Tea myths we hear at the counter
CTC is inferior, green tea has no caffeine, boiling is always wrong: five common beliefs, looked at plainly.
A tea walk from Park Street to Dalhousie
Two hours on foot through the part of Kolkata where India’s tea trade grew up, with stops for cha along the way.
Kolkata was for a long time the centre of the Indian tea trade, and much of that history is still standing within walking distance of our shop. On a winter morning, before the traffic builds, it makes a lovely two-hour walk.
Start at our tea room on Park Street at 8 am with a cup of first flush. Walk north to Chowringhee and along the edge of the Maidan, where the old office buildings that once housed tea companies still line the road. Their heavy wooden doors and tall windows were built for a trade that moved millions of chests a year.
Cross towards Esplanade and on to B. B. D. Bagh, the square still called Dalhousie by most of the city. The lanes around the square were home to the brokers who ran the tea auctions. Our grandfather tasted tea here for thirty years, in long rooms with north-facing windows, because tasters need steady daylight to judge the colour of a liquor.
The roadside cha stalls around Dalhousie are some of the busiest in the city. Stop at one for a bhar of boiled milky tea and compare it with the Darjeeling you started with. Walk on to the river at Babughat if you have time, where the tea once left for the docks. From there, a short taxi or tram ride brings you back to Park Street. Plan to finish by 10.30 am, when the offices open and the pavements fill. If you are joining our Sunday tasting at 11, this walk makes a good beginning.
