Tea or Coffee - Thirsty Thursday

This post is part of The Chennai Bloggers Club's Thirsty Thursday series initiated to keep the spirit of blogging alive and challenging.

Filter kaapi is of paramount importance in any tambrahm family. Even mentioning the word tea is sacrilege. Until my early teens, my fluid intake was Maltova and on rare occasions the quintessential filter kaapi. The rich aroma of fresh brew would always make me beg my mom for at least 1 sip of the kaapi served in a tumbler and dabara.

And then, a family vacation to Cunnoor happened. And that's where tea happened. What better place to taste tea than a tea estate itself! We'd been to my aunt's friend's house - I still remember her name - Padma.  It was a mini bungalow of sorts and she had us seated near the dining table and served tea in cups. Perhaps my first experience with cups as well as tea. I gingerly sipped the tea, for I knew not what tea would taste like, until then. I can still taste that tea after all these years, as if it was a few hours ago. I do not know what brand it was or how she made it. But all I know is I liked tea. And, I have never been able to reproduce that flavor till date.

From then on, it's been a journey to unravel quite a few mysteries of the humble tea. I even attended a workshop on tea tasting a few months ago. I prefer the kadak chai made with milk and I do not like the chai masala.

A few years ago, I discovered green tea and its benefits. And a few weeks ago, I discovered fruit infused tea. I was at a friend's place for lunch and she served mango cinnamon orange flavored tea. I was hooked and smitten. Twinings and Typhoo have such varied flavors but I couldn't find the aforementioned one anywhere here in Chennai.

The last couple of weeks, my mornings and evenings are spent with green tea (with orange infusion) and a cranberry orange infused fruit tea!

Bottomline: I love my tea but my loyalties always lie with the filter kaapi! (in fact my ring tone is the famous leo kaapi tune composed by ARR and the advert starring Arvind Swamy *drool*)

I am a little tea pot....

A tea workshop.. huh! Why would you want to do that? That too, at Anna Nagar - were some of the comments that I had when I told folks at home that I was going for this. 

Kettle is a cute name for a place that serves different kinds of tea and of course, snacks and desserts. (it sort of reminded me of the nursery rhyme - I am a little tea pot... :) ) As Sindhu and I navigated the crazy roads (er.. the auto fellow did), we managed to find this place nestled in a quiet corner of Shanthi Colony, 10th Main Road, Anna Nagar.

I love tea, and have tried different types of tea during my stint in Pune. So, when this workshop was announced I was curious and really wanted to see what Kettle has to offer.

 

Lots of known people, some faces that were known only from Facebook profiles, and some total unknowns constituted the group. I'd thought the workshop will be on the lines of a classroom session where we'll be given vast knowledge on tea and how to brew, how to smell and taste (you know, almost like a wine tasting.. ahem..well.. :P ).

We started off with a black currant iced tea (which they claim is peach iced tea). The high tea was served at the table - this consisted of a couple of mini puffs filled with creamy mushroom with a herbed cheddar cheese, some potato wedges and a couple of sandwiches. The banana walnut cake was to follow later. All of these were great.

As we were drinking the iced tea, the tea makers at the counter started brewing the first tea. There was a bit of chaos at the counter, as the photo enthusiasts started shooting away, and there were requests to pour tea, to keep the timer here, to adjust the position of the kettle, so on and so forth. The tea makers gracefully obliged to all our crazy requests including taking the kettle, timer and glass outside in the sunlight to get some shots.

One thing to note while making iced tea is not drop water-based ice cubes into the tea. The tea should be frozen and then added to the liquid, so it doesn't dilute with time.

As we shuttled between 2 counters to get a glimpse of what they were brewing and how, I wonder if this was actually intended as a workshop. This was more like a bunch of us just visiting a place and ordering some food. The information provided about each of the tea wasn't sufficient; most of the information we already know. I think, a session more on the lines of smell, taste and brew and a hands-on would have made this workshop (and our travel all the way from the other end of the city) more worthwhile.

The tea that were shown to us were Black Currant, Earl Grey, Hibiscus, White, Green (Hara Talwar) and Apricot (which was the mystery tea.. yay to Shriram for getting it right and winning the Rs 300 voucher)

The hibiscus tea is supposed to be taken with honey is what they said. But all of us found it too honey-y and preferred to take it plain. The white tea is supposed to make you slim and get you a glowing skin :D (reminded me of those slimming tea ads on TV)

All in all, this was an experience. There's plenty scope for improvement, so the chaos at the counter can be avoided. More knowledge on tea should be imparted and the staff trained to answer the questions. Few questions earned a "we don't know ma'am" response. And would be lovely if you can start selling the tea leaves as well!

Loved the ambiance, cutlery & crockery.

PS: End of it all, as S says, theru monai nair kadai la poi oru cutting chaya adichathan tea kudicha feeling! :-)

Here are the pictures from the event!

Black Currant Iced Tea

Preethi, addressing the group

Going to make some tea! 

I am little tea pot... short and stout.. :-)

Puffs with Creamy Mushroom Cheddar filling

High Tea

Take away goodie bags (I got the hibiscus)

Dessert Counter

One of the green tea - Hara Muskaan (It's supposed to be smiling :P )

White Tea

Banana Walnut Cake