The Chaiwallah at the Nukkad

A Group sipping tea at the Nukkad

“If you are cold, tea will warm you;
if you are too heated, it will cool you;
If you are depressed, it will cheer you;
If you are excited, it will calm you.”
― William Ewart Gladstone

I am a great tea aficionado and love trying out various types of tea.

It was quite interesting that I visit a family friends granddaughter at Jamnagar, and she asks me, what will you have tea or ice-cream coming from a southern culture where you are offered, coffee or more coffee, sometimes, options of tea or cold coffee is offered, but tea or ice-cream seemed rather amusing.

Apparently the consumption of tea in India was documented in the Ramayana, written around 750-500BCE and somewhere it submerged and re-emerged in the first century CE with stories of Buddhist monks like Bodhidharma and Gan Lu being involved with it.

Tea I realized is very personalized, the Kerala station chai, the cutting chai each of their own distinct personality. In Gujarat the system seems to be the traditional masala chai. To Brew a cup of Guajarati chai

1 cup of water bring it to a boil now add

1 tsp of sugar

2 tsps of tea leaves

½ tsp of chai masala^*

Now simmer the fame add a ½ of milk (quantity to taste) bring to a boil,

Add 2-3 mint leaves, 1/2tsp grated ginger, and 2-3 tulasi leaves (basil)

Stir the boiling brew, and turn it off, now strain and drink the brew. Chai masala’s are made and stored in house and by and large the recipe goes as follows, of course it is fine tuned to personal taste.

1 tbsp. Cinnamon

3 tbsp.Cardamom

1 tbsp. Clove

1tbsp.Black pepper

1 tbsp.nutmeg

3 tbsp. Dry ginger powder

These are  all powdered and stored to be used whenever required.

The tea brew turns out quite milky, sweetish and rich in flavour unlike the bitter-sweet brew of Kerala. What I found most interesting is when a tea is ordered, by a group the vendor brings one cup tea and as many saucers as the number of people the single glass tea is poured to everyone in the group if required another glass is ordered, which is again shared by the group.

Breakfast happens at the Farsaan shop where chai and Khakra’s are dished out with piping hot Ghatiya when I pronounced it Ghatte, the vendor corrected me calling it Ghatiya and told me ghatte was Rajasthani.

For more on tea https://www.teabox.com/