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Stimulating tea effect

UMA CHODAVARAPUUMA CHODAVARAPU

A hot steaming cup of tea or chai, warms and soothes the lonely mind

Strange how a teapot can represent at the same time the comforts of solitude and pleasures of company. - Anonymous.

How true, a hot steaming cup of tea or chai, warms and soothes the lonely mind and the same cup is the preferred and accepted brew for a social gathering. In fact, after water, tea is perhaps the most consumed beverage in its various varieties the world over. And what makes it so special is best answered individually by tea-connoisseurs, as each has a special favourite blend and even style of brewing it. But everyone agrees how a good cup can perk you up and rejuvenate the mind and body.

The first cup of tea was drunk in China, some 5,000 years ago. The then emperor, Shen Nung, a visionary man with scientific interests ruled that all water must be boiled before drinking. Once while visiting a distant province of his realm, he and his courtiers stopped to rest and as per his edict, the servants began to boil water for drinking. Dried leaves from an adjacent shrub happened to drop in the hot water and the water took a golden brown hue. Intrigued, the Emperor tried the water that he found surprisingly invigorating. And lo! Tea was discovered! Another version credits the Buddhist (Indian) monk, Bodhidharma (who also visited China in 520 A.D.) who apparently discovered tea when he chewed the leaves of a nearby (tea) shrub to evade drowsiness. The stimulating effect of the leaves inspired him to make a more palatable version, the tea decoction.

But irrespective of the origin, people the world over do enjoy their cup of steaming hot tea. In fact, it is the only thing that traditional chauvinistic men (who staunchly believe that the kitchen is exclusively the women's domain) ever concede to learn to make. And only because they personally need it to kick start their mornings or drag on their late-night reading.

But to make things easier for a suffering novice, there is the tea bag, a chance invention. In early 1900s, a New York wholesale tea merchant, trying to cut back on packing and shipping costs, packed loose tea in silk bags, lighter and space-saving, instead of the usual tins, and shipped them to his customers. The next order he received, commended him on his pioneering idea and specifically requested for the convenient, ready-to-use-tea-bags, and by 1904, tea bags were everywhere.

Sipping or slurping tea from a cup, saucer or tumbler is common, but can you imagine anyone having their tea with chopsticks? Well, that's precisely what one is forced to do to enjoy their cuppa in outer space. Surface tension holds droplets of any liquid together while gravity pulls them apart. On earth, gravity wins; only small droplets can survive. But in space, surface tension rules, water and such liquids form big floating drop, large enough to make a mouth-full and firm enough to handle with chopsticks. According to Don Pettit, onboard the International Space Station, you just take your chopsticks, pick up a blob of tea and pop it in your mouth, mmmm.

And if you aren't adept with chopsticks, then Indian researchers in Jorhat, Assam have the solution. Pop a tea-pill! Still in its refining stages, this tablet can be directly sucked or chewed as black tea or dissolved to get a traditional cup of tea. They are even planning flavours - orange and lemon, cardamom and ginger. So the next time you are late for office, pop in a tea pill while on the run and get the same high, though sans the piping heat and ambiance.

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