“There is something in the nature of tea that leads us into a world of quiet contemplation”. Rightly said, and aptly put, tea is the one calming elixir that freshens up our mornings, rejuvenates our evenings and calms our frenzies of the day. Personally, I am lover of chai and coffee, in equal parts. My soul doesn’t rest for the day if I haven’t had at least 2 cups of each!
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of E-meeting Nandini Mehta, a friend of a dear friend, and one of India’s few tea sommeliers, and rightly awarded so. With a passion for the leaf, and a zest to learn, experiment, create and introduce the world to the goodness of tea, she is the humble face behind Dancing Leaf Tea – if you haven’t yet heard of this wonderful organization, please go read up on it – sure to astound!
Growing up, she was exposed to every benefit of tea, the palates, the types, the tastes and the intricacies of it. Nandini went on to study further into the art that begins from tea-plucking to tea-packing – the tastes, the colours, the blends, the effects and the final product. Special curations, recommendations, further examination into regions for tea are Nandini’s forte. Here’s a quick peek into our little chat and how my eyes were opened to the world of tea (more than the Tapri Ki Chai and the occasional sencha I consume!).
A: What inspired you to begin this journey with tea?
I was born and brought up in Calcutta, where I spent most of my childhood. Our mother used to feed us little sips of tea every now and then. Slowly, we began to understand the thought that goes behind making a delicious cup of tea – the masalas, the tea leaves, the amount of milk and the exact time of brewing. Our grandparents as well as my mother would keep us engaged in wondering about it, and perfecting the art eventually.
At the time, the tea that would be brought into our home, would be specially picked, dried and packaged in Darjeeling, right from the tea gardens that we look at in movies and photographs. My grandmother used to always tell us stories about how the process of tea is exciting, yet intricate – right from the art of plucking (this can determine your type of tea by the way, the way you pluck your leaf), to the drying, grinding and packaging. I then realised that Darjeeling is not the only place where tea is grown, and then I began my study into the world’s favourite beverage and how it has grown over the years.
One day, Mohit’s and my family were on vacation, and I just happened to casually mention to him how I want to start my own café. A small little place, with homegrown tea and the usual knick-knacks. He urged me that the time is always now, if not yesterday. This got me to begin Dancing Leaf Tea, 8 years ago; me on a mission to introduce tea blends, old and new, traditional and unique, to our country and many others eventually!
A: Which is your favourite blend and why?
I will have to say Oolong, one of my Chinese blends, because it is not too dark and a lightly oxidised blend that brings freshness to my soul every time. Among the Japanese variants, whether my own, or somewhere local in Japan, I would go for a raw and drafted flavour – there is something about tea feeling light, yet refreshing. I look for that quality in teas – a perfect wake-up from a long day, yet just enough to make you breathe lighter, and not weigh down on your bellies!
A: How do you come up with unique blends? Is it a thought of taste or health benefits?
These are two very different aspects of how I work on tea blends. Health is of prime importance when it comes to tea prepping and blending. But, along with that, we cannot have a tasteless, or even worse, ill-tasting option at our hands. I make it a point to experiment with types, quantities, brew-times as well as food pairings, when it comes to creating tea blends.
It is like a balancing act – a health angle, as well as the taste and aroma angle. Most times, tea is bucketed into certain aroma types: fruity, spiced, berry and floral blends. I will be honest and tell you, I go by my instincts when it comes to creating new blends!
For example, my new immunity elixirs were in the market much before our dear COVID struck. This was because one of my clients raised the question about how tea could help cancer patients. Cancer is a tough disease to fight – chemotherapy is a draining practice, but essential to those fighting tooth and nail to drive cancer away. I got in touch with a very dear friend, Luke Coutinho, a fitness and health specialist, who helped me formulate blends that would help raise immunity.
Luke Coutinho studied into nutrition further, and the ingredients that aid in immunity-building and strengthening. Together with Luke, I experimented with herbal infusions and tea types, to come up with the immunity elixirs that you see today on my website!
It took me a little more than a year to work on this with Luke, but he did not budge and I didn’t give up either. We made it!
A: Why not bring in a flowering tea option? Are these just fancy or do they hold some importance?
Oh, I do have them. They’re a type of Chinese tea blend that I fused with flowers of the season, and some from all-year-round, to create flowering tea. They are beautiful, and usually come only as a green tea blend. I’ve been working with local tea estates in Darjeeling to help create this excellent idea of tea. Usually it takes about 3-5 minutes to brew and bloom completely.
