Totally Tea

Cardamom Tea, Anjali’s favorite~
Picture credit: Wikipedia and Chhe

 

A delightful new friend in England was the entire inspiration for this page.

http://anjalideshpande.com/

She has generously permitted me to share her recent thoughts here, on the number one beverage in not only England, but likely, much of the world as well.

Here are some of her quite candid remarks about her beloved Tea~

They will be followed by places to learn more as usual!

 

Anjali speaks:

Will certainly let you know BUT it’s in India that you get all the Teas that are imported here in London and elsewhere! and no dipping bag stew – the real deal which you brew 😉

 

Lol! I am not sure I qualify as an expert of any sort Donna – least of all Tea – except by virtue of being born there and belonging to a family of tea drinkers! Don’t know if you are aware but some of the most aromatic coffee grows in the south of India – the kind that doesn’t grow anywhere else in the world and to be honest, once you have drunk the filter coffee from south India (which gets unique fragrance because it also grows in the midst of spice growing land) you don’t like anything else – I guess I am biased 😉.

 

And you know – my favourite tea is the one fragrant with cardamom. My mum never throws away the cardomom pods, instead once she has extracted the seeds, she puts the dry pods into the tea-tin, so that it’s always fragrant! And that to me is pure happiness. It brings memories of a fragrant childhood 🙂 And in the monsoons, when we got sick with cold or cough or flu, she would brew hot tea and add freshly grated ginger to it, to soothe the throat, the best remedy ever for sore throats, cold, cough and works for me even today! 🙂

 

There is plenty of organic tea available in India and some of it you can even order on Amazon, I think. To be honest, farming is not as heavily mechanised in India as it is in the west and from what limited knowledge I have, Tea farming is a hugely labour intensive job, a bit like wine, that is not so much dependent on fertilizers but the climate. It needs certain specific terrains and climate, just as wine does. And so it is inherently very organic 🙂. Did you see the link that I sent you? There are many more, I’ll send them to you, as I find them 🙂

 

And I write all this – as i sip my cardamom tea! 😉

 

My next question of course for Anjali, who has become this Blog’s official Tea Expert, was to comment on where she shops for and how she prepares her beautiful Teas.

Her remarks are next:

Hi Donna – I tend to buy my tea both in the local supermarkets and also the local small Indian and Sri Lankan shops that sell all kinds of Indian items.

Tea prepared in the traditional way is called ‘chai’ (pronounced chaay). It is usually brewed by boiling, water, loose tea, milk, sugar – spiced powder (masala) could be added to it to prepare masala chaay. Or fresh grated ginger might be added to the mixture and boiled for a few minutes so that it is infused with it. This is quite medicinal and good for cold and cough. Or you could add powdered cardamom seeds to the concoction.

As you can tell, it is quite strong and nothing akin to what Indian’s call the ‘dip dip’ variety of tea – my mother uses rather strong words to describe the tastelessness of this Tea and says it’s not tea at all! LoL – I won’t describe what she calls it but needless to say it’s a hilarious metaphor 😉. Hope this is helpful!

 

Thank you for your brilliant comments and generous spirit  Anjali~

May I simply say, this was the perfect ending for a lovely introduction to TEA!

 

A few places to learn more:

Cardamom

Teas of India

Tea – Wikipedia

Sikkim Organic Tea

Come and volunteer and learn about a tea plantation in India:  Workaway

What Are the Benefits of Cardamom Tea?