knowyourtea

While we drink tea any time of the day in today’s era, a few historical traditions of tea drinking occasions are to-date etched in stone. Two of these are the universally accepted Afternoon Tea and Evening Tea events. Over the years, these 2 traditions have evolved to become known as Low Tea and High tea respectively. Let’s just talk a bit about these famous tea traditions to understand them better. As you may be aware the Tea drinking culture was passed on to us by the British who were very fond of their 'cuppa' and would normally start their day...

The Darjeeling Tea growing seasons are named as Darjeeling First Flush (Spring) which is the period from March to April, Darjeeling Second Flush (Summer) from May to June, Darjeeling Monsoon Flush (Rainy season) from July to September and finally Darjeeling Autumnal Flush (Autumn) from October to November. Accordingly, as the tea growing season proceeds from March to November of every year, the characteristics of tea harvested from the same plant vary as we progress from Darjeeling First flush to Darjeeling Autumn flush. The Darjeeling first flush (March to April) is the first harvest of the season which comes after a...

Although we Indians extensively love and drink tea, we seldom experiment with the various varieties of teas out there. For instance, a regular masala milky tea drinker may only like to drink a masala milky tea whenever tea is offered. The drinker may not ‘appreciate’ other varieties such as White tea or Oolong; as these varieties do not provide the same tangible experience as milky masala tea - to that person. What is interesting to note is that each tea provides a certain experience and the best way for a tea lover to feel this is to try out as...

India has a truly diverse culture of food and tea preferences. There is no standard tea type or format that is consumed across the length and breadth of this amazing land. Only if you travel from North to South or East to West can you actually fathom the vast range of changing consumer preferences that have surprised and fascinated tea lovers for over 100 years. The Taj Mahal Tea House, Mumbai has acquired the tea drinking cultures prevalent across various regions & conjured up ‘special and unique’ Premium tea recipes that are sure to appeal to all of our premium...

During marriages, company farewells and anniversaries, one of the most common items to be selected as a suitable present is a set of beautiful teacups. As we all love tea, a set of teacups seems the most appropriate and ‘safest’ gift to select for anyone. Consequently, over a number of years, our houses are stacked with so many different types of teacups - big and small, plain or artistically designed, fragile or sturdy. However, when it comes to using these, it is sometimes not clear which set should be used for a particular category of tea. People often go for...

When the British brought the concept of Tea drinking in India in the early part of the 20th Century, the consumption was essentially confined to the Indian “Anglophiles” or “Bhadralok” of Kolkata who worked closely with their British masters. At that time Tea was an elitist drink prepared by brewing tea leaves in a teapot and serving with sugar and a dash of milk. Advertisements in those days featured fashionable Indian people drinking tea after a game of tennis or clad in western attire to attract the affluent and English-speaking Indians to imbibe this habit. It was also marketed as...

A perfect gift item that you can consider to truly reflect your warmth, care and compassion on any occasion is the Taj Mahal Tea House Assorted Tea Gift box available only at Taj Mahal Tea House online store. This unique tea gift consists of 3 different Assam estate masala teas all packed in a beautiful blue coloured box. The 3 unique teas are Kashmir spice tea, Jaipuri Spice Tea and Mumbai Spice Tea that will provide the experience seeker a Royal warm aromatic cup, a sudden burst of cheerful flavours and a refreshing cool soothing taste respectively. The teas used...

We have talked about Teas from the terrain of Darjeeling in Taj Mahal Oolong Tale -Dance of the Dragon and Autumn Wonder Tea: a rare, seasonal delicacy By now, you would have possibly got a good idea of the salient features of Darjeeling Teas in terms of taste and aroma, and you might have also tried some of them. We now travel to a new terrain in North East India - Assam. As a single district, Assam is the largest tea growing area in the world. It actually has indigenous tea plants (Assam variety) growing wild since millennia. The raw...

To recapitulate, Tea Connoisseurs call the Darjeeling Tea growing seasons as First Flush (Spring), which is the period from March to April, Second Flush (Summer) from May to June, Monsoon (Rainy season) from July to September, and finally, Autumnal (Autumn) from October to November. Accordingly, the characteristics of tea from even the same plant vary as we progress from First Flush, commencing in March, right through to Autumnal Flush, starting in November. Amazingly, Darjeeling Tea, often called “Champagne of Teas”, is a unique tea with Chinese genetics, grown on Indian terrain under harsh Himalayan conditions, which gets it to evolve...

Tea connoisseurs worldwide label Darjeeling tea as “Champagne of Tea” due to its unique aromatic flavour found nowhere else in the world. In fact, because it is in so high demand in USA, Europe and Japan, the Indian Government has provided a Geographical Identification (GI) tag to Darjeeling Tea to safeguard against duplication. Darjeeling Tea was the first Indian product to be given this identification tag. For your information, other well-known GI tags awarded subsequently to Indian products are Basmati Rice, Kolhapuri Chappals & Bikaner savouries to name a few. These teas are grown at high elevation estates (up to...