Almost every household in South Asia starts their day with a steaming cup of refreshing tea. The taste feels like the fresh breath of morning light in your mouth. It looks dull if you don’t spend a significant amount of your day romanticizing the delicacy of Chai? It isn’t just a staple beverage but a constellation of feelings molded in relief and calm for people. Everyone’s favorite delight is a roundabout trip from north to south and beyond, everywhere, a piping cup of hot tea and sometimes coffee.
Ask an Indian to describe Chai; they can present you with analogy pages. All this infatuation for the drink would lead you to believe that the dedication stems from its origin to the place. Well, that, however, is not. Some of our other obsessions, which are not Indian, such as Cricket, Tea, and Coffee, are courtesy of Britishers we have so amusingly adopted as our own.
All roads lead to China
Statistically speaking, Indian is the second largest tea producer and, not so surprisingly, the consumer. For such a hard-core tea-admiring country, it’s hard to fathom that the ingredient hasn’t been in the region for ages.
A trip down the China lane would tell you that tea production can be traced back to the 2nd century BC on Chinese soil. This was explicitly green tea. From there, the historic leaves traveled to neighboring countries, Europe, and Britain.
The Colonial Legacy
The tale of the obsession between the English and tea is well known. Thus, the English introduced tea plantations in India, with the first seeds entering the Indian soil in the 19th century. The Assam region provided the best conditions for the tea plantation, with the first commercial tea plantation being established there in 1837. The success of tea cultivation spread to other valleys of India, including Darjeeling in West Bengal and the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu. And there began the decades of tryst between Indians and tea.
The Indian Twist
Tea might be a colonial legacy, but adding the typical Indian flair to the mix, we revolutionized the beverage world by presenting “Chai.” Adding milk to tea wasn’t traditional until we did it. Give lemons to an Indian, and they’ll make it into 25 different dishes. In India, one can find different types of unique Chai preparation. For instance, Masala Chai, Kashmiri Kahwa, Adrak Chai, Bombay Cutting Chai, Tulsi Chai, Karak Chai. We have for all our blues and pinks, for every mood and time.
The Tea Culture
It is in the diversity of India where true beauty lies. The varied tongue, customs, rituals, festivals, and traditions all summarized into one umbrella with their love for tea. Chai has a calming presence everywhere, from morning reliefs to evening rituals, office breaks, and mid-class college breathers. The obsession with tea transcends every boundary and difference. It isn’t just a drink; it is deemed as a gesture of respect, an extension of friendship, an exchange of greetings, and an initiation of a loving bond.
