Want my cup of tea

It had been lingering on my mind for quite long now - just the way its effect lingers on my taste buds till I have it again - my cup of tea....

I wanted to write about it when one of my friends told he had given up tea! How can you give it up? Anyway I just let it be. And then on my flight back from Chandigarh, the airline magazine I read was totally dedicated to tea. Was it a marketing strategy? Because during the flight I bought 2 expensive cups of tea, which was quite unlike me. I promised to myself that I would blog about it as soon as I reached home! But then I let it be...yet again.
Sometime during the last week I had been sharing my evening cup with one friend or the other...just appreciating how the same ingredients make it taste so different each and every time. The taste changes everytime if I have with that extra spicy "lahsun sev" or with the simple old fashion marie biscut(not biscuit!). I thought I would certainly write about it - my journey since I became a teaholic...not that I have it many a times in a day, but I want that 1 cup of good tea to keep me going.

The morning glory of that cup or the evening peace it brings after a tiring day....how it relaxes exactly you like an ideal husband should! I had an extra liking for that roadside 3 rupees(now its surely more with inflation) tea accompanied with the piping hot mirch bajji just near my old office building.
Tracing my journey from the beginning, I had started with "Punjabi" tea - the big glass with thick tea made mostly of milk and that extra helping of sugar. You reach a Gurdwara in Punjab at 5 am and you will be greeted with that weighty glass of tea!
Quite a many years later, down south here, I discovered various ways of experimenting with it - cardomom, ginger, fennel- one at a time or all thrown together. The east effect - leaf tea with just 1 spoon of milk or lemon tea with that beautiful golden color. Finally a couple of years back, thanks to my neighbour, I had a tryst with Kahwa - the kashmiri chai. I would have never imagined that one could have tea with almonds in it!!
Then further south - in the southern hemisphere...while I was in Oz, I got to taste the sweet cinnamon tea -- better known as "chai latte"...my saviour whenever I had the urge for that cup on the move in the Australian continent.
Then when I was on the equator a few days back - got to taste "teh chi" - tea in singapore - not very strong, but lovely color and rejuvenating effect!
Now my latest discovery -- tea with lemon grass...strong smell with equally strong taste...but no doubt good one!! Many more which I appreciate -- kulhad chai, cutting tea in that small glass ...cups bought to fit various moods when I drink tea...as if cups add flavor, actually they do at a different level..signaling the mind that the flavor has been enhanced... :-)
So while a write, I have put the tea to boil and soon I will have that cup ready...for me to sip and think...I finally blogged about it...and the tea continues to linger now as a blog too...