Have you ever felt a craving for tea? Not just any tea, but that classic Indian chai, with milk, sugar, ginger, and cardamom, boiled till all the flavours are infused properly and the scent of the tea leaves fills the surroundings. I am with you if this last sentence made you want to grab a cup of desi chai right now. And when you get this craving, how hard it is if you have to for some reason wait to get your hands on the chai. This how hard we were hit by a chai-craving after a long day of trekking to dainkund, of roaming the streets of Chamba, and of driving through the snaking roads of Himachal Pradesh.
When we reached Chamera Dam, our niece was eager to board a boat, so we had to postpone our much needed chai session for another 45 minutes.
But all this made the chai session really worth it. Because by the time we reached the shacks outside the Government complex along Chamera Dam and ordered our tea, we were really tired and the tea had become more of a life-saving drug than just a craving.
We occupied the first table outside the very first shack. We didn't have much energy to walk any further. The tea was served in large glasses, all of them half-full, and was heavily infused with ginger. It was on the sweeter side, like himachali chai tends to be, but thankfully not overwhelmingly so. The tea leaves had been boiled with the milk for just the right time and the color was just right. Coupled with Good Day Butter Biscuits, it was a real treat.
After this tea session, we felt energized enough to resume our journey back to Dalhousie. That says a lot about the quality of the chai and its usefulness, because just a few minutes back we wanted nothing other than a soft bed to crash on.
Here's the review:
Colour: deep orange-brown, just what you expect from a well-brewed cup of tea
Fragrance: Ginger and Cardamom
Flavour: Ginger or Cardamom, though ginger was the dominant flavour.
Sweetness: Leaning towards the sweeter side, but just shy of too sweet. We had asked the shack owner to hold back the sugar.
Strength: Slightly Strong. Boiled well. Not too milky. Very refreshing.
If you liked this post and found it helpful, I would request you to follow these things when traveling -
- Manage your waste well and don’t litter
- Use dustbins. Tell us if you went to a place and found it hard to locate a dustbin.
- Avoid bottle waters in hills. Usually you get clean water in hills and water bottles create lot of mess in our ecosystem.
- Say big no to plastic and avoid those unhealthy snacks packed in plastic bags. Rather buy fruits.
- Don't play loud blaring music in forests of jungle camps. You are a guest in that ecosystem and disturbing the locals (humans and animals) is not polite
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