Black tea

I started my life drinking the standard Indian kind of tea, which is a concoction which is boiled for a long time along with milk and sweetened with sugar.

In one meeting with the in-charge of a local mosque in Santacruz, Mumbai, we were a group of teens then, he advised us not to boil the concoction and rather steep it in the covered vessel. This way, he said, we could avoid the mercury contained in the tea while getting all the good stuff.

I tried this at home with satisfying results, then. My parents quite liked the resultant drink.

One could never think of drinking tea black(sans milk) then. It would be unbelievably bitter. I had tried drinking black tea when in primary school on being insisted by some cruel adults. Frankly, that drink was unworthy of human consumption. I promised myself never to try it again.

Then came the days in which green tea was gaining stardom, circa 2009. Everyday, the newspapers(hash... Mumbai Mirror..) would have a new claim about the almost magical properties of this Chinese way of drinking leaf soup. This didn't fail to douse my curiosity. Often times, I would find myself scanning market shelves for green tea. It was rare then, in our markets.

I'm guessing that at time, researches had nothing better to do than to study tea. Anyway, one day I found myself reading an article about how black tea contains antioxidants and how it is all lost when milk is added to it. Now I knew the idea of drinking tea without milk was not very plesent. I thought, why not steep instead of boil? This way...

So i tried it and added sugar. It was pretty pleasant. And I was hooked. Then on I always made my tea separately apart from my family, who stuck to the old recipe. A few months on, I started putting honey instead of sugar. Later, I stopped sweetening it. No sugar, no honey, plain tea.

Somewhere in the middle, my father got the green leaf. It was pleasent and soothing in it's own right. But the yellow brew had a tinge of sourness. I tried to appreciate it at first, and even succeeded at developing a liking for it. But I realised that I was actually craving black tea very often. When I would get some chai on any off-chance occation or at a resturant or chaiwala stall, I would be relieved and happy. In a few months, I was back to black.

Might I attest to the fact that such a tea habit has contributed to my personal well-being? Yes ma'am. It sure has.

One more thing, steeping tea in water before drinking it is infinately more easier as compared to making kadak chai (boil water, add tea, boil further, add sugar, put milk, boil again). This has simplified my life, considering I drink this about thrice a day.

What do you think? How do you like your tea? Are you into chai masala? Irani tea? Can you make a decent cup?

By the way, coffee sucks.