Thursday 30 December 2010

chai....Mr Waitrose you are having a laugh!

Whilst mooching in Mr Waitrose's shop today, I spied this on the shelves in the tea and coffee isle. 
You may wonder why I felt compelled to take a pic?
A few years ago when Mum & I travelled in Northern India & Nepal, we had a couple of chai incidents.
After a few days in Delhi we travelled to Kathmandu where having been hit by extraordinary sights & incredible (ugh!) smells we decided that a little reminder of home was in order, tiffin of course.
Sitting on squashy sofa's in the foyer of a hotel we ordered "afternoon tea", a waiter brought a lovely silver (white metal) tea service, china cups & saucers, with a little plate of biscuits. Oh to have a lovely well brewed cuppa.
Some of you may already be giggling as you know what came next, however on pouring the longed for tea, it came out of the pot looking like watery coloured milk, which infact is what it was! My Mum just refused to try it, I did and it was vile! We were so disappointed.
Move back to India, Varanassi in fact, we had gone to the river ghats to watch the display put on for tourists, highly commercialised and not a patch on the small private ceremonies that we were fortunate to witness in Kathmandu. We were given seats on the roof of a shop, prime position!
As we waited for the spectacle to begin I looked down to the stall directly below, it was serving chai!
I was looking down into a huge saucepan that was boiling away with a frothy scum on the top, it was the most disgusting thing that I can remember seeing for a while and it made my stomach churn. 
If travelling in the Middle East/Sinai/North Africa do try the local tea, it is usually beautifully refreshing, however do not try chai it is disgusting & vile! I understand that the W brand will not be authentic and may be much better, but the memory was just too much.

6 comments:

  1. Oh dear, you did have a bad experience with Chai didn't you? In this household we all LOVE it... I buy Twinings chai tea and drink it black.. very refreshing! Honest!!!

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  2. May be true for India, but we lived in Turkey and the chai was wonderful.

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  3. He! He! I love your story! But I do sometimes buy that brand of Spiced Chai and it is truly delicious!! No not at all authentic, but very nice for a non-coffee drinker like me ;-)
    And I'm delighted to have your admiration of my jolly photographic experiment ... I'm rather pleased with it myself too!
    Wishing you and Michael a very Very Happy New Year with lots of good times, fun and happiness,
    Hope to see you some place soon,
    Denise x

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  4. Denise, Florence is an old lady but I expect you will meet her sometime in the next year.
    HNY for you & Mr Bun
    xx

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  5. Hi, Lots of variations on the chai theme around in Totnes but not too keen. I like my Americano coffees (with caffeine)at the Tangerine Tree in Totnes. Heard someone order a double decaff skinny latte the other day which did make me wonder .... !
    Lesley HNY XX

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