Masala Chai
Garam Garam masala chai- The legacy of India’s most beloved drink.
England…the late 18th century… and the East India Company is not happy. The main cause of their unhappiness- China.
Chinese products like silk and especially tea were immensely popular in the West. However, there was virtually no demand for western products in China. As a result, the East India Company was forced to exchange cold, hard silver for Chinese products, increasing the risk of a silver shortage in England.
The East India Company, or as we would now call it, the EIC, began to look for items to exchange with China. Their Holy grail- opium. Opium was cultivated cheaply in India and sold in China through smugglers. (The Qing dynasty had made attempts to curb the use of opium and the Emperor Jiaqing tried to ban it completely around 1799). The silver from the sale of opium was used to buy Chinese products.
The ill consequence of this highly lucrative trade was that the Chinese population was absolutely addicted to opium and the Qing dynasty began comprehensive and systematic efforts to ban opium for the foreseeable future. The two opium wars took place, both of which the British won.
Though opium trading continued unabated, there was now a strong desire to cultivate tea in India and export that tea to the west. A mammoth task, but, if successful, would increase the profits of the EIC by a long margin.
Systematic efforts began to cultivate tea from the 1830’s itself.
Assam:
Robert Bruce Foote found a plant growing in the wild in Assam, which the locals used as a drink. The plant , when sent to the Botanical Gardens was identified as a tea plant. This was a huge discovery, lending proof to the fact that the climate of Assam was suitable for growing tea. Tea gardens began in Assam after several failed attempts.
Tea in South India
In the 1880s, seeds of the tea plant were sent to South India too and many, especially in Waynad and Nilgiri still survive.
The Darjeeling Tea
The cultivation of Darjeeling tea, perhaps India’s best known tea, began due to the efforts of Dr Campbell, who, in 1841 initiated the cultivation of tea seeds from Kumaon in his house in Darjeeling. A recent study speculates that the seeds may be a hybrid between the Chinese and the Assam tea seeds, the Chinese type giving the plant more durability in Darjeeling’s biting cold.
Turning tea cultivation lucrative
The cultivation of tea was successful. However, the Western consumers were highly accustomed to other kinds of tea. To promote the Indian type, various campaigns began in the UK. Aside from posters and advertisements in the newspapers, small cups of prepared tea or tea packets were given for free to the people in UK. The idea worked, the Indian type of tea became a popular drink in UK and the West.
India- an open market right at the doorstep?
The initial idea of cultivating tea was to export it. To feed it to the huge market abroad. However, the prices of tea would fluctuate at tea auctions. Moreover, it was becoming pricey to ship tea abroad. The Indian Tea Association, set up in 1881 for the interests of tea cultivators in India soon realized that a wide market for tea was right where it was sitting – India.
Large scale efforts began to promote tea in India starting from the early 1900s. Here ‘tea salesmen’ were employed who would go to vendors and teach them how to make tea and sell them packets of loose tea at a relatively cheap price. During the 1st World War, the Tea Association encouraged the factory owners to keep their workers happy and give them tea breaks – where tea and biscuits would be provided to them. The idea again being to cultivate the habit of tea drinking.
The masala chai
The evolution of masala chai is unique and an Indian adaptation of the British habit. According to accounts, the owners of the stalls which sold tea tried to make use of tea leaves for as long as possible without the tea becoming bitter. For this, milk, cardamom, sugar, ginger and other items were added to the tea. And lo and behold, the masala chai was born.
The British way to making tea came with its own added expenses- the kettle, the tea pot and other paraphernalia. Instead, in India, one simple pot was used to make this flavorful drink.
Sources
1. Ahuja, P.S. Science of Tea Technology. Edition-1. Jodhpur: Scientific Publications, 2013.https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=VplfDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg =PA1&dq=History+of+tea+in+India&ots=6rwB5kmjZH&sig=EatgQAa1Rn29X8QQ mYgX3G9tP7g&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=History%20of%20tea%20in%20India& f=false
2. Arya, Nizara (2013). Indian Tea Scenario. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Vol 3, Issue 7(July 2013): 1-10. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.451.5283&rep=rep1&type= pdf
3. Bruce, Charles (1840). Mr Bruce’s Report on Assam Tea. Chambers Edinburgh Journal. Accessed from http://liyn-an.com/knowledge/bruce-report-j/bruce-report-e/ .
4. Collingham, Lizzie. Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors. Edition 2. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
5. Lutgendorf, Philip. (2012). Making tea in India: Chai, capitalism, culture. Thesis Eleven., 113 (December, 2012):11-31. Doi-10.1177/0725513612456896.
6. Meegahakumbura, M. K, et al (2018). Domestication Origin and Breeding History of the Tea Plant (Camellia sinensis) in China and India Based on Nuclear Microsatellites and cpDNA Sequence Data. Frontiers in plant science, vol 8, issue 2270. (January 2018) https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2017.02270
7. Sengupta, Sushmita. History of Masala Chai: A Quick Dive into the Origin’s of India’s favourite drink. NDTV Food. April 20, 2017. https://food.ndtv.com/food drinks/history-of-masala-chai-a-quick-dive-into-the-origins-of-indias-favourite-drink 1683279
8. Wright, Arnold et al. Southern India: Its History, People, Commerce and Resources. Edition-1. Berkley: Foreign and Colonial Publishing Company, 1915.
9. UPASI Tea Research Foundation. http://www.upasitearesearch.org/history-of-tea-in south-india-2/
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