I recently spent a month in India. I'm spoiled. I can no longer consume the watery Lipton tea bags that pass for tea any more.
A good cup of tea strikes the perfect balance between the various flavors of the tea leaves and milk and spices and sugar. As the tea becomes more complex, with different spices, it becomes increasingly difficult for the tea chef to keep this balance, thereby separating the tea men, from the tea boys. The tea boys, as anyone who's frequented an Indian office building knows, are superior. As it turns out, most office buildings have a small platoon of boys who walk around at regular intervals and serve tea to the employees in their offices and cubicles...but more on that in another post.
The seasoned tea connoisseur revels in the complexity of a professionally prepared cup of hot, spicy tea, to refine and sharpen his or her senses on a cool North Indian morning or in the foggy valleys of Kerela (picture above). But you can make a good pot of tea at home quite easily, and with some rather simple, common ingredients. We'll start with a basic preparation for a pot of Indian tea, and progress in future posts to more complex flavor combinations.
Terminology Break: Chai
The first thing to be clear of is that tea in India is different from tea in the UK or Russia or Turkey. Indian tea is as much about the spices and thick frothy milk as it is about the tea leaves. In other parts of the world, like in Europe, tea is often taken unadulterated. In the Middle East in contrast, tea is taken with strong spices but no milk. It's a wonderful drink no matter how it's made.
First, realize that ~20% of tea, is water. Now, it may seem a bit over the top but the type of water you use, actually makes a difference. For those of you, like me, accustomed to drinking bottled water (or even spring water), tell me if I'm wrong - but you probably notice the strong chemical-y and chlorine-y taste of tap water. I can't drink it. That, and its been linked to hair loss in men in some European studies. When many subtle tastes are involved, I like to go with bottled water, or water from a source without chlorine.
Second, the other thing to remember is that the spices and flavors you'll be adding to the tea reach their peak at different temperatures. You don't want to burn or overcook them, and that's surprisingly easy to do. I've made sure to detail this but you need to make sure you pay particular attention to this.
And finally, you're going to spend a solid 15-20min making this tea. Most of that will be spent watching the pot boil, so grab a nice book to read. Don't leave the pot unattended; milk tends to love nothing better than to burn all over your stove. Also, don't cut corners and use that flimsy, watery skim milk, or 1% milk. Go Paula Deen and treat yourself to 2% or go all out and get vitamin-D milk.
Begin with a clean pot. I don't like non-stick pots or pans. Stainless steel cooks reasonably evenly, has no real smell or flavor, and is easy to clean.
Heat up the empty, dry, pot for a minute on low heat.
These are fennel seeds. They have a distinct minty aroma and in many parts of India, they're eaten after a meal. Ayurveda, the ancient Indian medicinal science, claims chewing on fennel seeds after a meal supports digestion and prevents tooth decay. They also taste pretty good, like licorice.
If you're not used to the flavor then I recommend you skip this step. If you want to try something new, put about 1/8 of a teaspoon in your warm pot and dry roast them for about half a minute. (About half the amount shown in the picture to the right.) When the aroma is strong, douse the pot with no more than 1-2 tablespoons of water - this is to prevent the seeds from burning. If they burn, go back to the beginning with a clean pot and start over.
Simmer the seeds while you prepare your ginger and pull your box of tea out of the pantry.
The image to the right is a teaspoon of tea leaves. We don't use tea bags unless we're stranded in a gulag or have entirely given up on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
There's several brands of tea you can buy at your local Indian store. The first time you try black tea, you won't notice much of a difference but after about 3-4 pots of tea, you'll begin to see that some are stronger than others. Some have stronger flavors, some have stronger aromas, some are more 'crisp' and fresh, while others can be better described as bold and blunt. Like wine, there is no particular wrong or right, you get to pick. I've put links up to a few of my favorite brands here.
Add about 1.5 even teaspoons of tea leaves for every cup of tea. Add about 1/4 cup of water to your pot and add the 1.5tsp of tea leaves. Let come to a boil, about 4-5 minutes. Never add tea grounds/leaves to a dry pot (like you did the fennel) or it will immediately destroy the tea grounds.
