Remembering the train-tea at work!

Sometimes in office, in the presence of these pseudo-Italian coffee dispensers, I make myself a quintessential (Indian) railway’s tea. Every sip makes me smile and sends me back to these memories of the train journeys across India.

Through the horizontal bars or the glass panes of the train windows, we saw scenes change from various stations to the picturesque greeneries to blurred lines. These journeys were incomplete without a cup of lukewarm tea.

This can be interestingly described as a mix of water like consistency, an ultra-mild tea bag, milk powder from a sachet that never failed to burst into a cloud of sweetness while opening and lots of sugar. The train made tea to swirl and spill over everywhere. The trick was to hold it lightly and sway with it.

How to make your own trainwala tea:
1. Take any tea bag and dunk it for a much lesser time than usual. So be quick!
2. Open the milk powder sachet clumsily- this will make your hands feel sticky a little later. This is okay!
3. Put one entire sugar sachet for that day only. Let there be sweetness!
4. Let it sit for 5-10 mins until it gets lukewarm.
5. That’s all and tastes better in a cup that’s flimsy enough to burn your fingers.

No pun intended. I really had this tea today to smile in nostalgia.