I know my chai. I have a relationship with it: I need to have it first thing in the morning, every morning and then a cup again in the evening. So, I have sampled chai — in fine china/plastic cups/foam cups/glasses of varying shapes and sizes/even in a katorie — across the country. I have slurped great cuppas, and some passable ones. Some robust, tingling with spices, others' sans any. Some with just a hint (not howl) of milk, others totally doused in dairy. The matka chai in West Bengal, the kullad chai at railway stations, creamy, milky chai in villages of Punjab, camel milk salty decoction at Pushkar… and many more. Then you also have the world divided clearly as Assam tea vs Darjeeling tea drinkers. An easy way to do the census.
In my kitchen I make it sharp, spicy and lightly brewed with faint notes of clove and barely there milk. But everyone I know has their own recipe and 'type' of chai. And that's the way they like it best. Period! In fact, it is said that you can tell a lot about the person by the kind of cuppa he favours. So maybe instead of reading the horoscopes we just need to take a deep look at his chai…
Loved by all
Right from the first heady whiff wafting from the cup, to the last, by then tepid sip — drinking a chai is an experience. One that is invoked for multiple reasons: to inflate sagging spirits, to douse raging fire in the stomach raked by a spicy snack, to watch cold rain fall, to cut heat during hot summer afternoons (quoting my grandma here), to snatch a break from work (no boss can grudge anyone a tea break!), for brainstorming over a nagging technical glitch, to group-up and debate, praise, or crib, and very-often just because it is five in the evening already! Political careers get made and nipped over chai chuskis, and chai breaks (and kitties) are where people decide the stock of the local MLA (some say even of the prime minister) and decide who to vote for. Well, for me a cup of tea is nothing so fancy, it is another way to tell myself to slow down. And I like to do that twice a day at least!
Is it really our own?
An old rhyming ditty I read somewhere goes like this: Yeh shaksh aur iska bhai (this man and his brother), Peeta hai hamesha chai (always drink tea)… It's true, chai is a habit and a national past time. We are a tea drinking country, we say with pride. And believe it. We also take ownership and believe that tea has roots in the ancient Ayurvedic tradition of India and genuinely question why/how people in the West took so long to discover what we have known for centuries (how mighty this green leaf actually is). Well, the truth is that origins of this brew are murky. While some reports trace its history back to the ancient courts of Siam (Thailand) 5000 years ago, others insist that the brew was popularized in India by The East India Company in the1830s when they cultivated tea plantations extensively. One story credits Gautam Buddha as the accidental discoverer of Camellia Sinesis (tea). Whichever story is true, the fact is that this soul enriching sip is steeped into our national consciousness-like no other. And that's the only story that matters!
There's more to it!
Ambit of the chai is huge — a simple cuppa made at home won't be more than 40 odd calories, even when sweetened, and some like the Classic Chai Tea Latte sipped in a cafe can go up to about 240 calories, or if you want to make a meal of it, even up to 330 calories (like Vanilla Chai at another cafe). There are teas which are steeped in caffeine and some which claim to be caffeine free. Take your pick: the jolt or your health. But what research is increasingly making clear is that tea is one super-healthy brew: it is loaded with antioxidants, supports digestion (acidity apparently is caused only by excessive brewing), prevents cancer, protects against Alzheimers, lowers blood sugar and is a friend of our heart. Whew, that's an impressive list for something I just like to drink!
Kavita Devgan is a Nutritionist and a Health Writer. Follow her on twitter @kavitadevgan
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