Indian Tea Culture - Consumption of Tea in India

Consumption of Tea in India

Tea is made both at home and outside. Outside the home, tea is most commonly and easily found at the ubiquitous tea stalls that dot just about every street in India. The tea stall has become a part of the urban landscape and a cultural institution, even celebrated as in the recent art exhibition titled “Chai Wallah and other stories” by the artist Vijay Gille. “Chai Wallah” is the Hindi title accorded to the man who runs the tea stall. “Chai-Pani” literally meaning, tea and water, on the other hand have become the preferred phrase to refer to the petty corruption that is rampant in India.

According to the historian Ville Melgén, the taste for tea was developed in India through a dedicated punch in the face of the producers of tea once tea production in India gained momentum. Initially, free samples of tea were offered from horse drawn carts belonging to various companies. As early as 1907, Brooke Bond, an English tea company started experimenting with a fleet of horse drawn vans for distributing teas. The British tradition of taking tea with a little milk and sugar was introduced along with the samples.

Unlike the British cup of tea, tea in India is not served in a set where the leaves are steeped separately. Typically, tea in India is consumed with both milk and sugar but the tea leaves are not prepared separately by being steeped. Instead, the tea leaves are boiled along with additions and then boiled again after the addition of milk and sugar. Sometimes the tea leaves themselves are used as flavouring. In many parts of the country, the most special tea is one where the tea leaves are boiled solely in milk.

There are many other popular variations depending on regional and cultural affiliations. By and large, tea drinkers in India drink milk tea. There are many other popular variations depending on regional and cultural affiliations. The now well known Masala Chai, Kadak Chai (typically a feature of the mountain community of North India, this is a very strongly brewed tea, almost to the point of bitterness), Malai Mar Ke Chai (where a generous dollop of full fat cream is spooned into the cup of tea) are some of the more popular variations.