History of chai in India
Who invented chai in India?
Britain’s first taste of tea was belated — the Chinese had been drinking it for 2,000 years. The English diarist, Samuel Pepys, mentions tea in his diary entry from September 25, 1600. “Tcha,” wrote Pepys, the “excellent and by all Physicians approved, China drink,” was sold in England from 1635, for prices as high as £6 to £10 per pound of the herb (£600 to £1,000, today). In 1662, when King Charles II married the Portuguese princess, Catherine of Braganza, her dowry constituted a chest of tea, and the island of Bombay for an annual lease of £10, equivalent then to the cost of a pound of tea in England. Tea is also the 'State Drink' of Assam. Every tea leaf has a story to tell, tea goes way into history and there are various theories on the story of how tea became a heritage of India. A Buddhist monk observed a local ritual of chewing wild leaves in China and tried it himself on his way there, he felt so rejuvenated that he brought it back to India with him. Tea is said to be discovered 5000 years ago by an Emperor of China. Soon it was the staple drink of China.One of his listeners was Scotsman Robert Bruce, who went on to be known as the man who discovered tea in Assam in 1823. It was a momentous event in the economy of the state which, to large parts of the outside world, is almost synonymous with tea. Still, British tea cultivators were extremely anxious to have Chinese tea and techniques brought to India. Indian tea, called chai in hindi, is rich and milky, deeply coloured, steaming hot, and boldly flavourful with a definite need for sugar to offset the toasty bitterness. The word chai just means tea. Chai = tea. But according to the documented evidence, the history of drinking tea in India dates as early as 750 BC. At that time, it was not as commercialized as it is today. Mostly it was used by monks and saints who used them to stay alert. Later it was used for its medicinal properties, like the herbal tea in India. Tea was first introduced to Western priests and merchants in China during the 16th century, at which time it was termed chá. The earliest European reference to tea, written as chiai, came from Delle navigationi e viaggi written by Venetian Giambattista Ramusio in 1545. Originating from India, Chai is widespread with many household and regional variations. The folklore surrounding Chai dates back to between 5000 and 9000 years ago to an ancient royal court – either India or Siam. It was said that the reigning king created the recipe as a healing Ayurvedic beverage. Chinese varieties of tea were first introduced into India by the British, in an attempt to break the Chinese monopoly on tea. The British, "using Chinese seeds, plus Chinese planting and cultivating techniques, launched a tea industry by offering land in Assam to any European who agreed to cultivate tea for export." Maniram Dewan (1806-1858) was the first Indian tea planter, and is credited with establishing the first commercial plantations of the Assamese variety of tea. Tea production started in India in the late 1830’s but it is said that tea grew in the jungle of northeast Assam long before this. In the 1500’s there are notations in a Dutch travelers’ book regarding Indians having tea leaves as a vegetable along with garlic and oil. However, the credit for the first discovery of tea goes to Robert Bruce, the commander of a division of gunboats in Upper Assam during the first Burmese war, he brought down some shrubs and seeds of this indigenous plant in 1826. India has a deep history with tea brewing and planting. The British wanted to break the Chinese monopoly of tea hence encouraged plantations by offering land in Assam to any European who was willing to cultivate tea for export. The East India Company introduced commercial tea production in India and began large scale production of tea in Assam in early 1820’s. In 1834 the government formed a twelve-member committee with 10 European and 2 Indian members to increase the production and enhance the techniques of plantations.
Tea cultivation in India has somewhat ambiguous origins. Though the extent of the popularity of tea in Ancient India is unknown, it is known that the tea plant was a wild plant in India that was indeed brewed by local inhabitants of different regions. But there is no substantial documentation of the history of tea drinking in the Indian subcontinent for the pre-colonial period. One can only speculate that tea leaves were widely used in Ancient India since the plant is native to some parts of India. The Singpho tribe and the Khamti tribe, inhabitants of the regions where the Camellia sinensis plant grew native, have been consuming tea since the 12th century. It is also possible that tea may have been used under another name. Frederick R. Dannaway, in the essay “Tea As Soma”, argues that tea was perhaps better known as “Soma” in Indian mythology. The tea plant is native to East and South Asia but the origins and history of tea are not precise. Many of the origin myths for tea are found in Chinese mythology, and the first verifiable records for tea consumption also point towards China. For details see History of Tea in China. India is the second largest producer of tea in the world after China, including the famous Assam tea and Darjeeling tea. According to the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, there are plans to officially recognise tea as the “National Drink” in 2013. According to a very interesting legend, the history of tea drinking in India began with a saintly Buddhist monk about almost 2000 years ago. It so happened that this monk who later became the founder of Zen Buddhism, decided to spend seven sleepless years contemplating the life and teachings of Buddha. While he was in the fifth year of his contemplation and prayer, he almost fell asleep. He took some leaves from a nearby bush and began chewing them. These leaves revived him and enabled him to stay awake as he chewed on them whenever he felt drowsy. Thus he was able to complete his penance for seven years. These were the leaves of the wild tea plant.
