The art of making Masala Tea:
The consumption of Masala tea is on the rise. The beverage is a delicious mixture of black tea, spices, milk and sweeteners and is served piping hot. It’s becoming increasingly popular in the west, with minor tweaks in the recipe, but nevertheless retaining its healthy spice content and refreshing value.   

Here’s a detailed method of fixing your cup of Masala Tea:
Ingredients:

•     Half cup of water
•     2 table spoon of sugar (you can also have 2 tablets of sugar free)
•     1 and 1/2 table spoon of Shivani Tea
•     3/4 cup of milk (prefer toned milk with less fat).
•     5-6 cardamom seeds
•     10 -20 gram ginger

Before you start preparing, chop ginger in very small pieces. Also, grind cardamom to rough powder. The water source, temperature and the brewing time bear an important effect on the final taste of tea.

Directions for preparation:

• Put the kettle with water on gas stove with lower flame.
• Add tea to it when the water starts boiling.
• Now increase the flame level and add grinded cardamom to it. Please make sure that you allow the water to    boil with tea first for 2 minutes then add cardamom.
• 2 minutes, add chopped ginger to it. If it is winter or if you are having cold, you can increase the quantity of ginger.
• Wait for 2 minutes and then add sugar.
• Let it boil for another 2 minutes on high flame and then half cup of milk to it. Quantity of milk should depend on your choice as some people like less milk in their tea.
• Lower the flame level and leave it to boil for another 5 minutes.
• Here is your good, homemade Indian tea to serve. Don't forget to have some Indian snacks with it. Namkeen goes perfectly with the tea.

Green Tea Recipe:

It is better if you have Green tea in the morning before eat anything. Do not eat or drink anything before and after for at least one hour.

Instructions:

• Generally, for one cup of water (250 ml), you should take two-table spoon heap of Green tea leaves or one tea bag (around 8 ml).
• Take cool spring water. If not available, then take any mineral water.
• It is important to know for how long you need to brew it. The best way is to check at the back of the packet as most of them provide the time required to brew it. Typically, most green tea requires around 20 minutes brewing.
• It is advisable not to add sugar in a green tea as adding sugar not only may change the taste of tea but will also reduce its benefits. However, if you still want to drink slightly sweet tea then I will recommend to go for Chinese green tea as they are more sweet that Japanese, Indian or Sri Lankan green tea.

Tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world after water. The magnificent and fascinating history of tea started with its intriguing discovery. Emperor Shen Nung- a scholar and herbalist, who were obsessed with hygiene and used to drink only boiled water. It is said that one day, in the year 2737 B.C. when Shen Nung was resting under a wild tea tree, a slight breeze stirred the branches and caused a few leaves to drift gently down into the simmering water that he was preparing. He found the resulting brew deliciously refreshing and revitalizing and so, tea was “discovered.” Initially people drank tea because of its herbal medicinal qualities and used it as a religious offering.

Journey from China to Japan

Since no tea was grown in Japan at the time, the first seeds for cultivation are thought to have been taken to Japan by Dengyo Daishi, a monk who spent two years, from A.D. 803 to 805, studying in China. He returned home, planted the seeds in the grounds of his monastery and, when he served tea made from his first plantings to the Emperor Saga five years later, it is said that Saga enjoyed the new beverage so much that he ordered tea cultivation to be established in five provinces near the capital.

Reaches Europe

By that time both Dutch and the Portuguese were trading in the south China seas. Trade was initially in silks, brocades, and spices, but cargoes soon included tea. The Portuguese shipped Chinese teas to Lisbon and from there, the Dutch East India Company carried goods on to Holland, France, and The Baltic ports. The Dutch transported mainly Japanese teas from java from around 1610 but, in 1637, the company’s directors wrote to their Governor General, “As tea begins to come into use by some of the people, we expect some jars of Chinese as well as Japanese teas with each ship.”

