Morning tea

Elevenses ( /ᵻˈlɛvənzᵻz/) is a short break taken at around 11 a.m. to consume a drink or snack of some sort. The name and details vary between countries.

In Australia and New Zealand elevenses is known as 'morning tea', and can occur at any point between the start of the working day and lunchtime. Many workplaces organise morning teas for staff to welcome new employees, for special occasions such as a birthday, or simply as a regular event. Food will sometimes be provided by the business, but often employees will be expected to bring food to share.

In many Spanish-speaking cultures, elevenses is observed under the name la once (in Spanish, once means 'eleven'). However, in Chile it has shifted to the afternoon.

In the 2010-2011 National Food Consumption Survey, around 80% of the Chileans reported having once. This is due to once sometimes replacing the traditional dinner in Chile, which only 30% of the population reported having. In this process, once is losing its previous form and is now had, on average, around 7pm.

An alternative widespread, but unfounded, popular etymology for the word in Chile is that priests (in other versions, workers or women) used the phrase tomar las once (Spanish: "drink the eleven") in reference to the eleven letters of the word Aguardiente, to conceal the fact that they were drinking during the day.

In Colombia, it is common to have a snack named onces. It consists mainly of coffee or tea with crackers, usually taken around 5 o'clock in the afternoon.

In West Friesland country people had a similar meal called konkelstik (served at konkeltoid, the proper time for konkelen, a verb denoting "making a visit").

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Wikipedia