A cup of tea is not just a cup of tea – it is much, much more than just a cup of tea!!!
There is no wrong time to have a cup of tea. You can have a cup of tea when you are feeling good or bad, when you are in office or at home, when you are in a flight or in a train, when you are at a bus depot or a roadside dhaba.
The "cup for the tea" matters. A plastic cup is a strict no, no! A glass cup is on! A “bhaar” (Bong term for an Earthern cup) is definitely on – but for that you need to travel to the Eastern part of the country.
The form of the tea matters too. Dip tea is not on! Neither is the tea from the vending machine! Green tea is okay and so too is Black Tea. The sinful “overflowing with milk” tea or the Orange Pekoe tea from Ooty is definitely, definitely on! And when mom makes tea or some of my Mashis/ Pishis make tea – you can just survive on that tea for the day.
Where one has a cup of tea means a lot. A cup of tea at your desk is no fun. A cup of tea in a conference room is meant to be a conversation starter or interrupter – in such cases it’s almost as if it the tea has a secondary function. Its blissful to have the morning cup of tea while seeing the sun rise and its soothening to have the evening cup of tea while seeing the sun set.
By now you must be wondering as to why I am drooling so much over a cup of tea. Let me confide to you a secret. I just finished my last cup of tea for today and I am wondering at the prospect of having no more tea for the day :(. But then I will have my first cup tomorrow while seeing the sun rise :).
So with that realization let me sign off – but not before I thank the Krishna’s, Chitto’s, Dadu’s, Navina’s, Gokul’s, and Sai Sagar’s of the world. May God bestow upon you all the prosperity in the world for having provided me with my life fluid - Tea! :)
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Sourav
Beau Tea Full post!
ReplyDeleteYour post on Tea brought back some memories.
ReplyDeleteIn typical Maharashtrian middle class families, I belonged to one, in my younger days, you were not allowed to drink tea till you cleared matriculation. Matriculation itself meant clearing 11th standard and not 10th like it is today. My mother showed how much she cared for me by giving me tea when I got up early in the morning while studying for 11th. My father was not in favour of my giving up milk, as a result of my new found love for tea, so a compromise was struck: I used to have milk with my breakfast!
All this sounds so hilarious now!
My Gujju wife brought Tea Masala with her from Baroda which was a novelty for us. Till then we were adding only ginger to our tea. When I visited Baroda she bought a small packet of Tea Masala. For those who are not accustomed to buying Gujju Tea Masala, let me inform them that it is quite an expensive thing. You buy just a small packet. Tea Masala became a regular on our shopping list, and my m-i-l often sent a packet for me.
As a student I used to take 'Amiri' chai which incidentally is the cheapest variety available at roadside thelas. One such thela is opposite KEM Hospital where we used to go every day morning while studying at Bombay Labour Institute. The thelawala added innumerable ingredients and spices in addition to tea powder, and strained it through a cloth that had turned black; one would have developed an instant revulsion for tea served there. But two things protected him, our shoe string budget and the test of tea which I must confess was perhaps one of the best I have ever tested.
CR Banerjee, Dada to all of us, who was in charge of Shade Card printing, introduced me to Green Tea. He used to buy an expensive variety which he would serve to people he liked, needless to say that it included me. Banerjee later shifted to Ankleshwar where they make tea I just do not like. One wonders whether he is drinking tea or Masala milk! So Banerjee's Green Tea was a very welcome thing for me [and other 'drinks' were not easily available too].
My job as Corp IR Manager often took me to Kolkata and Guwahati where one gets lemon tea. In the Park Circus office I have always enjoyed Lemon Tea; they add a touch of salt and lemon to black tea. It tests very well. I have since then stuck to Black Tea.
When I visited Colombo, I bought flavoured tea there. You can get tea with flavour of apple, cranberry etc. But my friends hated it! Me too! For them the refreshing Masala Tea was the right brew to begin the day with.
I have sometimes felt that you can classify personalities based on their choice of tea. Think about doing that research, Sourav.
Enjoyed reading your post!
Vivek
Your post on Tea brought back some memories.
ReplyDeleteIn typical Maharashtrian middle class families, I belonged to one, in my younger days, you were not allowed to drink tea till you cleared matriculation. Matriculation itself meant clearing 11th standard and not 10th like it is today. My mother showed how much she cared for me by giving me tea when I got up early in the morning while studying for 11th. My father was not in favour of my giving up milk, as a result of my new found love for tea, so a compromise was struck: I used to have milk with my breakfast!
