A CHAI A DAY KEEPS THE DOCTOR AWAY

So why is chai so good for you?

It’s all in the heavy blend of fragrant spices.  They give a naturally sweet and delicious taste.

Black tea is loaded with polyphenols, is full of antioxidants and fights free radicals. Ginger is an anti-inflammatory star, as well as aiding digestion and improving circulation. Cardamon supports the immune system, and cinnamon has wonderful digestive properties and may help balance blood sugar. Cinnamon is also reputed to be an aphrodisiac!

It has also been suggested that chai has antibacterial and anti-cancer properties. Mostly thanks to the cardamon, cinnamon and ginger which are superfoods with high levels of antioxidants and phytochemicals with cancer-prevention properties.

All of those elements together create a winning cup of goodness that everyone should be drinking as it can improve your health, satisfy your taste buds and give you a wonderful sense of well-being.  Oh, and a lot less caffeine too.

So replace one of your daily coffees with a chai – it can be just as convenient!  Just pop a teaspoon or two of chai into a diffuser.  Pour boiling water over the strainer, add a dash of milk if so desired, strain and serve!

THE WAY INDIA DRINKS TEA

Chai is native to India. No historical account exists to vouch for this but given how (now) over six generations have grown up drinking chai in one form or the other, it wouldn’t be an incorrect claim. Sometime in the first half of the 20th century, the Tea Board of India, in an effort to boost consumption of tea within the country, decided to run a slew of advertising campaigns that built tea into people’s routines. What they were promoting was, in fact, a lower grade tea, most likely fannings and dust, which is a residual-class of tea obtained after the leaves have been processed for their better part. The flavors of this tea were so strong and dark that a generous splash of milk and a wad of sugar was essential to counter its potency.

Much later in the 60s, when the CTC machines were invented, better quality leaves could be fed into this industrial-looking contraption  that churned out, on a very large scale at that, even nuggets of black tea.

The vast majority took to it quite agreeably. Loose-leaf teas were so expensive that they could never take off commercially within the country, but CTC granules of lower grade leaf were far more susceptible to go mass. And it did. The addition of milk and sugar remained.

With time, consumption of chai went from being a social ritual to a functional one, built intrinsically into the daily life of the common man.

It may have had humble beginnings but chai is conditioned into my system now. And much the same way it has grown into the very ebbs of Indian sociability and that’s just how it will be. It will never be an alternative to loose-leaf tea, nor should it. It may not match the aesthetic values of terroir, seasonality or make, but it reflects a highly enthusiastic side of tea you won’t come across in any other kind.

Chai Time

First of all Wishing you a great Year ahead. May this year be memorable, enriching & fulfilling for you and your loved ones.

So December was quite eventful and passed in a ziffy. It was a mix of everything – it was my brother’s marriage so lot of running around in December. We had a short travel and then marriage preparations and functions just ended the year. A small family get together to mark the New Year and see December went by so quickly.

I still have the hangover of the entire events.

It was fun time in the preparations when you have so much to do.  I actually had a diary with daily To-Do list still, things were pending. All those small discussions with respect to the preparation goes in my memory hard disk, which now I can sit back and laugh at. At that time you are bugged. The entire family came down and it was great to see all. It makes the event so much more memorable. We had almost like a 5-6 events some for all, some for immediate family which really leaves you with less breathing time.

Nach Gana goes without saying in Indian Marriages so we had a surprise planned for my brother on his sangeet and then the regular dance. Overall it was an emotional and a important event for all of us.