The earliest memory of a Tea shop was of these mysterious large aluminium drums and and some red square containers. All of them had Tea or Cha ( Tea in bengali written in them). The red ones had white letters while the aluminium ones had red paint stencilled on them. This shop was called ‘Priti Tea house’. Whenever Baba would go there, I would never see him uttering anything about what he would like to buy. Years of shopping from the same Tea store, developed mutual understanding and a trust between the seller and the buyer, which meant that the seller was completely aware of the preference, choice and taste. He would give us a flavour which used to be a mix from multiple boxes, a little shake in his pouring container and finally served in a traditional brown paper packet.
We received this packet from Assam 1860 where they wanted us to taste and review their latest offerings.
I have grown up having milk tea with sugar till I met Madhushree, where we would have milk tea only in the evening. However, now I have bid goodbye to the milk entirely and sugar is for the only cup at home. We thought of trying this tea.
We have always been ardent lovers of Darjeeling tea and we would try out Assam tea only for our milk tea in the evening. The opinion sort of remains the same even after trying out Assam 1860. It is definitely more full bodied and richer than its soft and mellow cousin, the Darjeeling tea. One tea bag makes about three cups of tea in case you want it without milk and has a strong and robust flavour.
The packaging is smart and trendy and makes great for gifting purpose. Its a good cuppa tea, however I suggest if you are an ardent lover of masala chai or strong milk tea, then this is the Brand for you.
Assam 1860 has a rich tradition . This is from the James Warren Tea Ltd who owns some of the finest private tea gardens in south bank of upper Assam . You can read more about them here .
If you are looking for a tea lounge in Kolkata one of the best recommended is The Lalit Great Eastern Tea lounge . The recently carried out a 3 day Tea festival in Kolkata .
Some of the quickbites with tea can be –
1. Nan Khatai
2. Peanut Butter cookies
3. Dimer Devil or scotch eggs desi style