According to history, a Dutch explorer who traveled around late sixteenth century in India mentioned the tea-drinking custom of Indian people in his book called Voyages and Travels of Jan Hughen Van Linschoten, published in 1598, he tells how the leaves of the Assam tree were used by the Indians both as a vegetable, eaten with garlic and oil, and as a drink.

In 1784, the British botanist, Sir Joseph Banks, declared that the Indian climate was favorable to tea cultivation, but did not know that local people used to brew and drink tea using the leaves of the wild native tea plant for medical uses.
The commercial production of tea in India started at the advent of East India Company, they encouraged local people for plantation in the North Eastern Regions and the Nilgiri Hills, the site of the world’s highest tea-growing estates.
Now tea has become important part of the Indian culture. Indians start their day with a hot cup of bed tea. Any guest in India welcomed with a cup of tea made with milk and sugar. Today India is one of the world’s largest producers of tea, with more than 13,000 gardens.

Black Tea
Black tea is a great stimulant and consumed by people all over the world. It is known for strong taste and rich aroma. It was first produced in china but gradually became popular across the world. British cultivated the plant of tea in India, Sri Lanka and Africa. Black tea is fully oxidized whereas green tea and white tea are hardly processed at all. Methods and varieties differ considerably between the different producing region, but the process always involves four basic steps- withering, rolling, fermenting and firing (or drying).

Green Tea
Green tea is a non-fermented tea. It is known for its health properties due to the popular belief that it has a high amount of antioxidants along with vitamin and minerals. The freshly picked leaves are allowed to dry, then heat-treated to stop any fermentation (or oxidation) that would rot the leaf.

Oolong Tea
Along with black tea and green tea, oolong is the other major style of tea. In Chinese the name means "black dragon", which gives you a clue to its strength and, some say, hint of smokiness.

Oolong tea is generally referred to as “semi-fermented” tea and is principally manufactured in China and Taiwan. This famous tea of china is marketed as a weight loss supplement around the world and is also believed to reduce cholesterol levels in the body.

White Tea
This is produced on a very limited scale in China (originally in Fujian Province) and Sri Lanka.
White tea is expensive and high profile tea because of its rarity and superior qualities. The new buds are plucked before they have opened, withered to allow the moisture to evaporate naturally and then dried. The curled-up buds have a silvery appearance and are sometimes referred to as Silver Tip. They give a very pale, straw-coloured liquor.

 

Green tea:
Green tea made with steamed tea leaves, it contains a high concentration of EGCG, which is a powerful anti-oxidant, it not only kills cancer cells but also help in maintaining good health while reducing fat. Worldwide, Green tea is praised for its many health benefits including antibiotic effects, anti-cancer properties, boosting of the immune system, lowering of cholesterol levels and improvement of cardiovascular health.

Black tea:
Black tea made with fermented tea leaves. It contains a very high caffeine content. Studies             have shown that black tea may protect lungs from damage caused by exposure to cigarette smoke. It helps you to de-stress fast. It also eliminates bad breath and reduces the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

White tea:
White tea made with unfermented tea leaves. Studies have showed that it has most potential anticancer properties compare to more processed teas. It might be more effective than green tea at preventing cell damage, shrinking cancerous tumours and stopping the growth of cancer cell. It also has anti aging qualities.

Tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world after water. An average three billion cups of tea are consumed daily worldwide.

Instead of taking 10 cups of apple juice, you can have one cup of white tea which contains the same quantity of antioxidants as 10 cups of apple juice.

You can use tea leaves in the garden as fertilizer or to terminate the refrigerator.

Green tea, white tea, yellow tea, oolong tea, red or black tea and Pu-erh are the six categories of tea and all come from the same plant, the Camellia Sinensis.

Tea plant is an evergreen plant and can produce tea for 50 years.

You can make 200 cups of tea by half a kilo of loose tea.

Until the 19th century, solid blocks of tea were used as money in Siberia.

It is believed that the Irish drink more tea per head than any other nation in the world