Tea...and Cheers!

Champagne for  some people!

Iced Green Tea

What better than iced tea, particularly as the mercury soars and the monsoons continue to play hide and seek in North India?

Nothing really. Particularly for tea addicts who can’t settle for an equally good summer drink—fresh lime, nimbu pani or shikanjvi.

Often enough, I like to beat the heat with a hot cup of lovely Darjeeling chai. The green label, orange pekoe, Twinings Earl Grey.. any or all of them by turns, brewed just right, with just a hint of milk, and no sugar. That’s my poison.

I can’t be the only one to have forged friendships over tea. My very, very dear friend Gunita and I bonded almost 35 years ago over  good Lipton’s Green Label, which  she single-mindedly, resolutely, and with great devotion, drinks  exclusively and loyally till date. You can't convince her that there are better teas!

I’m afraid I’ve wandered around a bit. And continue to do so.

When work took me to Nepal on many occasions, I'd enjoy the complimentary cups--small-- of tea that shops selling a wide range from all over the world offered. They'd tell me that the Darjeeling they had would decidedly be better than the best I could get in India. Because the best is exported, was their logic.

When I had not quite got used to my life as a journalist in the national capital, I cheered myself up with a good cup of tea. At a big place of work. Parliament House.

Yule Darjeeling & Assam Tea in colourful tin containers

Let me let many of you into an open secret of the haloed precincts of the  country’s  law making temple. You get the best tea grown in India there, kind courtesy the Tea Board of India. If colleagues and some MPs are to be believed what you get there is totally exclusive—the best variety, not sold to lesser mortals!

The tins say Yule Tea, and the wooden box says Garden of Mim Rare Darjeeling Tea, but has the Y and Yule. No web address!

Yule Tea

Ever since I started covering Parliament, I used the access to buy my poison from the outlet tucked away in one insignificant—(not really, considering no part of the beautiful Parliament House is insignificant; least of all the Tea Board office that so many of us love!) part  in the ground floor.Not just for me, but also colleagues and friends who would put in their requests every time there is a session.

Darjeeling Orange Pekoe tea leaves

We get a small discount But the fact is we get this huge access to lovely tea.

Outside in the circular verandah on the first floor, endless cups of tea are made, and given , for one rupee a cup—the cup itself is the regular white bone china  with gold rim, the  old fashioned tea cup that has  much less content than the huge tea mugs that are popular these days. Yes, the cups bear the insignia of Parliament – a small image of the marvelous, circular, sandstone building.

Rare Darjeeling Tea from Garden of Mim. The wooden casket is by itself a collector's item

Knowing my love for tea, my sister Shashi  who lives in Delaware, has long been bringing me the teas that we did not get easily in India, till a few years ago. But for the tea-greedy, how does it matter if it is available? A gift of tea is always welcome.

Bentley's Classic Tea Collection. Delightful flavors, lovely tin box

Last month she brought me this  box of  Bentley's Classic Tea Collection -- assorted tea bags, with Earl Gray and English Breakfast, as well as the fruity Orange Spice,Peach, Raspberry , and plain green tea. And she justified her choice saying  I may find the box perfect for this blog! Sisters always know you and your current obsessions!

I love the box and the tea. Every morning, I make myself some fruit tea. By late evening, when I am ready to drink, the fruit tea is chilled. Perfect !

Here is how I make it:

Fruit flavored tea bag-1

Sugar-two teaspoons

Hot water-Half a cup

Cold water—three and a half cups

Secure the tea bag inside the pot, add the sugar. Pour the hot water, stir the sugar, and ensure the tea is blended to the right rich colour. Now add the remaining cold water, and chill in the refrigerator.

Sometimes I toss in a stick of cinnamon or a few cloves .

Iced Green Tea, neat.

Cheers!