Thankful in India :: Tea Done Right

Tea. Nothing else in my day gets me started quite like a strong cup of tea. I prefer mine strong, hot, black, sweet. Yes I'm still talking about tea. Stay with me people.

Tea comes from all over the world, but there is nothing quite like the flavors from India. Darjeeling is the mostly widely known variety; grown on the slopes of the Himalayas in the northeast part of India. 

But a lesser known variety is actually the one my husband's family prefers: Assam, a high plateau region even further northeast in India which straddles the Brahmaputra River. It is the largest tea-growing region in the world. The first harvest in Assam can have a fragrant, fresh, flowery and slightly spicy character. Yum! 

Assam is the region my mother-in-law grew up in. I told a bit about her story many blogs back. Her home was a small village in the Garo Hills of Assam. Her father, a local missionary, was the only man in the village with a gun. And so when a tiger would venture into the village (and threaten life or livestock) he would be called to handle the matter - pronto. My husband grew up with the stories and the skins of these big cats his grandfather shot.

I've always been a tea lover, but I had never had Chai before visiting India. And when I came home I craved it. Looked for it, and then tried it at Starbucks. It was like liquefied pumpkin pie. Now Pumpkin pie is perfectly fine --- on Thanksgiving, after turkey. But first thing in the morning when you are expecting straight up tea? I don't know what they do to it over at Starbucks, but letmetellya ... that ain't Chai. 

REAL Chai is strong black tea boiled with spices like cardamon, star anise, cloves, cinnamon. Most of the street vendors I saw making it also included the sugar when bringing the mixture to a boil. Once piping hot, milk is added then carfully brought back up to just under a boil (as you would not want to burn the milk). The Indian version of Chai still tastes like tea, only with a spiciness to it. Starbucks? not so much.

So this is my last installment of Thankful in India. I will give you the final top 10 on Thanksgiving Day, so check back next week. A few of you have said you enjoyed this series, and so I was considering doing another one about shopping in India. If you all want more stories, let me know!