I don’t know how many of you out there start your day with a cup of hot tea, but instinct tells me that there would be plenty. The first thing that I do in the morning is prepare my cup of piping hot tea with lots of milk and sugar and not to miss, Indian tea leaves. It gives me just the kind of kick I need to jumpstart my day.
Recently, a friend of mine came to spend a few days with me from Spain. The love for tea is something we both shared. But our idea of it was quite different. While I fancied the strong Indian chai, with milk and sugar, she preferred it without any of it. She was fixated with the herbal and flavored tea.
When a few years back green tea, black tea and the various flavored teas were introduced in India, I tried them. Not to my delight, I found their taste totally bland. Whereas the chai we make satisfies our craving for the beverage, the herbal teas left you feeling empty.
When I shared the same with my friend she called the ‘Indian version’ of tea absolutely unhealthy and the herbal teas nutritious and nourishing. Now, I know the health experts would start arguing about the infinite benefits of the herbal tea in curing insomnia, headaches, reducing weight and what not! While our Indian chai would be criticized for its high nicotine content, the high blood pressure and various other heath issues. But haven’t we been consuming it for hundreds of years and yet my grand mother, her great grand mother and the previous several generations couldn’t think of giving it up. And didn’t they do just fine in their lifetime. They were healthy, fit and fine! Now, I can’t say that the chai is very beneficial for one’s health but what harm can a cup or two of it do?!
Getting back to my friend, I offered her a cup of tea I prepared for myself, just to taste and then decide. On tasting it, she was absolutely baffled. She found the tea delicious. I believe that it’s the way we prepare the tea, here in India, with boiling and mixing all the ingredients that brings out the real flavor. I, anyhow never liked mixing the milk afterwards. It never quite seemed to blend in and bring the flavor out of the tea.
The tea culture in India is being re-defined by various hotels and cafes. They offer a variety of teas which come with an unreasonably high price. One fine day, I ventured into one of such cafe and I was surprised by the vast range of tea flavors they had. So I decided to have something called the ‘English Breakfast’ tea. I was utterly disappointed since I didn’t find the taste any good. It was watery, dull and boring! Moreover a cup of it cost me about 90 Rs. Senseless, isn’t it? After tasting about a dozen of different kinds of tea, from black tea to the berry tea, from the green to the white tea to fruit teas, I have finally arrived at the conclusion that there’s no competition to my indigenous chai.
Talking about tea, how can I miss the mesmerizing dhabbey waali chai. No matter wherever you travel to, in India, you are bound to find the lively dhabbas. I simply adore them since I can find different versions of chai over here. Be it the sweet, aromatic, masaala chai, the elaichi chai, the cinnamon or cardamom flavored tea, they all make for a sumptuous treat. And all for what? Mere 5 or 10 rupees! Divine indeed! The only thing I wish would be for them to take a little more care about the hygiene. But, trust me, no matter how much the globalization has paved way for numerous cafés to open up here, they’re no competition to the ‘dhabba and chai’ culture of India.
I really fail to understand that how can the milkless and sugarless tea possibly compete with the rich variety of chai we have in India?! I can never think of having my tea with lemon, or the ones with flower or fruit flavors.
Now, iced tea would be a different topic altogether, but for the hot beverage, nothing beats the delectable chai. It’s exotic, it’s savory and it’s my instant energizer. So, no matter how much herbal, flavored or healthy tea invade the market, at the end; my pick would always be the yummy Indian chai.
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