Tea totaller

An engineer from IIT Delhi,Mittal has been in the tea business for more than 30 years now. Set up in 1954,the shop was run by his father till the late 80s,after which he took over. Why didn’t he pursue a career in engineering? “It’s just one of those things,” he says. “A combination of reasons ranging from not leaving my parents alone to continuing with the family business.”

Mittal has a mind-boggling range of teas on display. He explains that they could be mixed and matched to make a unique custom-made blend. “Custom-made teas are generally made for hotels and restaurants,where they choose their leaves and combination of leaves. But for individuals,a custom-made tea is about the tea itself,as in the uniqueness of the tea,and secondly,about the person himself,” he says.

Mittal proceeds to make a cuppa for us. First,he says,one must know about a person’s exposure to tea. “If I find out that you’ve just started drinking tea,I will give an exotic blend which you will be able to appreciate,and at the same time,it will be good enough to excite you,” he says,making a blend of a flavoured leaf tea and a whole-leaf tea from Assam and adding a spoonful of milk and a pinch of sugar in the clay kettle. He then instructs that the tea needs to sit in the boiling water for three-four minutes.

Tea,feels Mittal,needs to be appreciated and cultivated on the taste buds. “India has never been a tea-drinking nation,except maybe in the Northeast and the South. For most of North and Central India,it is the milky,sugary blend that attracts the crowd,” he says.

What are the new trends among the tea drinkers? “Herbal tea and green tea,” pat comes the reply. “I’m making a particular blend for a regular customer of mine,which was suggested to her by her physician. It is a concoction made of rose,hibiscus,green tea and cinnamon,” Mittal says,showing us the hand-written label on the packet.

“Most people think that drinking tea is an expensive habit,especially when you buy custom-made blends,” he says,adding that tea blends in his shop cost as low as Rs 200 a kg and as high as Rs 10,000 a kg.