Coffee tea and me

To me tea or coffee has to be just the way I want them to be
Iam a dictator here
No compromises.
Just the right temperature the right time it should be served
like I love to sip them with my food
 breakfast or whatever neither before nor after

This sort of fad is a big irk for many .

For one my wife keeps calling me till I come immediately once  the coffee or tea hits the table .
 In a hotel its always too early as in Brunei where the drink comes first or ,too late as in Chennai where people drink tea or coffee as a dessert mostly to wash thier dosas down .

This quirk is shared by some in my matrileneal family ,we mallus being more possesive of this branch of our progeny .

But to others this seems almost a perversion !

Having said about timing let me talk of the tea I like
I like tea coloured a tinted yellow red which proclaims its strength ,having tasted the pure strong tea from the cardomom hills of wayanad or the stepping Tata tea estates of verdant Munnar which is transported to the torrid planes and auctioned in Cochin where I lived half my life .

Either its because I rubbed shoulders with the tea tasters who have a stiff upper lip when it comes to quality  or because tame tepid sweet tea puts me off as much as an Adoor Gopalakrishnan movie does  !

The Kannan devan hills with its thatched tea shops smoke emanating and merging with the mist of an early morning would be my mother of all teas !!

The version tea thariq served in Brunei or UAE with its syrupy milkmaid treacled sweetness makes me a bit sick !

As far as coffee is concerned having grown up in mylapore in Chennai nay Madras in my days where mother of filter coffees are concoted by conservative madi sari maamis with a vengeance unsurpassed , and having imbibed this ambrosia in my childhood , my taste buds sneer at tame imitations of this ,
 leave alone imitations ,the bitter concotions of modern coffee houses including the famed  starbucks which is the fad of the yuppy crowd ,makes me pity their sorry destiny in calling the said beverage as class !!

Similarly the mallu makes horrible coffee with powder not filter even the  instant  variety is murdered by him with no mercy and the milk is as watery as the periyar during monsoon which makes me  run a mile !

So from a mallu go for a tea and from a maami go for a coffee .!

Purinjudha

Manasilayyo

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