“Because they’re obviously, absolutely nuts — Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.”
From Noel Coward’s song
Mad dogs and Englishmen (Colonial undertones aside, it’s also the name of an excellent live album by Joe Cocker)

This post is a follow up to the last tweet about drinking tea on hot sultry days. It reminded me of what a
non tea drinking friend of mine, (she has other good qualities I promise), said when I ordered a hot masala chai
on an even hotter day in Chennai, India. “Only mad dogs and tea drinkers have tea in the midday sun.”
It was around 35 degrees celcius at the time.

If she’s right, my recent trip to Saudi Arabia proves that the Saudis are among the ardent tea lovers in the world.
The temperature was touching 45 degrees in Riyadh during my recent trip there and you still found shops crowded with tea drinkers as they come back from afternoon prayers.

Of course most of the better off Saudis drink their excellent low grown OPAs in air conditioned comfort.
What I got to experience this time around was more of the undercurrents of Saudi society: the tea drinking
habits of their migrant labour population.

This time I got see a bit of both cultures, I had Morroccan style green tea (Hunan gunpowder) with fresh crushed mint leaves at a very expensive hotel in Jeddah and also had tea made Kerala style for the Indian worker population.

The green tea was excellent. It was brewed for a few minutes (the waiter recommended atleast 5) and served in a smooth straight line from the teapot into our “Atai” style glasses with sugar and very very fresh mint leaves which we crushed and added to the tea ourselves.

The liquor was a beautiful pale yellow/green and the flavour was slightly spoilt by a touch of astringency. They should probably have discarded the first brew like the Chinese do. Still, it was a very satisfying glass of tea served with some Lebanese pastries.

I saw the other side of the tea culture while out doing a market survey among the crumbling coral edifices of
Jeddah’s old city. The markets there have to be seen to be believed, it was so crowded and the ubiquitous presence
of the perfume and incense shops meant that walking around in those old streets had a serious touch of the exotic
to it, even for a guy used to the street markets of Colombo, Chennai and Mumbai.

[flickr]http://www.flickr.com/photos/36904720@N03/3698003379/[/flickr] [flickr]http://www.flickr.com/photos/36904720@N03/3698822918/[/flickr] [flickr]http://www.flickr.com/photos/36904720@N03/3651063711/[/flickr] [flickr]http://www.flickr.com/photos/36904720@N03/3651858100/[/flickr] [flickr]http://www.flickr.com/photos/36904720@N03/3651855204/[/flickr]

We stopped for a break at a small tea shop with seating for 4 inside.

We sat down and ordered tea. I had to go into the kitchen and make a special request to be not served the standard teabag.

[flickr]http://www.flickr.com/photos/36904720@N03/3698018007/[/flickr]

As we were served our tea, I asked our friend Jafar about the lives of the migrant workers in cities like Jeddah and Riyadh. Jafa is from Bangladesh and has lived in Jeddah, working for our Saudi agent for over 10 years. He said that life
could be difficult. While most Saudis were good employers, it was not unknown for people to be stuck in some dead
end jobs, but the money they earned was so superior to what they could have earned back home, that it was worth
taking the risk.

The main source of comfort were teashops like the one we were in. Most nationalities stick
together and they usually end their day with a laugh over some good tea. The work itself is not so bad, it s the
length of time (upto 2 years at a stretch) they spend away from their loved ones that really affects them.

Our ctc tea was cooked Indian chai style in a large kettle and then poured in rapid movements through a strainer
into our styrofoam cups. It was strong and thick and satisfying in the way a thick bowl of soup might be. But there was little in the way of flavour or aroma. Of course each cup was around 2 Riyals (roughly US$0.30). These men were here to save money, not spend it.

[flickr]http://www.flickr.com/photos/36904720@N03/3698023873/[/flickr]

I ordered a small sweetish sesame bun to go with my tea.

So tea played a very important role in the lives of these men and you could really feel the air of comraderie among the guys who were stoping by for a few cups on their way home.
It was nice to be a part of it for even that brief period of time.

Apologies for the long silence, we’ve just had what can only be described as a tsunami of holidays that are unique to Sri Lanka. It’s the new year here and workplaces have been shut now for a week and counting. Not that I’m complaining, but April for us is always half drowned and by the time we crawl back to work, we have Vesak. Tea is not the only reason we love this country.

As I mentioned before in a post long long ago, one of the reasons I love Russia is that they love great teas and one of the things that reassured me is their continued trust of teas packed in Sri Lanka. They still trust the Lion logo, which guarantees that your cup was packed at origin in Sri Lanka and is of a good quality.

There are huge duties for pre packed teas in Russia. Which was created to support a couple of large firms which pack locally. the loser is the Russian consumer who has to pay a premium for the privilege of teas packed in Russia.

Never mind that it makes little economic sense or that it’s unfair to the average Russian tea lover and to Sri Lanka and other tea countries.

I say that it’s wrong purely on the grounds that teas packed at origin taste better.

All Olinda teas are packed within a few weeks from the time they are plucked. From the time tea leaves are rolled, they start losing their quality. The best teas are always and I mean ALWAYS better tasted on the day they were made. The longer they are kept without being packaged, the more taste notes we lose. Some argue that the notes that we lose maybe subtle. I don’t think so. I think we’re making excuses for not giving the best possible cup we can.

I’ll take some fresh tea straight factory during my next visit to the plantations and compare how the taste and fragrance are affected by time and transport.

Most teas packed away from origin are shipped and stored for months, and finally blended with cheaper origins bring costs down. I know for a fact that a couple of leading brands in Russia pack other origin teas and claim them to be Ceylon.

Next time you buy your tea, check the origin, and better yet check if they tell you when the tea was plucked not just packed, it makes all the difference.