See, I will be honest. It is definitely not a gimmick, and neither is it very traditional. In China, back in the days, tea processing was a very handcrafted technique. This brought them to slowly work with dried flowers, bound together with tea types, to create these fascinating balls of joy! So basically, it’s a beautiful way to portray Chinese history and beneficial teas!
A: As a tea sommelier, how has your journey been?
For most part of my life, I have been working with various types of tea, studying various types of tea and working closely with tea estates in Assam and Darjeeling, because there is so much potential than just the usual morning chai, in these teas!
So about 4 years ago, I began studying with the tea board of Canada, through written exams, blend creating, online classes, and what not. I used to send blends that I would create, all the way to Canada for them to examine and approve. They would send tea blends over, and make sure we did blind tasting sessions to point out ingredients, methods and other things. The extreme research and testing have got me to the excellence of being able to tell the type of tea from one look at the fresh leaf – whether it is from Kenya or from Japan and what kind of tea it can produce!
It’s just a handful of us in India as of now, and restaurants are always calling us to help them with tea and food pairings – as well as tea estates in India, Japan, China and Africa. Working with them has always been a treat, because the passion about tea from the owner of an estate is unmatched!
Lately, a lot of estate owners in Assam wish to expand into specialty teas, and not just the usual CTC teas – your morning chai, my friend. This is so exciting for sommeliers like me, because we have been waiting for the day that India gets a glimpse of exciting teas, and accepts the idea!
A: Do you think there is a future for unique tea blends rather than the usual tapir ki chai?
See, India will always be known for the most excellent masala chai – a different version in every state. Blends, spices, milk quantities; they differ for everyone, even you and me. Although, there has been a huge shift in how people perceive tea in India, the traditional milky spicy chai will never die out; and I don’t think it should either. It holds the essence of India.
This shift I talk about mainly came about when people started wanting to live a healthier life, and dig deeper into the benefits of green and black teas, the more nutritious ways of consuming tea. Exploring happens at every stage in our lives, so why not even with tea? This is why I worked on, and came up with a tea that gives you your morning chai feeling – because the OG will never really die out. It is a simple infusion of fennel with liquorice and some other spices, that gives you your morning A-ha moment!
A: Why not variations of coffee?
I love coffee! As much as I love tea!
My two daughters are poles apart – the younger one is an avid tea-drinker and the older one swears by coffee for every mood! We once came up with an idea to begin researching and trying our hand at coffee too – the idea is still in play-mode in our minds, and we hope to get it out soon. Wait for a “Dancing Bean” soon!
My own company, Dancing Leaf was named through a very funny episode. I was toying with some generic names for my company, and my little one came to me and told me how when she brews her tea, the leaves go into a dance. This is how we came up with “Dancing Leaf Tea”!
A: Is market sustainability an important focus at your firm?
So, tea growing is different in every region. In India, it is a very personal profession; it involves human touch in almost every process. There is barely any mechanization to tea in India. In Japan, on the other hand, because of the thought process that goes into creating tea blends, and since a very early period, mechanization is how they create their tea.
So, I will say this, despite the middlemen, exploitation and disregard for quality of tea by many traders, the estates will flourish in India, and the tea industry will sustain despite the COVID attack to the tea industry, as well as the uneven climatic disturbances.
Roadblocks are faced in every industry, and I have faith that the tea industry will sustain and flourish as before, and if all goes well, with a bigger bang in varieties!
While I enjoyed hearing her speak about the industry, I realised how tea has an impact on our lives. Imagine a morning, without your morning cuppa – you are grouchy all day, grumpy, irritable. All because one small beverage was not handed to you, to kick off your day. This is how important tea is in our lives – so why not take the effort to make it a more intense, nutritious experience? Head over to Dancing Leaf Tea, to know more about tea blends and what makes each leaf special!
To end this, I will share with you a short technique Nandini shared with me, to get my Oolong just right:
- 2 to 2.5 grams of Oolong in a cup
- Brew it for at least 3 to 5 minutes, depending on the water temperature (90 degrees for this)
- Consume hot, for the perfect aroma, and just warm to absorb the taste well!
So long, tea-lovers!
Written by Anisha Masand
Week 44, October ‘20
