High on Chai The Steaming Cuppa Tea

Chai chai is what one hears right in the morning with the onset of winters. During this season the flavour of tea invigorates one and truly wakes one up. The hot and steaming cuppa provides a joy and satisfaction that nothing else can, first thing in the day.

India being a land of diversity has a lot of variety in tea and tea drinking. Beginning from North, the Kashmiri people enjoy two kinds of tea majorly, the Kahwa and the Noon or the Ksheer chai. The Kahwa is a form of black tea with no milk. The leaves of Kahwa are quite expensive but refined and are used in minimum quantity. Water is boiled with a little sugar, crushed green cardamom and cinnamon powder. Just a pinch of Kahwa leaves is added to the water and the stove is turned off. The leaves shouldn’t be boiled they are delicate and mild and have to be brewed in boiled water after rubbing them to make a powder of them. Now is added some almond, crushed or sliced with a little saffron in the tea cups, over which the hot tea is poured. The Kahwa leaves give out an earthy brown wine like colour. The almond pieces swim in the tea as the hot and steaming tea is sipped and gulped down in the cold weather. The flavours are heavenly!

The other chai is the Ksheer or Noon chai. Ksheer means salty and Noon means salt in Kashmiri, Rajasthani, Punjabi, Nepali and many other languages. Noon chai is traditionally made from special tea leaves, milk, salt, pistachios, almonds, cardamom, and cinnamon and cooked in a Samovar. Note there is no water in it and its leaves boiled in milk give it a beautiful rose pink colour. A pinch of baking soda is sometimes added to help give it more of a pronounced colour. A more recent preparation of this tea also includes sugar but it is not traditionally consumed in Kashmir. Noon chai is also served in many parts of Pakistan at special occasions, weddings, and during the winter months when it is sold at many kiosks. It is a cup of prestige and honour and the hospitable warm hearted Kashmiris serve it with great love to their guests with delicious local breads like Bakarkhani, Sheermal, Chot, Katlam, Kulcha, Lavaas and so on.