We must have heard of many stories of different and amazing tastes of tea from parts of Bangladesh. Dozens of different tastes of tea are available across the country. They not only vary in taste but also in style of preparation and presentation.
The Khulna Experience
Along the Rupsha Ghat in Khulna, it's easy to find dozens of tea stalls selling raw tea. But one of them is really very different! An young man preparing tea for the customers and his two assistants are impossibly busy to deliver the orders. Each day this man makes approx. 3000 glasses of tea. What makes his tea special is the salty-sweet-lemon flavour of his raw tea. For each order, the young man follows a complete process of tea-making. What he does is actually an art performance worthwhile to watch as long as it takes to make a glass of tea ready:
a. squizzes out juice from lemons
b. adds sugar to lemon juice in a metal mug
c. heats the mixture for 15 seconds
d. takes out a spoonful of hot mixture and sips (eyes are closed while sipping)
e. further adds lemon or sugar, if necessary
f. takes the mixture in a small glass (he uses glass instead of cup)
g. takes some tea dust on a tea-filter and hold it on the glass
h. pours hot water from kettle drop-by-drop on the filter
i. the semi transparent red drops from sakni jumps on the lemon-sugar mixture and dips into the liquid and takes place on the floor of the glass; then comes the second drop to sit on the head of the first one and it continues untill the glass is filled three-quarter and two layers of White-Red are visible
j. at the conclusion, the mixture looks like a bright-red funnel dipped half into a thick mixture of lemon juice.
Your tea is ready to take! And the entire process takes 30-45 seconds for each order.
When you start sipping, two different layers with two different colors with two different tastes run into your mouth at the same time and gives you sweet-sour taste with fresh raw tea flavour.
Watching the art of making tea and then taking the superb taste threw out all the tiredness I had been carrying the whole day due to the long journey from Dhaka to Khulna. That was fantastic!
আমি নিশ্চিত নই যে সেই ভদ্রলোক এখনো সেই একই জায়গায় দাড়িয়ে চা বানান কি-না। তবে রূপসা ঘাটে খোঁজ করলে এখনো সেই শিল্প ব্যবহার করে তৈরী চা (শিল্পসম্মত চা!) পাওয়া যেতে পারে বলে মনে করছি।
বেল চা (Wood apple tea)
Once in a small tea-stall beside Jatrabari-Kanchpur highway, I was amazed to have the first sip of tea prepared with the flavor of fruit. Powder of ripe wood apple (বেল) is mixed with the milk-tea in a stage of preparation. The powder is prepared by the tea maker himself. The taste is awfully different. It forced me to take three cups of wood apple tea (বেল চা) in ten minutes.
If you ever stop by the area, ask someone for the stall of Bel-tea (বেল চা). Hope, you experience a new taste.
I've also experienced a number of WOW taste of tea in small tea stalls in remote areas of the country. The list would be a big one but the bests I had include Banana tea (কলা চা), Gur tea (গুড় চা), Butter tea (মাখন চা), Palm tea (তাল চা), and Coconut tea (নারিকেল চা) (made of coconut milk). The last one is really impressive in taste and flavor.
You also have some sort of off-track tastes of tea! Don't you?