This is where those tea grounds come from. Above is a pictures of yours truly in a tea plantation in Munnar Kerala, in south western India. Tea leaves grow in waist high bushes on miles and miles of lush green rolling hill sides. Every day, local farmers pluck the tea leaves and roast them. It's only after roasting that you get the distinct tea aroma. If you walked in those bushes above, you wouldn't know you were surrounded by tea at all from the smell of it!
When I went to Kerala, we ran into a group of local women on their lunch break. They pick tea leaves all day and deliver them to the tea roasters. This group of elderly women were happily sitting along the side of the road, with their tiffins stacked high, donning their bright white Kerala saris. It still amazes me how their saris never got dirty. What amazes me more is just how proper this one's English was! You'd never expect an old tea picker lady in rural India, to have a full on conversation with you in English.
There are as many ways to make tea in India as there are states in the union (28 states and 7 union territories). Common to most are two ingredients - milk and ginger. You can also add cinnamon, cloves and even peppercorn. All these are a bit more hardy and don't burn as quickly so they're added after the tea grounds but before the ginger.
For every mug of tea I use about a teaspoon of thinly sliced ginger. Here in the picture to the left is a fresh thumb of ginger. Do yourself a favor, use fresh ginger. The ginger powder in your pantry is about as useful as the cardbox box it's in. (Well, the cardboard has fiber.)
Peel the ginger and thinly slice it. I used to grate the ginger but I soon realized that this made it more prone to burning. Also, grated ginger tends to lose its flavor much quicker than sliced ginger. My theory is that the increased surface area of grated ginger forces it to overcook. Also, you lose a lot of the ginger liquid in the grater or chopping block if you try to mince or grate it. Just chop it in thin slices or long strips.
Once the tea water is boiling, add your ginger and let it boil. Be careful to not leave the ginger in for more than a minute because it will burn. If you burn the ginger, go back...
Wait for your ginger tea water to come to a boil ~1min. (Picture above.)
In the meantime, pour some milk in your cup. Like I said above, a true, thick, satisfying tea demands some fat content, so go with 2% or whole milk. Measure out about 80-90% of the volume of milk as you want tea (the rest of the water will evaporate). So if you're making 1 cup of tea, use about 0.8 cups of whole milk or about 0.9 cups of 2% milk. Warm up this milk slightly in the microwave; I put it in for about 30 seconds if its straight out of the fridge. If you pour cold milk into the boiling tea water, it forces a blanching reaction and stops the cooking process. The tea flavor dissipates and the milk fats get lodged inside the fiberous ginger root. Then, as you try to get the whole mixture up to a boil, you risk inadvertently undercooking the milk, overcooking the tea and burning the ginger. Pour in warm milk and save yourself the headache.
Add the warm milk to the ginger tea water. The boiling will stop. In about a minute, the boil will resume but you'll see a thin layer dark brown of milk solids begin to form on the top. Some traditionalists like to peel this layer off the boiling tea and eat it. I just mix it back in. Let the tea BOIL. Full on BOIL. Once it gets to almost overflow out of the pot, turn down the heat. Then let it come to a full rolling boil again a second, and a third time. You'll lose a bit of volume in this to evaporation, but that's just going to make your tea that much stronger. Turn down the heat to medium and let the tea simmer for about 5 solid minutes. Once 5 minutes is over, let it cool until the boiling stops. Then strain.
Here's one final trick that helps elevate the tea flavor: When you're straining, make sure to use a spoon and squeeze out the last few drops of concentrated tea syrup from the grounds and ginger at the bottom of the pot. These last few spoons make a noticeable difference! Also, pour your tea into a cup from higher than you usually would (safely of course) encouraging bubbles and the mixture of air. This aeration process actually makes a big difference for coffee, and the benefit to tea is noticeable as well. In some parts of India, roadside
chaiwallas will repeatedly pour coffee from one glass into another 3, 4, 5 times in front of you in exhibition of their talent to pour 4 foot long streams of liquid, but also, to enhance the flavor and cool the boiling liquid down to a more palatable temperature.