All this sounds so hilarious now!
My Gujju wife brought Tea Masala with her from Baroda which was a novelty for us. Till then we were adding only ginger to our tea. When I visited Baroda she bought a small packet of Tea Masala. For those who are not accustomed to buying Gujju Tea Masala, let me inform them that it is quite an expensive thing. You buy just a small packet. Tea Masala became a regular on our shopping list, and my m-i-l often sent a packet for me.
As a student I used to take 'Amiri' chai which incidentally is the cheapest variety available at roadside thelas. One such thela is opposite KEM Hospital where we used to go every day morning while studying at Bombay Labour Institute. The thelawala added innumerable ingredients and spices in addition to tea powder, and strained it through a cloth that had turned black; one would have developed an instant revulsion for tea served there. But two things protected him, our shoe string budget and the test of tea which I must confess was perhaps one of the best I have ever tested.
CR Banerjee, Dada to all of us, who was in charge of Shade Card printing, introduced me to Green Tea. He used to buy an expensive variety which he would serve to people he liked, needless to say that it included me. Banerjee later shifted to Ankleshwar where they make tea I just do not like. One wonders whether he is drinking tea or Masala milk! So Banerjee's Green Tea was a very welcome thing for me [and other 'drinks' were not easily available too].
My job as Corp IR Manager often took me to Kolkata and Guwahati where one gets lemon tea. In the Park Circus office I have always enjoyed Lemon Tea; they add a touch of salt and lemon to black tea. It tests very well. I have since then stuck to Black Tea.
When I visited Colombo, I bought flavoured tea there. You can get tea with flavour of apple, cranberry etc. But my friends hated it! Me too! For them the refreshing Masala Tea was the right brew to begin the day with.
I have sometimes felt that you can classify personalities based on their choice of tea. Think about doing that research, Sourav.
Enjoyed reading your post!
Vivek
Your post on Tea brought back some memories.
ReplyDeleteIn typical Maharashtrian middle class families, I belonged to one, in my younger days, you were not allowed to drink tea till you cleared matriculation. Matriculation itself meant clearing 11th standard and not 10th like it is today. My mother showed how much she cared for me by giving me tea when I got up early in the morning while studying for 11th. My father was not in favour of my giving up milk, as a result of my new found love for tea, so a compromise was struck: I used to have milk with my breakfast!
All this sounds so hilarious now!
My Gujju wife brought Tea Masala with her from Baroda which was a novelty for us. Till then we were adding only ginger to our tea. When I visited Baroda she bought a small packet of Tea Masala. For those who are not accustomed to buying Gujju Tea Masala, let me inform them that it is quite an expensive thing. You buy just a small packet. Tea Masala became a regular on our shopping list, and my m-i-l often sent a packet for me.
As a student I used to take 'Amiri' chai which incidentally is the cheapest variety available at roadside thelas. One such thela is opposite KEM Hospital where we used to go every day morning while studying at Bombay Labour Institute. The thelawala added innumerable ingredients and spices in addition to tea powder, and strained it through a cloth that had turned black; one would have developed an instant revulsion for tea served there. But two things protected him, our shoe string budget and the test of tea which I must confess was perhaps one of the best I have ever tested.
CR Banerjee, Dada to all of us, who was in charge of Shade Card printing, introduced me to Green Tea. He used to buy an expensive variety which he would serve to people he liked, needless to say that it included me. Banerjee later shifted to Ankleshwar where they make tea I just do not like. One wonders whether he is drinking tea or Masala milk! So Banerjee's Green Tea was a very welcome thing for me [and other 'drinks' were not easily available too].
My job as Corp IR Manager often took me to Kolkata and Guwahati where one gets lemon tea. In the Park Circus office I have always enjoyed Lemon Tea; they add a touch of salt and lemon to black tea. It tests very well. I have since then stuck to Black Tea.
When I visited Colombo, I bought flavoured tea there. You can get tea with flavour of apple, cranberry etc. But my friends hated it! Me too! For them the refreshing Masala Tea was the right brew to begin the day with.
I have sometimes felt that you can classify personalities based on their choice of tea. Think about doing that research, Sourav.
Enjoyed reading your post!
Vivek
I enjoyed going through your comment Sir - I myself associate a lot of memories with different kinds of tea i have had at different places.
ReplyDeleteLet me try to see if i can find some personality patterns on the basis of the choice of tea that people have - would share this with you :)