Tea drinking has evolved in different ways over the years in India and differs from region to region. First thought of as the drink of the Royals, tea has now become the favorite of the common man as India leads the world in tea drinking. From the humble roadside tea stalls and the railway platforms to the boardrooms of corporate India, tea is easily available. The cup of sweet and refreshing chai available in teashops or train stations to the masala teas of North India, the variety of brews available is numerous. Darjeeling tea also called the “Champagne” of teas. The tea crops here vary from year to year depending on various factors that influence the crops. To be labeled “Darjeeling tea” the tea crop must be grown, cultivated, produced, manufactured and processed in the tea gardens in Darjeeling. The first twelve chests of manufactured tea to be made from indigenous Assam leaf were shipped to London in 1838 and were sold at the London auctions. The East India Company wrote to Assam to say that the teas had been well received by some "houses of character", and there was a similar response to the next shipment, some buyers declaring it "excellent". Having established a successful industry in Assam's Brahmaputra valley, with factories and housing settlements, the Assam Tea Company began to expand into other districts of north east India. India is a constant competition to China as the no. 1 producer of tea in the world. Our mammoth production has led to a total of 1,00,000 tea estates all over India which provide employment to millions of people. Tea being such an integral part of our culture and heritage, we consume around 80 percent of the million or more metric tons of produce in our country itself. India a place of traditions, languages, culture, sharing. Food is an integral part of Indian Heritage, family traditions and values. Be it our favorite food or maybe not so favorite everything goes with a good cup of tea. Chilly evenings ask for a steamy hot teacup to keep you warm, hot summers ask for tea to keep you refreshed. Simple evenings or festive days, tea is your answer to all. The delicious smell of simmering Indian tea in the crockpot gets me craving for it even before I have tasted it. Tea is the second largest consumed drink in the world after water and it apparently has the solution to ward off all evils. The Heritage of tea continues to grow with every passing day. The Darjeeling tea like wine has to be enjoyed and critiqued batch by batch. To savor and enjoy the best Darjeeling tea it has to be sipped as per brewing instructions are given. Less nuanced ones are used for masala Chai along with strong spices, milk, and honey. Darjeeling produces a small fraction of the annual tea yield in India as it takes about twice as much the china bush tea leaf than Assam to produce the same weight of tea leaf. Its terrain is unique and grows on the steep higher elevations and colder temperatures of the mountains. Hence the prized flavor of Darjeeling tea can never meet the unending demand. Another reason Darjeeling tea is so prized is that it is completely unique to this region of India. The harvest season is from February to November and each flush has new growth on the tea bush.
One of the most popular snippets related to the history of tea drinking in India dates back to the 19th century when an Englishman noticed that the people of Assam drank a dark liquid which was a type of tea brewed from a local wild plant. In the year 1823, a Singpho King offered an English Army Officer tea as a medicinal drink. In the 16th century, the people of India prepared a vegetable dish using tea leaves along with garlic and oil and the boiled tea leaves were used to prepare a drink as well. The first Tea Garden was established by the British East India Company by the end of the 19th century after the Company took over tea cultivation in Assam, a region in the North Eastern part of India. In 1839, Maniram became the Dewan of the Assam Tea Company at Nazira, drawing a salary of 200 rupees per month. In the mid-1840s, he quit his job due to differences of opinion with the company officers. By this time, Maniram had acquired tea cultivation expertise. He established his own tea garden at Chenimora in Jorhat, thus becoming the first Indian to grow tea commercially in Assam. Later a Tea reasearch institute, Tocklai Tea Research Institute was established there functioning till this date. As per the history of tea drinking in India, local people used to brew and drink tea using the leaves of the wild native tea plants. Since that time, different varieties of tea have emerged; the most famous among them is the Darjeeling tea. The commercial production of tea in India was started by the British East India Company and vast tracts of land have been exclusively developed into tea estates which produce various types of tea. Assam located in northeastern India gave us the famous tea of Assam. The Darjeeling region, which protrudes up against Tibetan Himalaya and spans across high mountain peaks and deep valleys. Nilgiris, on the other hand, is set in the mountains of the southernmost tea-growing zones in India. The Nigiri (Blue Hill) Mountains are characteristic of high-altitude ridges that enjoy lush forests and jungles where tea plants flourish.
Tea originated in China. It was taken from there by visiting British envoys back to england as gifts to the rulers of the time. Then the Lipton tea company was setup under the patronage of those rulers. From there tea was brought by the east India company in their expansion conquests to the Indian subcontinent & their colonies wherever else the EIC was setting up, eg Africa & elsewhere. Growing locations were north east India & Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon), hence the name Ceylon tea. From there it spread through further trade with other expansionists/cross culture trading. Once the colonies gained their independence, tea growing & culture remained, which locals taking over.People in different parts as well as different social classes drinks diffrent types of drinks. Tea was not very popular before British. But there was tea in India, there is documentation about in various ancients texts of Buddhist monks and other mythologies. Tea was way too expensive those days to be as popular as it is now. In my place, ie. Kerala people used to drink salted kanji (stock of rice), sambharam (popular in Tamil Nadu also), morum vellavum (thinned buttermilk with spices), lemon juice or nimbu pani is also popularly used.