Bubbly tea

Who doesn't like tea right? For us Sri Lankans, tea is the ultimate beverage. Rain or shine, when someone visits us we give them a cup of tea. To show that we are not at all stingy and very very hospitable, the tea given to guests is always over sugared. And the guests, to show that they are courteous to the hosts, always leave about one quarter of the cup undrunk.

Until a few years ago, for Sri Lankans tea only came in one kind. Black crushed leaves. There were brands of course, but tea could be also be bought loose from the grocer. Now there are many brands and many varieties. Some absolutely fantastic!

I'm used to be a huge teaaficionado. About two years ago, if you opened my middle desk drawer at work, you would have found, about ten varieties of tea. Black tea, green tea, matcha, raspberry flavoured, lemon flavoured, jasmine flavoured, moroccan mint so on and so forth.

But these days, I hardly drink tea. In the mornings Darling and I opt for freshly squeezed fruit juice. But sometimes, when the mood hits, a tea becomes indispensable. Today was one such day. As I was making tea I remembered our childhood (when we were about six or seven), when nangi and I used to sit on the bed after getting a wash and wait for amma to come dress us. She would always give us our tea (milk tea of course) first. Our tea HAD to have a lot of bubbles and froth. Otherwise we would scream "ammmaaaa!!!! pena oney!!!" (mom! we want bubbles!!)

Froth is created when the tea is aerated. This is done by pouring tea from one cup to another and back and forth repeatedly  for a few minutes. Not only does this cool the tea, but it also gives it a lovely taste. If you visit one of those fancy tea bars in Colombo, you can get a cup of aerated tea. But a long time ago, any cup of milk tea offered at one of those roadside kades in a village, was aerated. It was called, "yaara daanawa" meaning that the tea would be poured back and forth between two cups a yard apart.

So today, we had yaara damapu te.