It’s tea time folks. But the cup that cheers is no longer the same. It has just been upgraded from the milky presentation with masala, ginger and cardamom, to a beverage more elitist and experimental, with spoonfuls of health benefits thrown in.
     While Mumbai still swears by its favourite ‘cutting chai’, a hit with its teeming working class and now served even 30,000 ft above sea level by Singapore Airlines, a lot of youngsters and white
collar professionals are slowly but steadily relishing their trysts with different kinds of teas. So far, for Indians, tea has been more of a ‘homely’ drink, compared to its stylish counterpart, coffee. While tea has been more or less an Ante Meridian (a.m.)
and Post Meridian (p.m.) drink, one for each part of the day, coffee has been the anytime-anywhere drink, thanks mainly to the coffee house culture,
perpetrated by the CCDs, Baristas and the rest of the brigade.
    According to Vidhya Sagar, Head, Cha Bar, Oxford Bookstore, “There has been a substantial

switch in the last decade from consumption of coffee to tea, which in all its exotic varieties is now considered very fashionable and, of course, very healthy. Fitness and health are a major concern for urban Indians of all ages, and tea scores well over coffee in this area.”
   Mumbai’s experiments with tea can be traced to the Victorian-style Tea Centre, set up by the Tea Board of India near Churchgate Station almost 53 years ago. A hit with tea lovers, many of whom have been loyally coming back for decades, the Tea Centre serves over (hold your breath!) 90 varieties of quality tea in both hot and
cold categories. Sitting here, with its quaint, old world charm, right down to the little silver bells to summon assistance, listening to subtle instrumental music playing in the background and sipping on your favourite cuppa, you are bound to be transported to a different world
altogether. Whether it’s the Hot Buttered Apple Tea at Rs 80 (tea liquor, brown sugar, lemon, ripe apple juice, honey, nutmeg powder, butter and orange juice) or the Rose Tea(a blend of black tea