How to drink your cup of tea?

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You might answer to this question by saying " i drink chai because i like the taste!" OR "it refreshens me". But have you really tasted how do you like your tea to be? Sweetened with sugar or lemon, milk or honey? Do you like to have a your tea as a "real tea" or as a "beverage"? We are very particular about the brand we use for our cup of chai, but have you tried your tea without the sweetener to really know how it is to get a hint of pureness within? From a leaf to a cup, your tea is picked, sorted, processed and then brewed. All these efforts are for you to enjoy your cup of chai or tea.

Most of us do not really observe because our final cuppa is much more vital. But then lets see how we can respect and enjoy each aspect of this wonderful drink in just 5 steps:

1. Lets start with the aroma. Notice the dry tea leaf aroma and see if you can pick up the ingredients mentioned in the tea. What do smell the first? Is it the the tea or the flavors? Is the smell of the flavor more pungent than the other ?
2. After smelling, check on the texture and color of the tea? Are the leaves curled or rolled? A sign of good tea are those where the presence of curled or rolled leaves are more than the dust of tea (finely ground tea that are present in tea bags.) Is the color of the dust and rolled leaves similar or different? 
3. Next is, brew just as mentioned for a particular tea without the sweetener. Smell the brewing tea. Dry and brewing tea smells different, especially some flavors are noted only when the tea is brewed. 
4. After hitting your senses constantly, observe the color.Notably, how black leaf turns your tea to a reddish tint and green tea giving it a pale yellow color as it brews stronger. 
5. Finally , when your tea is ready to drink, taste it. In spite of gulping it down, take a sip at a time. Can you taste the ingredients in it? Does it leave your mouth a drying effect or is it refreshing? Which flavors stands out and how is the overall tea?

After experiencing the real taste of tea, you can now go ahead with adding sugar or milk or honey etc if needed. You get many tea which are naturally flavored with fruits, herbs, spices and adding sweetener wont be welcoming. With this knowledge in mind, hope you take care of these things next time you make yourself a cup of chai tea.

And lastly, allow me to enclose with a quote by LU TONG:

The first cup caresses my dry lips and throat,
The second shatters the walls of my loneliness,
The third explores the dry rivulets of my soul
Searching for legends of five thousand scrolls.
With the fourth the pain of past injustice vanishes through my pores.
The fifth purifies my flesh and bone.
With the sixth I commune with the immortals.
The seventh conveys such pleasure I am overcome.
The fresh wind blows through my wings
As I make my way through my cup of chai....