January was National Hot Tea Month in the US. Having missed all the parades :) I thought at minimum I would enhance my tea knowledge. What better place to visit than Top Green Teas? A nice enough introduction to the teas of Japan and China, but what about Moroccan mint tea? And what about the Indian subcontinent's romance with Kehwah (or Kahwa)? I think I can remedy that last oversight here.
The subcontinental Kehwah, for starters, has nothing to do with the Arabian Qahwah, which is coffee. The starting point here is green tea leaves which are typically from Sri Lanka, or Assam or Darjeeling in India. And then there is cardamom (shown here) -- the magic that makes the tea special.
For two cups of tea, where the cups are ideally of clear glass, you should boil four-plus cups of water. Pour out half the water into a small teapot and swirl it around to heat the tea pot. Then empty out the water into the tea cups to warm them up also. So far, this has just been a warm up exercise! Now, take a heaping teaspoon full of green tea leaves, no more, and put them in the hot but waterless tea pot. And then comes the secret ingredient that is the soul of Indian Kehwah: freshly ground cardamom! One or two green pods of cardamom, easily hand-peeled, should be ground using a clean mortar and pestle. This is key -- just putting in cardamoms without grinding the seeds will give you a fraction of the flavor. Add to the tea pot. Now pour in the water which, if you done all this fast enough, should be just below its boiling point. Stir, and make sure the tea pot lid is covered quickly. If it is a clear glass pot, you can enjoy the swirling leaves and the color as it begins to yellow. After two or three minutes you should have tea with an emergent golden glow. Time to throw away the hot water from your cups, and using a strainer pour in the aromatic bliss of subcontinental Kehwah! Don't steep too long, or the gold will turn towards brown and the taste will be tinged with a bitter flavor.
I have seen fancier variations of the above. You are told to add four or five strands of saffron, add some ground up skinless almonds, etc. I am more the purist, satisfied with what I have described. Hyson's Premium Green Tea, from Sri Lanka, is what I am happily using these days. The cardamoms are available from any Indian store or large supermarket.
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