Sometimes just having a cup of cardamom infused tea is all that is needed to let the stress off steam. (There's many other tea spices and masalas that enhance tea's flavour but cardamom is a subtle and lovely mood lifter for me:) ) Tea with few biscuits is like self acceptance on a plate - it's in those moments of smelling the tea and sipping the warmth that envelops you for just a few moments to stay in your zone that is actually the comfort that we seek to rest into. So, tea and that too the non watery ones and the ones with the right amount of milk and thickness and water to bring to boil the tea leaves/powder which is all there is to tea making, to give us a cupful of fresh perspective from a relaxed sense of taking our minds off what is consuming us and to just be there for ourselves just as we are, in whichever situation we are, is the highpoint of the humble tea.
Tea consumes our stress for those few moments you can say and not the other way round!! To just give in to these small moments of times from our mind numbing everyday schedule is one's own quality (tea) time and what better way to be with oneself than by having a cupful of aromatic tea to just blend with our senses and make sense of it in our own mindful ways.
Ta drinking for the sake of tea drinking is one thing and tea with oily, fried snacks is another. Tea undoubtedly adds taste to the samosas, pakoras, bajjis and more, but as a standalone treat when consumed just for tea's sake!
We need our times of solitude to take our attention away from our problems which again keeps brewing in our minds similar to a bitter tea that has lost all taste and life, and it's my takeaway that don't keep thinking through problems - talk to your friends, parents, or anyone trustworthy (let out your steam) and get yourself off your ruminations(it's like stirring through broken milk that won't hold anything under heat) and don't make them a blending habit with your everyday life and plans. It's the aftertaste of bitterness on one's tongue or in one's life that makes it so not worth it.
Here's raising a toast to the universal tea that ties people together through tiredness and refreshment, through solitude and tea parties with friends, through worries and deadlines, and project victories, tea stays with you to make sense of all the highs and lows of your life.
