A Taste of Honey

 by Gayathri Ramachandran

Hello again, dear readers! I am most happy to bring you another piece by Gayathri, who loves her cup of tea and everything to do with it. Read on to see how she makes a most interesting connection between tea and honey. - Gowri

When I went to a workshop titled 'Ghats Honey- Wild Honey Hunters'…little did I know that I would be tasting, squeezing the combs, chewing a little bit of the comb with the honey and wax still intact !!

Honey is a brown, sticky, sugar-saturated solution made by bees. Honey bees or forage bees collect nectar from flowers and add some enzymes to the nectar. Voila! Pure honey! The similarities between tea and honey are mind boggling. 

What is the connect between tea and honey? Tea plantations have highly skilled workers at various levels. Apiculture has specialized skill in people who locate, harvest, taste and recommend honey that we are looking for. We know how sommeliers explain with such elan how different types of tea, coffee, wine or honey challenge your taste buds and you are left with a lingering memory such as ‘Wah Taj’, ‘Want a Cupa’ or ‘Hi Honey’. For example, the Stingless bee honey leaves a fruity and lemony taste first and leaves a sweet taste on the second helping.

Honey differs in aroma, taste and feel on the tongue and these are specific to the region. So also with tea, and it is this quality that makes some prefer one type of tea or honey over the other!!

As in tea plantations, the specialists - in this case apiarists - know the terrain, the season and the location, furthermore how nimbly you can take out honey with just hands without any machinery to harvest it. The hills, the forests, the thick growth are easily accessed by the hill people and hill tribes. They have special skills to locate, and then to climb the daunting terrain and get to the beehive. The tea plantations don't have such challenging terrain to harvest tea leaves! Note from editor: I know planters will disagree!

The benefits of both are innumerable. Have you ever tasted the best tea served with brown sugar, karupatti (palm candy) or honey ? 

In the one-liner 'Coffee, Tea, or Me' I would love to replace 'me' with 'honey'. Pure honey without going through the factory regimen, stays completely pure and unadulterated. The health benefits of tea and honey combinations are numerous.

Bee keeping or apiculture is an awesome industry. Technology helps to develop and extract honey as a cottage industry. In the Western Ghats the apiculturists strive hard to get unadulterated medicinal honey. They call it Ghat wild honey.

The expert in the 'sensory attributes of honey', or honey sommelier, is an authority in the way honeys taste, smell and feel in the mouth. They assist people in understanding the differences and subtleties that arise from different regions, flora and seasons, so they can gain a much deeper appreciation for honey. So also expert tea tasters.

Similar to tea, the health benefits of a spoonful of honey everyday include diabetes management, healing bones and joints, cancer management and better heart health. By adding a teaspoonful of honey to tea, we can enjoy a plethora of metabolic boosters.

Meet the writer:

Gayathri Ramachandran

 

 

My grandfather Mr TS Mani Iyer and his younger brother Natesan Iyer had a transport Company in Pollachi which transported chests of tea from Valparai to various places. My grandmother, clad in the traditional nine yards sari, would entertain her British guests - the 'dorasanis' - to tea with impeccable taste. 

 

However, I was brought up on a diet of coffee till I moved to New Delhi after marriage. There Tea became 'the word' gaining all importance. Living among the Punjabis, this exotic beverage became a centre point in socialising during wintry afternoons. I was introduced to kadak chai, adhrak chai, masala chai, cardamom chai, green chai and white chai. 

 

'Chai ho jaye!' is familiar sweet music welcomed with cheer while you play cards or just have some plain 'gup shup'. Oh! my taste for tea grew and the bitter 'after taste' of coffee was replaced with the milder invigorating drink. I enjoy tea in various forms, white, green or golden, with or with out milk, sweet or just black!!!  

 

Read more by Gayathri here: http://teastorytellers.blogspot.com/search/label/Gayathri%20Ramachandran

 

Is this your first visit here? Welcome to Indian Chai Stories! Do you have a chai story of your own to share? Send it to me here, please : indianchaistories@gmail.com. My name is Gowri Mohanakrishnan and I'm a tea planter's wife.

I started this blog in 2018 because one of the things that I wouldn't want us to lose in a fast changing world is the tea story - a story always told with great seriousness, no matter how funny - always true (always) - maybe a tall tale, maybe long, short, impossible, scary, funny or exciting but never dull. You will find yourself transported to another world! 

This is the link to all the stories on this blog: https://teastorytellers.blogspot.com/ Be sure to add it to your list of favourites! Happy reading!! Cheers to the spirit of Indian tea!