‘Metre’ Tea anyone? Don’t miss this on your Kerala Holiday!
Wayside tea shacks or ‘chayakkadas’ as they are called in the local lingo are a ubiquitous feature of Kerala. Every village road has one. They are typically ramshackle sheds with thatched roofs. A couple of benches and desks and a glass cupboard displaying traditional food items such as puttu, appam, banana fritters and other delicacies make up the furniture. A small area is devoted to making tea. It’s equipped with a rustic gas stove and a unique brass vessel (a crude but practical samovar) used for boiling water. There will usually be a couple of glass jars for storing toffees, biscuits and the like. The walls will usually have a cinema poster or two featuring popular heroes of the silver screen.
In the local lingo ‘chaya’ means tea and ‘kada’ means shop. A village ‘chayakkada’ is the hub of local gossip. It’s the local media centre. It’s also a place where social and political issues are discussed endlessly. The topic for discussion can range from local issues to Barack Obama and the Iraq war, and what ails the global economy today. Kerala is the most literate state in India, and the people are politically savvy and alive to social issues. They are also the most opinionated. The daily newspaper is an integral accessory in a chayakkada, and acts the source for the topic for the day’s discussions and confabulations.
What is fascinating about these chayakkadas is the way they make the tea. The samovar mentioned above is fitted with a tap at the bottom, and holds water that is kept continuously at the boil. At the top of the samovar there is an opening for inserting another vessel usually made of brass, aluminium or tin, with a large handle, and tapering slightly towards the bottom. This vessel holds a tea strainer made of fine cloth. Milk is kept in another vessel placed in boiling water to avoid spillage through over-heating. Based on the quantity of tea being prepared, the required amount of milk is poured into a large tin, steel or aluminium receptacle with a handle. Sugar is added as required. Tea dust is placed in the strainer, and boiling water drawn from the samovar is poured through the strainer into the receptacle containing milk and sugar.
It’s now that the magic happens. The tea maker removes the strainer from the tapered vessel, and pours the entire concoction into it, raises it as high as his out-stretched hand will take it, and dexterously pours it back into the other vessel, which again is held as low as high as his other out-stretched hand will take it. Not a drop gets spilled. The process is repeated a couple of times. As the liquid plunges through the air from one vessel to the other, the milk, sugar and tea get mixed, and you have a frothing glass of delectable tea at the ideal temperature for drinking.
Incidentally, it was the British who brought tea to India and like in the rest of the country, the people of Kerala took to it assiduously. Folks in Kerala drink tea at all times of the day – and night. They drink it strong or medium, with or without milk, with or without sugar, and even with a twist of lemon or spiced with ginger and cardamom or laced with vanilla. You even have mobile tea shops.
Savour a cup of ‘metre’ tea on your next Kerala holiday. Call Kerala Travel Centre today on freephone 0808 178 9799 where we can tailormake a Kerala experience that you will always remember.
