Making Tea

Small boy learning his trade in a roadside cafe in rural central India.

Tea, did I call it? A poor translation for chai. Yes, it’s made with tea leaves – and ginger or cardamom or cinnamon or aniseed or some combination of these or other spices. And it’s all boiled together with quite a lot of milk in this pan, and finally strained through a cloth into the kettle.

Then the kettle is brought back to the boil when a bus is heard in the distance, ready for the sudden influx of thirsty, dusty travellers.

You only get a little cup, and it’s all you want. Very tasty and thirst-quenching, but too rich to want a lot.

Then the contents of the cloth are chucked back in the pan with some fresh leaves and spices and milk and water, and the process is repeated.

The cloth doesn’t look all that wholesome, but the teas is well boiled after last meeting the cloth anyway.

Mmmm. I needed that. (Cycling is even thirstier than riding the bus. At least it’s less dusty, except when a bus or truck goes past.)

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