Banter: Is Milk Tea Going Extinct in India?

You’d likely find the rather interjectory title above preposterous, absurd or even a bit offensive. And you’d probably be very right too; for you might be intensely aware of the joys of kulhad tea in the northern states of the country like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar among others or bharer cha of West Bengal among other eastern states—both of which varieties mean steaming milk tea served in earthen or clay cups. You might also angrily retort by saying ‘come winter and you show me the way without the steaming hot milk tea for company’! I heartily second your opinion and your taste buds, because I too am all for the cups of milk tea—be it on the street corners or at home. However, I still have my concerns and fears that are based on my experience in the last few years. But of course, I don’t have empirical data to justify my fears which ultimately may be termed as totally subjective. Whatever it is, I must elaborate my point. 

I’d first concentrate on my home state Assam, though there are other places where I had had similar experiences. In the last few years I discovered to my horror that the practice of serving milk tea to visitors or staff had almost vanished as far as the offices were concerned—government or private. Whenever I visited or worked in an office in my home state the polite peon would always bring in cups of black tea, red tea, lemon tea or green tea without giving me a choice. The supervising officer or the host would always keep mum. When in dire need of a cup of milk tea I ask the officer about its availability s/he would politely answer in the assured negative. Alas!

More concerning had been the changing patterns of behavior in the homes of friends or close relatives: during the initial onset of the vanishing species they used to ask me about my choice—red tea or milk tea and I’d always confirm my express choice; unfortunately, in the later years the hosts must’ve found the asking for choice quite illogical for their convenience or their own preferences, and therefore, they stopped asking which resulted in me served always with the red black or the green variety irrespective of my needs of the hour. Alas!

Notwithstanding Assam being the state for quality tea leafs or powders called the Assam Tea all over the country we did find the tea served in the trains or at the stations the worst in India over the decades. Experts explained to my bitterly complaining self that the best quality tea is always exported and unless you have direct links with some influential persons at the tea gardens you’ll have to make do with whatever you get. However, all of those served teas had been milk tea, invariably! Yes! I’m coming to my point. Milk tea has also been vanishing from the trains or stations at a fast rate!

Let me elaborate with the example of two short train journeys we undertook in the recent past in the state of West Bengal where people have traditionally been fond of milk tea—particularly the bharer cha we mentioned earlier. My experience really shook me. In the onward journey it was relatively okay. There was a solitary vendor selling milk tea with tea bags amid hordes of other vendors offering all kinds of eatables even though most of the passengers boarded the train with their bellies full. There were also other vendors selling all the other varieties of tea that you understand. Toward the end of the journey we were again in need of a cup of milk tea, but the lone vendor was nowhere to be seen and we had to make do.

The return journey was the most revealing one! After a hurried breakfast we boarded the train and immediately we were in great need of steaming cups of milk tea. We waited and waited; but there was not even the lone vendor. All other varieties of tea kept on coming up along with all the food items we never wanted. There was liquor tea meaning the black or red tea; there was the lemon tea; and there was even kind of a chutney tea, meaning the tea was a mega-mix of lemons, peppermint, salt, sugar and what not. We scowled at the pushing vendors having even to bark them off at times; but no milk tea vendor came our way. Making things worse the train got late, and it was like ‘miles to go before we have our milk tea’ kind of a situation. Alas!

In the crowded food lanes of various metros and cities too, I often experienced tremendous hardships in locating a milk tea joint. Here also, the situation seems to be worsening! In Mumbai and in some areas of Delhi in particular you have to roam literal miles to find a tea seller. Another factor that may be contributing toward the vanishing act of the milk tea can be mentioned here: that in Maharashtra specially that may be spreading to other places too fast, most people consider milk tea as some kind of a liability: when you treat them with a plateful delicacies and sweets along with a steaming cup of milk tea they sip down the tea as if in a great hurry and after that only they launch themselves heartily on the plateful. Such disdain for my favourite tea! Alas!

So then, I do concentrate on my ‘home is where the milk tea still is’, because here I can do justice to my simple choices, provided, of course, there’s an understanding spouse too. And Mumbai has given me the solution long back, in the phenomenon of ‘cutting chai’ which means I can have it in smaller quantities doing full justice to my needs and the desired frequency.

To conclude in the face of this supposedly looming eventuality I must clarify myself a bit. Mind you! I’m not blind to the health angle here. Yes, people need to cut down their intake of dairy and sugar and so they reduce the cups of milk tea they take. While the healthy benefits of liquor tea or herbal tea or even chutney tea are more or less proven, the general perception of milk tea harming our gastronomy or increasing acidity is not quite boldly established so far. Anyway, I take lemon tea to begin the day since decades as a doctor once told me lemon tea prevents clogging of the arteries. But finally, I believe in the adage ‘excess of everything is bad’ and apply it to my milk teas also. Besides, there are other option available like oat milk, soya milk and all that to substitute the dairy provided your taste buds approve; along with various sizes of the tea cups available at the street corners so that you can go for the smallest cup at five bucks and ascend up the order per your specific needs and you can also have sugar-free tea. Cheers!