I lived in Hyderabad for close to three years - 2017 to 2020, when my stay there was cut short due to the pandemic.
I don’t know if I’ll ever get to live there again, or may only have to make trips as a visitor(if my employer allows for permanent WFH). But I do know the first place I’ll go every-time I visit the city — an Irani Chai Dukaan(shop)!
Dipping a piece of Osmania Biscuit into a cup of piping hot Irani tea, biting into it, and feeling it’s soft and milky texture is an experience I’ll never forget. It is THIS EXPERIENCE that I will always associate with Hyderabad.
The Chai can be had at any time of the day — be it on an early morning cold winter, or in the middle of a hot day, or to cool off after work in the evening, or at night!
Go to any place in town - Niloufer, Pista House, Nimrah, Cafe Bahar, Shah Ghouse, Blue Sea, Alpha, Red Rose, etc. and the chai will leave a permanent, pleasant taste in your tongue.
At each of the above cafes, the chai tastes slightly different. I remember Niloufers(my personal favourite of them all!) as being the most odd one out of the lot, having a unique taste to it’s tea.
I like that most of the places serve the tea in a saucer cup. Even observing how the server fills the cup with the tea is a part of the chai experience.
He carelessly takes the cup with one hand, literally “throws” the hand under the tap of the vessel where the tea decoction is boiling, and fills one third of the cup with the tea. He then repeats the same “careless and hand throwing" motions under the vessel where the milk is boiling, and places the cup on the counter for the waiter to take it to you, or for you to take it directly.
As I write this, I can hear the “click click” sound of the saucer cups as the tea is poured into them; I can also recollect observing that there’s always some amount of the tea that always falls onto the saucer due to the “carelessness” of the server! And I am transported to Hyderabad just like that.
What goes into preparing this tea, that it can give one so much pleasure?
The milk is boiled for a long time, giving it time to get rid of the water content and become thick. This is essential before it meets the tea decoction, for if it’s not thick, it will not give you the pleasureful taste! It is this thickness of the milk that makes Irani Chai what it is.
After the milk has patiently waited in the boiling pot for hours, it is finally ready to meet and join with it’s long-lost partner, the tea! The tea is also boiled in an adjacent pot.
When they finally meet in the cup, it is like the bonding of two long-lost souls to produce a cup of beauty called the Irani Chai!
