipes, bringing back to life the pages of the nineteenth-century "Book of Household Management", written by the English journalist Mrs Beeton.

And so, the two English entrepreneurs began to serve the first English Breakfast in the first Tearooms in Italy. The dish consisted of eggs, bacon, English muffins or toasted bread.

What does Babingtons English Breakfast include?

We have added delicate and equally delicious flavours to the more rounded and stronger traditional ingredients found in Isabel Cargill’s menu, ranging from salty to sweet. Today's English Breakfast is designed to give energy but also to give yourself a moment of true well-being using only high quality ingredients and raw materials.

So, let's start from the eggs. Those we serve every day are purely organic and we give you the opportunity to choose precisely how you want them cooked, be it omelettes, scrambled, fried or poached. As usual these are served with streaky bacon, tomatoes and grilled mushrooms. The bacon contains no preservatives and comes directly from Ireland, from a small producer who treats his pork using only salts from Portugal, cane sugar from Costa Rica and whose meat is all oak smoked. A real delicacy!

And last but not least, the diehard lovers of a little something sweet in the morning are satisfied by home-made toasted bread with salted butter and jams of your choice.

What to accompany the English breakfast with?

As far as tea is concerned, the choices are particularly tempting. Chiara advises you to choose Scottish Blend, a robust and powerful tea that pays homage to the Scottish origins of our founder, Isabel.

Or our Morning Blend, a blend of Ceylon black teas: two black teas with strong and overwhelming aromas, excellent for starting the day.

Finally, if you simply can’t or don’t want to give up your usual morning cup of coffee, our Coffee Blend is the one for you!

Where to have English breakfast in Rome

If you have not tried it yet, the best way to appreciate English Breakfast is certainly by way of Victorian tradition, with the right recipes, the most genuine and refined raw materials and, naturally, in the context of our typically English Tearooms. As happens every day by Babingtons in Piazza di Spagna, the first teahouse in Italy to have spread word of this and many other British delicacies.

We wait for you every day from 10:00 to 21:00. Closed on Tuesday.