Love for tea can make you do crazy things! Just ask MF Husain who just created and gifted a priceless painting to his favorite restaurant for the love of tea and snacks!!

MF Husain, India’s most famous modern artist, also widely known as the Indian Picasso, had been visiting The Lucky Restaurant in the city of Ahmedabad for 25 plus years for tea and snacks. So, to express his love for the restaurant and the restaurant owner Gulabbhai, Mr. Husain decided to give them a gift of a painting. Mr. Hussain, whose paintings have often sold for millions of dollars at auctions, walks bare foot and is well known for his generosity.

So next time you are in Ahmedabad, plan on going to Lal Darwaza district and visit Lucky Restaurant. No worries, just ask any rikshaw or taxi to take you there. The tea stall is famous for its teas!

Read full story in Calcutta Telegraph

A study published recently in Cancer Research points to the fact that Green Tea Polyphonols (the anti-oxidants present in green tea) might help in prevention of Prostate cancer by blocking the growth of blood vessels to the tumor.

In an animal model the scientists have been able to demonstrate that the Green Tea Polyphenols block IGF-1 (Insulin like Growth Factor) pathway by reducing the levels of IGF-1 in the tumor cells. This in turn slows down the proliferation of tumor cells and the growth of blood vessels that fuel the growth of tumor cells.

Since elevated IGF-1 levels is a key characteristic of several forms of cancer, it is hypothesized that reduction in the levels of IGF-1 would beneficially assist in control of the tumor cells growth.

Here is the link to the article abstract.

In many ways, this was one of the best years ever for the Joshi family. We had several exciting things happen this year. For starters, Jaya Teas Company began its life this year, bringing to fruition a long held dream of doing something with tea, our family tradition. Jaya Teas started in May, and since then we have had a steady build up of support from the tea drinking community in United States. We participated in several wine festivals around New Jersey, and met so many people who appreciated our philosophy, encouraged us, and promised to support us in our endeavor. We were also lucky to be able to participate in the NY Fancy Food Show, where our packaging design and overall marketing concept was received with great interest.

We had our first store placement when Whole Earth Center in Princeton decided to carry our teas. Soon threafter we received further boost with Holsome Center of Princeton, and Village Traditions in Lawrenceville, NJ also deciding to carry our teas. Overall, we are thrilled to receive this kind of support from local stores, and hope to expand further in 2005.

We also started to support community activities with the support of Melissa Sturno’s fund raising drive for Avon Breast Cancer Walk, and hope to do more with her in the coming year. Overall, 2004 shaped up to be an exciting year for us and and none of this would have been possible without your support. So, thank you, thank you, thank you!

As I sit and write this column, my mind is full of nostalgia about the way we used to celebrate Christmas in India. India, as you know, is predominantly a Hindu country, yet the influence of Christians is quite visible. Many of the English medium schools, for example, are run by Catholic missions, and it is from them that we learned about the tradition of Christmas. India today has a sizeble Christian population, and we are proud of our Christmas tradition. Christmas is a public holiday for all, and all Indians join our Christian country men in celebrating the holiday with the same gusto with which Christians celebrate the Hindu festival of Diwali.

But the way Christmas is celebrated in India is quite different - its more a religious celebration and a time for contemplation than a mad rush to the mall worrying about gift giving. Families go to Church to celebrate mass and then visit each others home to wish them a Merry Christmas. I have to say though, that now that I have a daughter of my own, I find a lot of joy shopping gifts for her and her little friends! Yes, Santa does visit this Hindu household!!

So today as I think about the old country, and old friends I left behind, I want to wish my American friends a very Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year. May Santa bring you and your families lots of joy.

Jaya is not well today. Some minor cold and congestion, and she kept me up all night long. So when I woke up this morning I felt like having a nice cup of tea. I decided to go for 2004 Thurbo first flush, which has a nice floral aroma, and an infusion that gets better with longer steep. Here is a picture of the infusion of Thurbo.

You can see the large leaves in the infusion with the thick veins, but hardly any stem. This is a characteristic of good tea. This Thurbo is graded FTGFOP1 Clonal, which means, Only the Finest Tips of Golden Flowery [containing a lot of buds] and Orange Pekoe [largest leaf - the best variety of leaf in Darjeeling teas that were not broken at the time of picking] from Clonal bushes, were used for producing this tea.

Simply put, this tea was produced using some of the finest large leaf and contains a fair amount of golden tips and flowery buds. Important to note that there are no tea FLOWERS in this because tea flowers are NOT used in producing tea.

