The Tea accompaniments and the romance with the tea

Any tea session is incomplete without tea accompaniments. Just like a Burger is incomplete without fries and Dosa is incomplete without the sambhar, similarly, a tea is incomplete without the accompaniments. The tea accompaniments have a huge range. For example, the simpler ones like humble glucose biscuit, bread layered with butter and the slippery bun-muska. On the other hand, there are the complex ones like the mouth watering pakoras or the mayonnaise sandwich.

The Indian tea doesn’t discriminate between the rich and the poor. On one hand the rich relish their tea with an accompaniment of cake, pastries, and sandwiches. On the other hand, the poor enjoy their cup of tea with a rusk or a glucose biscuit. It will be fair to say that nothing unites Indians like a hot cup of tea.

The farmers could have resolved the current crisis by using the tea-tactic. They could have invited the PM over a cup of tea. The PM had used the same tea-tactic to woo US President Barrack Obama when he visited India.

Tea served with an accompaniment resolves major issues

A cup of tea can resolve many crises and if offered with an accompaniment it becomes easier to convince the aggrieved party. It is for this reason that all annual sales conferences are held at exclusive resorts. The sales team is made to swallow the pill of hiked targets with a cup of tea and buttery cookies. Even in the kitty parties, the host offers tea with some of the best accompaniments. Cucumber and chicken sandwiches layered with mayonnaise are served and along with it are displayed the newly done interiors.

The chemistry of tea and its accompaniments

How it all started?

A love story between tea and its accompaniments

It was monsoon time and there were dark clouds all over. The downpour was heavy and the blowing breeze was making rains even more romantic. The stone-hearted parapet for the first time seemed losing the war to an enemy against whom it was supposed to protect. As a result, the whole balcony became wet and slippery.  A hot cup of tea was just the need of the hour. Meanwhile seeing the wife going to the kitchen the husband made his usual demand of a plate of hot pakoras as an accompaniment to the tea.

The romantic weather made even the pakora fall in love with the tea. It started wooing the tea and slowly jumped from the serving plate into the saucer holding the cup of tea. The first kiss between the pakora and the steaming hot tea is what we celebrate every monsoon. From that day onwards Indians love to have an accompaniment of pakoras with a hot cup of tea during the rains.

Romancing the tea

On a chilly winter morning when the sun itself feels lazy to get out of bed and hides under a blanket of clouds one just feels to be served a  hot cup of tea in the bed. Most of the opportunist husbands try to take advantage of the situation by making a hot cup of tea for their wives. This especially works in situations where the spouse is on non-talking terms. One however needs to be careful as expressing too much love early in the morning may create acidity. Smart husbands understand this very well and serve an accompaniment of biscuits with bed tea.

This tradition started by husbands made the tea-biscuit combination a lifelong partnership. The relationship between a hot cup of tea and its favourite accompaniment biscuit is like that of a wife and husband. The tea is always hot and you need to blow it cold before sipping. On the other hand, the biscuit tastes better after dipped in tea. But one has to be careful not to dip for too long in the cup as it may lose its shape and personality.

The heated arguments between colleagues over a cup of tea

It was a hot summer evening. The temperature was soaring and there was no respite from the heat. People were standing outside the office complex. But instead of crowding at the regular tea stall, the entire sales team was standing in front of the juice corner. Mango shakes, Lassi, Pepsi, and Coke were being gulped to quench the thirst. The neighbourhood tea stall was feeling lonely. Summers are killing for tea. Everyone wants something cooler and suddenly tea is no more hot.

But tea was not going to surrender so easily. It got an idea! Just facing the tea stall was a McDonald hoarding displaying a huge picture of a Mcveggie burger with French fries. Tea decided that if it had to get the office crowd back in this heat, it will need an accompaniment. It sold the idea to the tea stall owner to make the tea menu more elaborate. As a result, his shop shelves were invaded by Mathri (flaky salted biscuit made of white flour), Fan (a long 10 inches or so flour based flaky snack), and Rusk (a hard twice bake bread).

The tea stall is no more lonely on a summer evening. The office crowd can be seen dipping mathris and fans in a cup of tea and enjoying the gossip. The feeling of dipping  a mathri or a fan in a cup of tea is like achieving targets with an accompaniment of incentives.

Tea is cool if the accompaniments are hot

A visit to a hill station is a must-do ritual for every newly-wed couple. Sitting on the balcony of the hotel room and watching the snow-clad mountains along with hubby is like a dream come true. Watching a rom-com movie from a cozy bed and sipping tea served from a hot kettle is a romantic moment that has been captured by most Bollywood movies.

An evening stroll on the mall road and seeing people crowding a tea stall makes the couple inquisitive about the rush. It’s only when the tea-stall owner serves them tea in a glass along with Maggi do they realise why the joint is so popular with the tourists. Maggi is one of the most popular accompaniments with tea on hill stations. And those who have a taste for non-vegetarian items the Maggi gets replaced by the shiny white boiled eggs. So popular are these tea accompaniments on hill-stations that you can see every second joint displaying Maggi packs hanging like danglers. Also hanging from the wall is a wire-mesh basket holdings eggs.

Tea has many partners

Similarly, there are a whole lot of accompaniments that go very well with tea like Bun-Muska or the humble white bread with a thick yellow layered butter are a few of them. The list goes on and on. To sum up it’s beyond doubt that tea is the number one beverage in the country. And when served with an accompaniment it wins the heart of every Indian.

You can enjoy reading more such stories on my blog. Click on the following link:

The Tea Lovers, the Coffee Connoisseurs and the Game of Thrones

The Art of Making Tea: My cup of tea is different from yours

One tea that I had recently enjoyed and which is very simple to make is the Wagh Bakri instant mix. Just empty the sachet in a hot cup of water and voila your masala tea is ready. Click on the link below to know more:

https://waghbakritea.com/m/instant-tea.php