Visited a Danish vessel in Colombo harbour today. Almost all of our shipments are packed in steel containers which are then loaded onto these massive ships. I got to visit the deck and walk around the ship. These are some of the pictures I took with my phone (apologies for being unable to zoom on the scenery).

[flickr]http://www.flickr.com/photos/36904720@N03/3728306467/[/flickr] [flickr]http://www.flickr.com/photos/36904720@N03/3728305223/[/flickr] [flickr]http://www.flickr.com/photos/36904720@N03/3729106274/[/flickr] [flickr]http://www.flickr.com/photos/36904720@N03/3729103624/[/flickr] [flickr]http://www.flickr.com/photos/36904720@N03/3729104934/[/flickr] [flickr]http://www.flickr.com/photos/36904720@N03/3728299239/[/flickr]

We don’t really think much how the tea is bought to our supermarket shelves simply because it’s become too easy and most of the hard work is done behind the scenes.

There’s a reason why many tea companies still use the picture of the tea clipper on their packaging. The famed clippers played a very important role in getting the tea quickly across the world into Europe and the Americas. Obviously modern ships have none of the of the old romance (even if they still do face pirates). The ship I visited, felt more like a small hotel in Japan (the rooms were that tiny) and it was a bit funny to think of this huuuuge ship being manned by 12 men.

The captain (who had a big tea selection in his office), said he was quite happy that his vessel played a part in getting the tea leaves that we’ve lovingly produced to tea lovers around the world.

That did make me think of how we take whatever we buy and consume for granted. We don’t actually realise the effort of so many people in getting our morning cup to us.

This is specially true of the people who plucked the leaf and make the tea itself, more often than not, they are the forgotten ones.

I thanked the captain on behalf of tea drinkers of the world and promised to make sure that our tea would be good enough to make the drinker smile. He in turn promised me that he’d make sure that our tea gets across the seas safely and quickly.

So when you’re having your next cup spare a thought not just for the captain and his crew but for all the other people from the person plucked the leaf to the people who lovingly packaged it. I’m sure they hope that the cup has made you smile.

• Tea plays large part in Rwandan economic miracle http://ow.ly/gEpd #

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“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.

• It’s 102 degrees and you’re drinking WHAT???!! T Ching http://ow.ly/gz2k In praise of hot tea, no matter what the temperature is outside! #

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Tea and art
[flickr]http://www.flickr.com/photos/36904720@N03/3651866692/[/flickr]

[flickr]http://www.flickr.com/photos/36904720@N03/3651066095/[/flickr]

I saw this is in a street art festival in Mumbai. Unfortunately someone had knocked the name of the artist of the piece off the piece. It’s an arrangement of the tools of the trade of the “Chaiwallahs” of India. In every Indian town/city they walk around in the hot sun serving chai on the go. The art arrangement was a bit neater than the stuff I normally see on the streets of India, but they got everything right (except maybe the cowdung/charcoal that the guys carry to “cook” the chai on the go). This piece reminds me of a book I read some time ago called the City of Chai by Mr. Toshikie Horikie, the owner of the Musica tea company in Osaka. It’s a wonderful book of his total immersion into the Calcutta’s (now Kolkota) tea culture. His enthusiasm and curiosity for life and for tea is infectious. It’s a book about a man’s love for tea and his thirst for new experiences. The simple but profound musings on life and tea along with the the effort he has put into searching for the source of the chai makes this book a must for any tea lover.

I couldn’t find any proper links describing chai as Horikie san describes it, will keep looking.
Also saw this sculpture called “Smoking man” in the same place. Thought it was a statement on pollution, turned out to be a piece on smoking.
[flickr]http://www.flickr.com/photos/36904720@N03/3651939346/[/flickr]

[flickr]http://www.flickr.com/photos/36904720@N03/3651146249/[/flickr]

• War is over! Now it’s time to win the peace. Cliched but true… #

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• Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle,the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared #
• That was a quote from the Buddha. It’s Vesak! Happy 2500th Birthday! #

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• Just got off the phone with a client in Greece. They wanted their tea tweeked a little bit to add more aroma. #
• It’s amazing how each country has its own idea of aroma or taste. Kind of like accents. One language – spoken in many ways. #
• Need to explore that more in a blog post or possibly a PHD. #

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• I love my job, but staying up late to make calls to a client 12 hours behind us isn’t fun. No matter how much you like the client. #

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• Home looking after my son, sorting out my bookshelf. He’s just ripped a page out of “3 Chinese poets” by Vickram Seth. #
• Guess my wife is right, – I can’t do things at once. Definitely not with Aran. RIP page 24 – Question and answer in the mountain. #
• The poem will resonate wirh some part of the tea drinker’s soul:
  They ask me why I live in the green mountains. #
• I smile and don’t reply; my heart’s at ease.Peach blossoms flow downstream, leaving no trace– #
• And there are other earths and skies than these.
  Li Bai #

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