How do I brew this tea? A question I have to face every day of my life?

To the novice, I offer the illustrated “do’s and don’t” to convert them into serious tea followers. After they become one, the answer becomes more casual and simple.

Inspired by this question, and being bred in a tea family. I thought of sharing a childhood memoir on how my grandma prepared the afternoon tea.

We had a fairly large family of nine and few servants, to brew for. We never ran out of leaves but sometimes I heard my grandma claim, “children should not drink tea.” Then we always knew that she had miscalculated the proportion of water set in the oven.

Both elders and children enjoyed our afternoon tea together, with biscuits from a baker, who arrived every Wednesday of the week, walking countless miles. We even eagerly waited for that day.

Although everyone in the family had their own likes of tea. My grandmother stuck to her own regime of brewing. She had definitely made a point in the family that when it came to tea (especially the afternoon one) she had to make it herself. I remember she had an aluminum container with a lid where she stuffed her own blend, though it was always single estate. If I recall it correctly today, it could be a seasonal blend, nobody actually felt the need to enquire because no one disagreed with what they got, until the day, she lived.

The water was boiled in a sumptuous container; it is called “Dek chi” in local dialect. I remember hearing some rambling when it was time to set it aside. The most important ritual was the amount of leaves used and the dispensation time into the various cups. Steeping and brewing was not important to her as she used a bowl headed long serving spoon (It is called Da-rdu) to stir, carry and flow the brew up and down in the container. She never had any use for pots. She served the small cups for children; a little larger one accompanied by a saucer to the elders and aluminum mugs for the servants.

The servants were the first to be served because they added salt to their tea. Salt and milk were served separately. One of the servant who took care of my grandfathers horse liked his tea with a bit of milk, he did the most amazing thing that I will always remember. He always added a little milk, a pint of salt and then some gushing cold water from the tap. He kept his mug low enough to create a fizz of bubbles on top of his tea and then gulped his tea like beer in a single breath. That was how he liked it.

We had our share with sugar already added to it. I don’t really recall the aroma or flavor because then it was just another cup of tea and didn’t need to answer on- How do I brew this tea?

Tea lovers all over the world put some good effort to come up with a perfect cup of tea, but isn’t it “Choice” that matters, after all!