Would you want some chai tea? Or would you prefer to commit “seppuku” if you learn that terminology?
Tea has suddenly been discovered by new-age fitness gurus and the matcha hipster gang exterior India. The one drawback is that, very similar to “biryani pulao” and “naan bread,” it’s being crucified on the altar of tautology. However tautology apart, if there’s ever a drink that’s synonymous with India, it’s tea. From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, you’ll all the time discover a chai store. In locations the place there’s a paucity of dairy, you’ll get what’s known as “liquor cha,” in Bengal a minimum of, which is Assam tea liquor with out milk. This, when boiled with cardamom and a squeeze of lime, is elevated to what’s known as “lebu cha.”
Tea is consumed in copious portions in schools, particularly since it’s less expensive than espresso. Once I moved to Mumbai for faculty, the tea stall on the finish of the lane from Sophia School served liquor tea and very strong masala “slicing chai” in tiny glasses. It was known as “slicing” as a result of it was half the amount of a standard glass or cup of tea.
Now, in fact, as we’ve grown older, we select between Chamomile, Earl Gray, or, for if we might quite be purists, Assam or Darjeeling tea. Personally, I take pleasure in a mix of Earl Gray and Assam. Due to Twinings tea baggage, you may go to city with no matter cocktail of flavours you fancy.
An city fantasy has it that tea baggage include tea mud left over on the manufacturing facility flooring. Purists would brew their tea in a pot, and never contact tea baggage with a barge pole. If it’s actually good tea, they are going to both have it with out milk or with a drop of milk at finest. Even when it’s from a Twinings tea bag.
This raises the query of whether or not it’s cultural appropriation for the British to package deal and promote tea again to us in India. Nevertheless, India shouldn’t take as a lot offense as China may, contemplating tea’s unquestionable Chinese language origin. Each the phrases for tea – “the” and “cha” – originate from Chinese language. Tea has been brewed in China for over 2,000 years––its brewing was first documented in a Chinese language ebook relationship again to 220-265 AD––and tea leaves had been probably consumed initially as a inexperienced vegetable. Li Yu’s seventh-century AD work, “The Traditional of Tea,” is a testomony to China’s deep historic reference to tea tradition.
In 1689, English priest John Ovington, who chronicled his journey to Surat in “A Voyage to Surat,” famous that tea was consumed by the banias in Surat with out sugar, typically combined with conserved lemons, and used as a treatment for complications and gripes.
The Assam Firm was established in 1840, and by 1853, tea plantations had sprouted in Assam, Darjeeling, and Kangra Valley, marking the British discovery of “liquid gold.” (Photograph: Subhamoy Bhattacharjee)
When and the way did tea arrive in India? Throughout the Opium Wars in 1830, the collapse of Chinese language tea commerce with England pushed the British to think about business tea cultivation in India. Tea plantations had been established in Assam, the Himalayas, and the hills of South India, yielding distinctive harvests. To substantiate the standard of the tea leaf, an opinion ballot was performed in England in 1838. Subsequently, in 1841, two parcels of tea—one from the Luckimpore plantation and one other from Assam—had been auctioned at remarkably excessive costs in London. The place there may be demand, there’ll all the time be provide.
In 1864 and 1875, tea auctions at London’s Mincing Lane fetched £3 million and £26 million, respectively, solidifying it because the world’s foremost tea-trading hub. By the mid-Nineteenth century, month-to-month auctions rapidly escalated to weekly occasions as a result of tea’s hovering worth. Tea sourced from then-Ceylon, China, East Africa, and India was usually auctioned, with particular days earmarked for every origin nation’s auctions. By the Nineteen Fifties, London auctions accounted for a 3rd of the world’s traded tea.
The Assam Firm was established in 1840, and by 1853, tea plantations had sprouted in Assam, Darjeeling, and Kangra Valley, marking the British discovery of “liquid gold.” Moreover, Christie and Crew pioneered the Ketti Experimental farm close to Ooty, whereas Mann cultivated tea close to Coonoor. Sri Lanka, devastated by a fungal outbreak that obliterated its espresso plantations in 1887, discovered salvation by means of the substitution of tea for espresso, stopping
financial collapse.
Over the many years, flavoured teas like Earl Gray and Chamomile have gained immense recognition. Earl Gray, my private favorite, will get its distinctive flavour from bergamot oil added to the tea. The identify “Earl Gray tea” originates from a Chinese language Mandarin tea grasp who supposedly created it for Charles Gray, the 2nd Earl of Gray and UK prime minister from 1830 to 1834. In keeping with the Gray household, the tea grasp used bergamot as a flavoring to offset the lime taste within the properly water on Earl Gray’s property, Howick Corridor, close to Newcastle. Woman Gray cherished the tea a lot that she served it solely and urged London tea retailers to duplicate it, resulting in its recognition throughout London society and ultimately reaching me right here in India.
Within the final 12 months alone, India produced 182.84 million kilograms of tea. As one of many world’s largest customers of tea, with 80 per cent of our manufacturing consumed domestically, India additionally ranks among the many high 5 tea exporters globally; the UK being our second largest purchaser. Quid professional quo, I say.
Extra energy to the “tea chai”-sipping millennials the world over.