Growing up I was never a fan of tea. I've always been more of a coffee lover. I just love the stronger taste and ergo stuck with it. I'm not too crazy about coffee but I've always enjoyed a strong cuppa. I'm from Mangalore-it's a coastal city in Southern part of India and here coffee consumption is higher than tea.
I've tried green tea a couple of times in my life before but it never grew on me. I was fan of a strong taste of coffee and felt Teas lacked flavour. Mostly due to lack of knowledge and ignorance about them. On a trip to Sri Lanka in February, I tried a cup of green tea and enjoyed it. That's as far as my memory goes now.
During my road trips in the mountains I've always consumed some cutting chai in very small quantities. But since I'm allergic to milk from few years I prefer having my warm beverages without them. Hence I've avoided Tea and stuck to black coffee.
Recently though, a very close friend who loves tea suggested I give it another try. Hence, I tried a couple of them at Diesel Cafe, a popular cafe in Mangalore who stock about 5-6 varieties of them. At first, I didn't find them too extraordinary, and moved back to Diesel's strong cuppa coffee. They have the best coffees in town!
So, on a recent trip to Darjeeling and Gangtok I came across this store called 'Golden Tips' and they had a massive collection of teas. I spent sometime asking questions in the store and learning about a couple of teas and decided to get home two varieties and test them out.
Golden Tips Earl Grey Green Tea
This turned out to be fantastic. Infact I loved it so much that I ordered another 4 pack of it. I'm sipping on it as I write this post. It has a great flavour and it's also aromatic. The store sells it on Amazon along with many other Tea. It's one of the most refreshing teas in my personal opinion. I can have it any time of the day or night now.
Gold Tips Rose Tea
This is a loose leaf tea with rose petals in it. I felt my mom would like it and personally I like the flavour of rose as it's used in some Indian sweets. This was uncharted territory for me but I wanted to bring home natural teas without any artificial flavouring.
After a couple of weeks of consuming these two I felt I enjoy making a quick cup and the tea bag option is great. So I went back to Diesel Cafe and tried all their options and enjoyed Kashmiri Kahwa very much. Later I ordered it from Amazon once again along with a pack of Mint Green Tea.
Indian Kashmiri Kahwa Chai
This is aromatic and flavourful as the green tea is infused with nuts, spices and saffron. None of these teas are very expensive but i'm tempted to try a premium brand that sells Kashmiri Kahwa just to see how better it could get in terms of its aroma and flavour.
The Kashmiri Kahwa sold at Diesel Cafe is simply amazing. But for the price on Amazon this was of good value and it's a tea bag, and easy to make.
Twinnings Mint Green Tea
I wanted to try some Mint Green Tea and there were no tea bags from golden tips available at the time of placing an order on Amazon so I went with the Twinnings brand.
The only downside is the artificial flavouring. But I have to admit this one packs a minty punch so much that I had a lot of this tea. However, I will be ordering Mint tea from Gold Tips as I except the quality to be better. Infact, nowadays I find myself drinking tea at home and at Diesel Cafe.
This mug with a picture of my car was gifted by a friend 3 years ago. Now I get to put it to some good use with my favourite tea and coffee everyday.
If you have any recommendations for black or green tea please leave them in the comments below. I will give them a try. I hope to try more variants and when I do I will probably write about it.
Some of the pics are from Amazon India website. I haven't linked the product pages here.
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