Chai!

Wow. Now I will never be short of answers to life`s everyday questions. Mr. Zaki, full marks on the sheer esotericism of your trivia. And thank you for sharing it with us.

Rafay Alam

Zaki - some more varieties

``Doodh Patti`` - It is actually a food. Boiling milk condensed with `Pattee` (tea leaves) and suger. This is favourite with the villagers & paople who are not pushed about their weight. A layer of fat comes to rest on top of the cup. And as you drink it, this fat layer (with a higher temperature) slurps on your lips with a burning sensation. (The British must be turning in graves on the evolution of this variety)

``Chaloo Chai`` - This is probably the best tea in Pakistan. It is at those small Pathan ``Khokaas`` where blue colored Kettles are hanging on the nails on the side walls. And the broken cups have been stapled togather. Once the process starts, the kettle is not replaced. Only Pattee, suger, water and milk is continuously added as cups are continously taken out it. With Chamcha, tea is regularly taken out and water-falled into the kettle so that the Tea makes a liquidish ``Dhaar``. This Tea is really refreshing and gets your eyes opened. They say that the dark cup crevices give it a spacial flavour.

``Five Star`` - The Tea served in the Five Star hotels is the worst. It is cold, timid and cups are too heavy. Though it costs almost as much as a Burger.

``Separate Tea`` - I think this variety has almost died. This is where everything comes separate and you mix it. It is old style with those white chairs in Lawn & Tea pot covered with a Tea-Cozy. People now do not have time for preparing or seving this kind of Tea.

Danesh,

Kerala nair tea is never complete with out mentioning that it is measured in meters. To cool the tea, they pour it from one cup to the other, seperated by more than a meter, and not a drop should spill.
In kerala, even today, tea is made in ``samovars`, yes the russian ones, and they are called simply samaavar. Worth finding out how the russian cooking vessel found its way to kerala.

But tea is also defined by the kind of milk being used (if being used at all):

There is the tea with cold milk.
There is the tea with sweetened milk (mostly had in Dubai and other Middle Eastern cities).
There is the Khula Doodh ka Chai
The Milkpak experience
And last but not the least, Everyday wala Chai.

the most important type of chai that nazar sahib missed is dodian vali cha (or dodain vali chai)............ this is the elixir that keeps the truck drivers on (and frequently off) the road ....... it is your basic doodh-pati with unripened poppy buds boiled in it - a mild narcotic, quite pleasent, but a poor substitute for bhang ............

i love chai...sometimes with honey and ilaichi, other times with one spoon of sugar..chai chahiyeyyyy kaun si janabbbb!

Lovely article! (I`m think of adrak ka chai right now!)

No one mentioned green tea? Even Iced tea .. . . ? Wat abt Star Bucks`s Green Tea Frappacino (yum).?

Try tapal danedar for those who are in Pakistan. It is excellent both as seperate and doodh patti.The leaves take about 5 minutes to unflod. So the kettle has to be kept at a very low simmer. Wow!!

Another is the tea made from green mint leaves with honey. Put two leaves in each boiling cup of water and add honey. It has an immediate analgesic and refreshing effect. Some say that it is also anti cancer and keeps away allergies.

Recently I also tried Ginsing from Korea. Its too refreshing.

Cheerios!!

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some people say chai is a british conspiracy. i find them very bitter

i love chai- watermelon flavored, jasmine, tapal, sri lankan, irani kaava or that strong, sakht sindhi chai with a drop of elaichi powder whilst boiling
thank you for bringing such an essential part of our lives onto the front page

i hate the foul-smelling, foul-tasting wretched concoction and i wish people`d stop thinking im being all snooty when i politely refuse their offer of tea by pointing out tht i dont drink tea.

alternatively i love:
1. herbal tea
2. kashmiri chai
3. coffee...almost every kind

good article though

Tea on the sub-continent symbolically summarizes the colonialization of the sub-continent. The British sold Indian Opium to china, and Chinese tea to India. It is very true, that Lipton actually created markets (based on what elders tell me) in India and many of its other colonies. We have offcourse indianized it with variation such as ``Khadi Chammach`` (its so thick with sugar at the bottom, that a spoon stands in it) and doodh-patti (paki variation), but then many of us worry (e.g. Nazar) that the British will get upset. At one point, Tea was the single most important export of Sri Lanka (now it is stewarts on Cruise Ships). In addition, tea is the true ``Past-Time`` of India (or time-pass), symbolising the lazy, languid ethos.

In bussiness world of Banias, tea plays an important role. The shop or bussiness owner calls for tea with either an inward wave of hand or outward, the latter symbolizing the ``chotu`` not to bring it. The visitor gets the intent (i.e sorry, no bussiness) when the tea does not show up soon. If the deal is done, they share a cup, with half tea in the soucer and half in the cup. Now that Tata has taken over Tetley, the symbolization of the colonial experience is more real.

The true glorious drink of the sub-continet is offcourse bhang, the Soma Ras enjoyed by gods themselves, alas most of us have no idea about it, and we allowed the British to ban it as illegal in many provinces. Now only smelly Malangs drink it.

chai is a testimony of the success of corporate consipracies against third world societies and their gullibly addictive masses. it should be banned.

I wuw the green tea, eshpeshally in AFGHANI style with their transparent cups with `sugar cubes`(?) I seldome miss the QISSA KHWANI bazar`s green tea whenever visit Peshawar.

wonder, why couldn`t I develope a taste for KASHMIRI chai. Had twice only in life.

oh let me tell that in lakshmi chowk lahore, ppl confuse the green tea with KASHMIRI chai. I once asked for green tea thinking that it wud be QAHWA but they presented the KASHMIRI chai. or perhaps I am confusing. :p

I say green or sabz chai to the green tea/QAHWA or SHEEN CHAI. and KASHMIRI chai use to be pinkish with pistas n other dry fruits in them.

#14
Rozaiba, you have to be joking? Tell me you are. Please.