Time for our own tea party!

CHENNAI: Rain Jain is a tea addict. He has to have his share of chai every morning. Only, he is all of eight months old. His father and businessman Rahul Jain, a tea fanatic himself who introduced Rain to tea, says his kid throws a tantrum if he sips tea without offering Rain some. Rahul shares, “I like my tea with a bit of masala and drink it from a saucer. Rain sits next to me and makes sure I share it with him.” Like Rahul, 27-year-old Packirisamy Murugan is a self-confessed tea addict. He can clearly describe his favourite brew of lime with tea now, but it took him a couple of years’ experimentation to get there. “I have been trying various combinations of tea for 12 years,” he says. And he is one of those who will go to any lengths for tea. “When my brother and I were travelling in Kashmir, we heard about a small shop that sold authentic Kashmiri tea, Kawah. When we got to the shop, it was closed. So we camped near it overnight just to try the tea the next day!” He excitedly recalls the taste of the tea, “It is made from cinnamon, cardamom, saffron, tea powder, honey and finely-powdered almonds. It tastes brilliant.” Rahul and Packiri might display boundless love for the beverage but they are not completely willing to add an extra cup of tea to their already burgeoning tea count, to bring in good revenue to stakeholders in the tea industry, as suggested by a tea estate association recently. “If everyone in the country consumes one extra cup of tea, it may help tea farmers, but I drink so much of it already. And I don’t think it’s something that will directly impact me,” Rahul declares. The city also has a lot of  those others who call themselves “ex-tea fans”, who are ready to rekindle their interest in tea when it becomes a national drink. “I used to drink almost 10 cups of chai each day, but later had to worry about diabetes and other health ailments, and was forced to give up my favourite drink,” says 54-year-old Ganesh. “But if it means that tea cultivators in our country will make more money if I drink just one cup a day, I’m more than willing to start sipping again,” he adds, with an unmistakable happy glint in his eyes.