a tea tale

Great I forgot the honey. No I didn’t forget my honey. I forgot the honey. Which honey? The honey in the honey lemon ginger mint tea. Is it tea? well no actually as I don’t put tea in it as well. Oh ok.. and today I didn’t get the mint as well. We ran out of mint. And I forgot the lemon as well.

I like to carry a flask of hot honey ginger lemon water and a few mint leaves on the side to office and quietly sip as the mere pelebs have their over boiled over flavoured tannin disguised as tea fix. I am not normally a tea or coffee drinker in office. Not that I mind any of the above. I kind of love the coffee at the kings circle south Indian restaurants and at the coffee shops, and I don’t mind the hot tea at the roadstall, especially during a rainy day and with a few pakodas. Samosas are good as well. So ya coffee is best had expensive and the tea best had cheap in my book, with filter coffee being the happy exception. I can’t figure whats so hot about earl grey or even chamomile tea. The latter tastes like sweet chameli hair oil poured in your cup. The most interesting tea I have had is at Bhavnagar wholesale market. Here the gujjus add Boost to their tea. DO NOT repel in disgust. My gujju genes ensure I love it. They actually add Boost or Bournvita to their tea to give you a rounded sweet chocolaty flavour. I sure it gives your percentage of recommended daily dose as well.

The coffees in office are absolutely disgusting as is the tea. When you have the machine ready mix teas, they are completely devoid of any aroma. Its better to walk to a nearby tapri to get your cuppa.

So here I am. Sipping my ginger honey lemon mint tea, without honey lemon and mint. Actually I was lucky with the lemon. I walked into the pantry and asked for a lemon. He pulled one from the fridge and looked at me “do you want me to cut it?” “what else” I replied. “Do you think I want a lemon to hang on my car?” That had the rest of the staff there in splits. (it does sound funnier in hindi)

For the record the concoction tastes yuck. A strong ginger brew with a hint of lemon. What good is that… wait a minute... I know… I normally roam around with this stuff and a few kids like to sip from my tea, so let them taste this one. Might be nice to catch that expression. I know what an expression on unexpected hot, cold, spicy, sour taste feels like. Let me see what an unexpectedly strong ginger feels like.