Green Tea for three

Cinnamon and cardamom

A bit of sweet Cinnamon

and a couple of cardamom split open can transform the drawing room tea to the tea on top of a hill.

How Pakistani's Have Tea

All throughout Pakistan, we have variants in how to make tea. I am listing three below:

The Karachi Tea a.k.a Karak Chai

Boil water and put tea, boil awhile and lower the flame, add milk and sugar to make a nice skin brown shade.

Pour through the strainer and have it straight away.

Doodh Patti a.k.a Milkshake Chai

Boil milk on moderate temperature, let it reduce. You can reduce and make it half the size or less for an evaporated flavour. Add Chai and put lid on. Let it steep for a while. Add sugar and enjoy.

Kashmiri Chai a.k.a Pink Chai

• 1 tsp. Loose Tea 
• 4 Cardamom Pods (Choti Ilaichi) (bruised)
• 1 small Cinnamon Stick (Dal Cheeni) (broken upin half)
• A pinch of Saffron Threads (Zaffron) (this gives the tea the pink color.)
• 4 cups Water
• 2 tbsp. Almonds (Baadaam) (finely powdered)
• Honey (Shehed) (to taste)

Combine all of ingredients above except the honey and almonds in a saucepan. Bring to a boil on a medium flame. Reduce heat to a simmer and let it simmer for 5 minutes.
Add a teaspoon of almonds in the bottom of each cup for serving and pour the hot tea over. Sweeten with honey to taste before serving.

My Person or My Kindred Spirit

I am a child of the subcontinent. The remnant if the British Colony and been handed over their custom of drinking a hot cup of chai twice a day... or so all the old folks say.

I am very fond of my tea. I take particular pleasure in drinking my cuppa every morning and evening. I am so possessive about my tea that if I havent drained a cup in a whole day I make a huge tantrum and basically have "donot approach" sign on my forehead. My husband says its a self fulfilling prophecy, but I seriously sincerely end up with a headache if I dont have tea. Nothing else will do.

Nothing.

Its like my "person".... or my "kindred spirit" like out of an Anne of Green Gables' novel, which I gulp heartily away.

Tea

Tea refers to the agricultural products of the leaves, leaf buds, and internodes of the Camellia sinensis plant, prepared and cured by various methods.

After water, tea is the most widely-consumed beverage in the world. No coffee is the third or maybe cola.

The four types of tea most commonly found on the market are black tea, oolong tea, green tea and white tea, all of which can be made from the same bushes, processed differently, and in the case of fine white tea grown differently.

The term "herbal tea" usually refers to an infusion or tisane of leaves, flowers, fruit, herbs or other plant material that contains no Camellia sinensis. The term "red tea" either refers to an infusion made from the South African rooibos plant, also containing no Camellia sinensis, or, in Chinese, Korean, Japanese and other East Asian languages, refers to black tea.

Tea is harvested after each flush - the sprouting of the top two leaves and bud. The top two leaves and bud are hand plucked and then processed into any of the four types of tea.

Black tea is withered, fully oxidized (fermented) and dried. Black tea yields a hearty, amber-colored brew. It is the type of tea most consumed in the West. Some of the popular black teas include English Breakfast, and Darjeeling.

Green tea skips the oxidizing step. It is simply withered and then dried (sometimes roasted). It has a more delicate taste and is pale green / golden in color.

Oolong tea, popular in China, Taiwan and Japan, is withered, partially fermented (between 30% and 70%), and dried. Oolong is a cross between black and green tea in color and taste.

White tea is the least processed. A very rare tea from China, White tea is not oxidized or rolled, but simply withered and dried by steaming.
The main chemical substances in tea are essential oils, caffeine, and polyphenols (mistakenly known by many people as tannins). The essential oils give us the aroma of the tea, the caffeine stimulates the central nervous system, and the polyphenols account for the much publicized antioxidant and anti-disease properties.
Tea is not to be confused with herbal infusions. Herbal infusions are packaged like tea, infused like tea, and enjoyed like tea, however the herbs do not come from the camellia sinensis bush and therefore are not teas (see previous article). Herbal infusions are made of grasses like lemongrass, barks like cinnamon, fruits like orange peel, flowers like chamomile and hibiscus, and many other botanicals.

Footnote: I have in the writing of this article shamelessly taken matter out of the following websites and books.

References: 

www.Wikipedia.com

http://www.about-tea.com/

^ ^a b Alan Macfarlane; Iris Macfarlane. The Empire of Tea. The Overlook Press. pp. 32. ISBN 1-58567-493-1.

 Dictionary.com search Herbal tea