Ahh, what a wonderful tea this Thurbo first flush is…just opens up my heart like nothing else. The delicate floral aroma, the muscatel flavor and the light taste, all just made my troubles go away. As I sit here writing this piece, the aroma still swirls around me rising from the open cup.

One thing about Darjeelings that many people who are used to drinking Chinese and Taiwanese Oolongs don’t understand is that Darjeeling teas are cut leaf teas, so they require quite a bit less of a steep time than the full leaf teas like Oolongs.

It is also important to note that I used only 1 round teaspoon of tea with 2 cups of hot water for preparing this brew (the picture above is that of the second steep), and I kept drinking out of the tea pot until the tea was gone. Doing this you will notice that the tea gets a bit stronger as it sits, but you won’t notice any bitterness whatsoever. On top of that, the second steep seems to bring out some more of the delicate muscatel flavor.

Japanese green tea is increasingly gaining acceptance in the west, but I have to admit, I don’t know a whole lot about it. So, when I came across this page that describes Japanese teas very simply, and with a lot of pictures, I found it very useful. According to this page, there are five types of Japanese teas: Sen-cha, Ban-cha, Gyokoru, Gainmai-cha, Hoji-cha and Ma-cha. Here is a summary of the types of teas. For more information visit the Eat-Japan website.

Our friends at Leites Culiarnia have once again published their top 20 cook books of 2004, and some of the famous names and some not so famous names have made the list. One of the famous ones to make it to the list is a book on India Cooking by Saran, the owner Chef of Indian restaurant called Amma in NY City.

I often have to travel on business, and whenever I am out, I am always scouting out tea rooms to experience the local tea culture. I have travel far and wide, within United States, in UK and other European countries, Far Eastern countries etc., and I am often wonder struck by the way tea is served differently. In US tea rooms, the selection of teas often leaves much to be desired. Just recently I was in a so called “tea room” where they had just a single “pot of tea” on the menu. I sighed and ordered the tea - what else could I do? and was quickly disappointed when a pot of hot water arrived with a Choice tea bag on the side. Nothing wrong with the tea - except when I go to a tea room, I expect a good selection of loose teas, and service that will make me want to come back.

United States has a long ways to go before our tea rooms improve the service and selection. The tea salons in United States have been a rather dull, Victorian and often feminine affair, but Europe on the other hand has decidedly more modern and more gender neutral tea room culture. I was recently in Vienna where tea culture is steeped in history, and even the hotels offer “single estate” teas. The hotel where I was staying offered Castleton, Jungpana, and Gopaldhara among Darjeelings, and a good selection of Assam and Ceylon teas. The tea rooms were equally wonderful and absolutely a treat to go to.

So, I this morning when I stumbled upon an article on Parisian Tea Salons written by Joyce White, I immediately clicked on the link and read it with great interest. If you have ever read anything written by Joyce (she has written two beautiful books on Southern cooking…see below) - you already know that she has an unmatched way with words. Her descriptions of the mid afternoon salon culture, her chagrin when the waiter offers her 50 varieites of Darjeeling teas, are just a delight to read. However, even more important, her articles are often informative and can be stored away in a lock box for use in future. This one is no different. Joyce provides us with eight or nine names of tea rooms to visit when next time in Paris.

If you haven’t already, read it, print it and save it for future. It will save you a lot of trouble next time you are in Paris, and hunting for a tea room to let go of your troubles. Here is the link: A Sweet Escape to Paris’ Tea Salons

Books by Joyce White:

Now there is new research that shows that anti-oxidants lutein ad zeaxanthin protect human eyes from UV light. Researchers from Ohio state University. Dr. Joshua A Bomser and his colleagues treated human eye cells with anti-oxidants and then exposed them to UV light. The cells that had been exposed to anti-oxidants did not clump together the way untreated cells did - demonstrating that anti-oxidants prevent the clumping of proteins, and may have protective effects on eyes. Cataract is formed when the proteins in the eye lens start to clump together leading to obscuring of the vision. More than 20 million Americans have cataracts.

These anti-oxidants are common in lots of fruits and leafy vegetables, and as we all know, tea is a great source of anti-oxidants.

Here is the link to the article that appeared on
Yahoo news

Just bumped into this comic strip called tea-club. Seems like an interesting site run a couple of artists out of California. Here is a picture of one of the characters in the comic.