How to use tea balls?

Dear Vandhana,

Thanks for completing the English high tea tray! Luv the yummy scones with clotted cream, the best ones I had was in Cornawall, many many many years ago!

Even I remember vaguely abour reading something similar about tea leaves!

And yes, even I cannot resist a Chai Latte...but my my, it is a calorie bomb and one can forget the other meals for the day:) I always request for soy milk, hoping it can amend atleast some sins!

L, Kamla

Hi Ladies,
The Tea Party was becoming too delicious to resist , so I am gatecrashing !

Now-a-days we are able to see different kinds of tea in India too. Some are unbelievably expensive. But its nice to experiment with the diff. flavours . I heard there are speciality tea-bars in Bangalore.
Has anyone tried something called "OOLOONG" tea? Comes from China. Terribly overpriced for a small container. But the label claims it to be medicinal, somewhat like the korean ginseng. Is it really tealeaves tea, or the product of someother plant?

Manjula

Vandhana, hope the masala chai you mentioned is not the same masala chai made by the Gujaratis. I love that taste tooo. I do add few strands of lemon grass sometimes and that gives a nice flavour.
Recently, when I went to the Choki dhani resort in Jaipur, I had the ginger tea and that was awesome. I also like the masala chai that we get at Kerala highways.

You guys made me droool mentioning all about the english high tea - with scones and etc.... wow, I'm having a English high tea this sunday evening. period.

Let me check out what recipes of cakes & bikkis I can get from CV thread. might go to Blore tomorrow so, let me see what I can steal from the malls...

now, guys, pls explain what is Chai Latte?????????

Love,

And, Manju - the gatecrasher, welcome to our high tea.
I've already got few addresses of TEA BARS IN BANGALORE.
Best one seems to be INFINITEA, located on cunningham road diagonally opp wockhardt hospital.
they have some 20 varieties of Iced Tea, 6 varieties of herbal tea, lots of exotic ones - flower tea, pearl tea, etc. suppose to have great knick knacks to go with.
flower tea - they roll tea leaves in such a way that when it's dropped into the hot water it opens up like a flower...
after reading exotic names from Vandhana, I think I'm gonna gatecrash to Infinitea.
There's another place, VARIETEAS at the Forum mall, Koramangala
There's CHAI BAR at the Leela Palace, Airport Road.
that's all for now. will let you know as and when I visit them.

Love,

Hey Manju,

Welcome to our Tea parlour! The best accompaniment for a tea party is a good chat and I know what a fine talker you are! We cannot afford to miss that:) Haa, touche!

I have had Oolong many time here, generally served at the chinese restaurants, but I am not a fan of it. Maybe one has to drink it regularly and develop a taste for it. It is between a green and black tea, lighter than the regular black tea. But it is real tea leaves and not anything else. It is also often mixed with jasmine and that is somewhat better for my palate. But I personally feel that you are not missing out on anything much.

As for the medicinal values, there is some value attached to almost everything these days. They say it is good for fat reduction and I am not going to buy that! It is also supposed to be an anti-oxidant.

So armed with all that info, you may be tempted to try a cuppa in one of those exotic places that Meena has mentioned?

L, Kamla

Oh my Meena,

I wish I wish I could be in Bangalore today! I feel that B'lore has some of the most interesting eat outs and places to visit. It seems to be growing by leaps and bounds. I must say, when they do something, they do it with style, surely!
So when you are enjoying a cuppa there, have one for me too!

All the same, I can't help thinking that one will come out with a much lighter purse after having a single cup of chai in those exooootic places:))

Chai Latte is nothing but your regular Indian masala tea. It is regular tea brewed with vanilla, cinnamon and other such spices( may vary from place to place), lot of hot milk and sugar. The trick being that they beat the milk till it foams and is served in attractive cups with foaming milk on top and dusted with ground cinnamon or crumbled chocolate or cocoa powder. It is the packaging, you see:). All that we do in India is swing the drink from one lota to the other, a la server Sundaram!

I have attached a link for your joy:))

L, Kamla

Authentic Chai - The Best in Flavored Chai Latte Drinks

Hi all,
Did you read the newsreports last week about some killjoy research group coming up with their latest finding : that all the antioxidant goodness in tea is lost by the addition of milk - even that two and a half spoonfuls we add. They HAD to act pious just when the humble cuppa was getting "sexed up" ,(as Blair would say), and going places -ya, exotic places !

Kamla, thanx for that oolong education. Not that I was actually about to scoot with a king's ransom to get myself a tin of it . Was just curious and all.
And ah ! that server sundaram lota act ! When you finally get the lota, it is only half tea and the rest , froth ! Saw in Discovery channel once, about "pulled tea" in Malaysia, chai going from glass to glass in gravity defying angles ! Almost horizontal !

Meena, thanx for the list. Looking foreward to your report card on Bengalooru's teahouses.

Manjula

Ladies,

When did a question on use of tea balls become a tea party.
Well count me in too. I love tea and I love to chat too...... what a nice way to relax....

Anyone here tried Chai latte from Starbucks...

I hear Starbucks is making its entry in India soon or has it already........?

Jothi.

Hi Ladies,
I too heard that the Star Bucks here is serving this chai latte...have to try it.....
I tried Green tea with Sushi once , but did not like it so much. Someone from Korea presented a ginseng tea, kept it for 2 years and passed to another tea lover. I also still have the Earl Grey tea from Liondon, but hubby being a coffee drinker, i am too lazy to have chai by myself...and when indian friends are here , we make the typical punjabi chai.....
But after all this will try out different sorts, at least to get the hang of them, so that i will be able to enjoy, when i visit all those tea parlours in b'lore!

Thanks Meena for all the addresses....next time i am in B'lore , ?

Hai Meena,
I have booked my train ticket to B'lore, really! I shall be there by the first week of April. And I think my people may be living near INFINITEA. We can catch up there, what say?