It is certainly a tempest in a teacup (pun intended), but when nutritionist and health coach Rujuta Diwekar made some rather quaint remarks about tea and its consumption, many were up in arms against her. When she remarked on one way of drinking tea being ‘rare’ many rushed to disabuse her of the notion. We look at who said what to whom and what tea means to the real tea-lover.
In the rarified atmosphere of the alternate Indian universe that Diwekar clearly seems to inhabit, tea with milk and sugar is ‘rare’. While she may regard good old milk and sugar as the very devil, most Indians have a loving and intimate relationship with these staple ingredients.
Obviously Twitter-verse wanted to clarify that Indians still drink tea with milk and sugar and love it. Diwekar's tweet was viewed as elitist, intolerant of other’s food choices and somewhat odd.
Tea is meant to be drowned in milk (the more the milk/cream, the higher the adjudged quality of the tea), boiled within an inch of its life and rendered so sweet as to be able to stand a spoon up straight in the thick, syrupy liquid!
When one tea lover meets another, the two will probably swap tales of tea cravings and adventures experienced in quest of that perfect cup. Even those who aren’t tea lovers are overcome with the desire for a steaming cup to accompany that plate of pakoras; particularly when the first rains make their appearance.
For some of us, it is the elaichi (cardamom) that imparts the desired flavour. For others, it is mint, or lemon grass. Ginger is another flavouring agent used throughout India; thought to cure everything from a sore throat to cancer! Others prefer an assortment of masalas that renders the flavour closer to curry than tea!
Whether you dunk or you don’t dunk, the real tea-lover will agree that the cup of tea is best had with a biscuit of choice – sweet, salty or digestive! Also, you have to agree, until you saw this, you hadn’t realized how much Lionel Richie resembles a biscuit or what his song really was about!
It will refresh and rejuvenate you. It will make you sleep or wake you up. It will cure your headache. It will make you hungry or act as a digestive. The tea break is vitally important!
It is at the tea stall that people working nearby will congregate for the all important tea break which is a welcome spell away from work and a chance to chat with others and exchange news and views. The tea stall is a great repository for local knowledge and is a useful place to find out about local products and services; rather like the talking yellow pages of the area.
...others have alarm clocks, Indians have bed-tea. Others have a green or oolong, or white or other fancy tea, Indians have kadak CTC. Others begin their day with a beverage and so do Indians, but we then follow it up with nine more cups of the fragrant, hot, delicious liquid that is chai.
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