The grind of the morning was about to begin. There were already some twenty odd office goers nibbling on their bacon, sausages, cheese and the sweetened assorted breads. Clinking of cutlery and clanking of dishes could be heard everywhere. Some distance away from the main dining area, a coffee maker was whirring constantly, releasing the ever arousing rich aroma of arabica beans. 'your weak darjeeling?', 'champ' as he was known asked the copper haired old lady, who has been staying here for the past two weeks now. 'i want chai!' the bespectacled Britisher replied, eyeing the boy with a gaze which can be described as a look of a wizard who has just cast a particularly nasty spell, and is awaiting the effect. The 'champ' gets the idea, it must have been one of those late afternoon trips to the neighbourhood with Indian acquaintances, to some corner chaiwala. Now, the woman is hooked to street tea.
He prepares what can be sadly described as 'chai' in a 'luxury' surrounding. A sip. No reaction. Another one. Frown this time. 'Where is the sugar in this?', ' and what?', 'no ginger!'.
Champ could not have gone beyond a certain point without actually getting in touch with the faceless 'chaiwalah ' who has done the damage. He faces the perennial problem of street food versus 'luxurious' experience, both at worlds ends, both trying to desperately emulate each other, sometimes with little success. 'Chai' described in the information highway will have a stock pile of spices and milk and sugar, all boiled with water and tea leaves. This is the traditional Indian tea of the north western states and does not necessarily reflect the 'chai' as it is misunderstood by the Westerners and the N.R.I's too often. The term tea, in English, is what we in India call chai. So tea is chai. Period. In fact if we travel a further back from this time period, we are enlightened to the fact that the term 'tea' itself had travelled from the plains of India to the west. A heavily accented westerner saying 'tea' would sound something like 'tchheeeaa". That is our chai!!! if you listen properly. Well, the fact remains that India is one of those countries which had given the world its most delicious,refreshing, heart warming non addictive beverage. We have three world renowned regions like Assam, Darjeeling and Nilgiri, which produce some of the best varieties of teas. Whether you like your tea, plain black, with milk and sugar or lemon and honey, the trick to a really good cup is the water temperature and the brewing time. Tea is a delicacy, hence the preparation too, needs finesse.The making and the setting is what one needs to understand first, before ordering tea. Leaves soaked in water is chai, adding 'masala' to it will make it masala chai, just tea,water and milk together is readymade chai, addintion of a herb like say mint, with or without milk makes it pudina chai etc.Meanwhile, ten minutes time is what it takes to make a cup of north western chai described earlier. Take black tea leaves of the blended Assam variety along with a lot of finely grounded clove,cinnamon,cardamom,bay leave,star anise,aniseed and yes fresh ginger, in a thick bottomed pan with two thirds fresh milk, one third water and sugar.Bring all this to a vigorous boil. Strain and serve piping hot. Its the making of tea that matters, that alone brings out the magic, the 'chai effect'. In a luxurious setting, they make tea with a few bags or some leaves, in a ceramic pot, just added with hot water and cold milk is placed on the side. The making is not right. Nor is the setting.