Love for tea can make you do crazy things! Just ask MF Husain who just created and gifted a priceless painting to his favorite restaurant for the love of tea and snacks!!

MF Husain, India’s most famous modern artist, also widely known as the Indian Picasso, had been visiting The Lucky Restaurant in the city of Ahmedabad for 25 plus years for tea and snacks. So, to express his love for the restaurant and the restaurant owner Gulabbhai, Mr. Husain decided to give them a gift of a painting. Mr. Hussain, whose paintings have often sold for millions of dollars at auctions, walks bare foot and is well known for his generosity.

So next time you are in Ahmedabad, plan on going to Lal Darwaza district and visit Lucky Restaurant. No worries, just ask any rikshaw or taxi to take you there. The tea stall is famous for its teas!

Read full story in Calcutta Telegraph

A study published recently in Cancer Research points to the fact that Green Tea Polyphonols (the anti-oxidants present in green tea) might help in prevention of Prostate cancer by blocking the growth of blood vessels to the tumor.

In an animal model the scientists have been able to demonstrate that the Green Tea Polyphenols block IGF-1 (Insulin like Growth Factor) pathway by reducing the levels of IGF-1 in the tumor cells. This in turn slows down the proliferation of tumor cells and the growth of blood vessels that fuel the growth of tumor cells.

Since elevated IGF-1 levels is a key characteristic of several forms of cancer, it is hypothesized that reduction in the levels of IGF-1 would beneficially assist in control of the tumor cells growth.

Here is the link to the article abstract.

In many ways, this was one of the best years ever for the Joshi family. We had several exciting things happen this year. For starters, Jaya Teas Company began its life this year, bringing to fruition a long held dream of doing something with tea, our family tradition. Jaya Teas started in May, and since then we have had a steady build up of support from the tea drinking community in United States. We participated in several wine festivals around New Jersey, and met so many people who appreciated our philosophy, encouraged us, and promised to support us in our endeavor. We were also lucky to be able to participate in the NY Fancy Food Show, where our packaging design and overall marketing concept was received with great interest.

We had our first store placement when Whole Earth Center in Princeton decided to carry our teas. Soon threafter we received further boost with Holsome Center of Princeton, and Village Traditions in Lawrenceville, NJ also deciding to carry our teas. Overall, we are thrilled to receive this kind of support from local stores, and hope to expand further in 2005.

We also started to support community activities with the support of Melissa Sturno’s fund raising drive for Avon Breast Cancer Walk, and hope to do more with her in the coming year. Overall, 2004 shaped up to be an exciting year for us and and none of this would have been possible without your support. So, thank you, thank you, thank you!

As I sit and write this column, my mind is full of nostalgia about the way we used to celebrate Christmas in India. India, as you know, is predominantly a Hindu country, yet the influence of Christians is quite visible. Many of the English medium schools, for example, are run by Catholic missions, and it is from them that we learned about the tradition of Christmas. India today has a sizeble Christian population, and we are proud of our Christmas tradition. Christmas is a public holiday for all, and all Indians join our Christian country men in celebrating the holiday with the same gusto with which Christians celebrate the Hindu festival of Diwali.

But the way Christmas is celebrated in India is quite different - its more a religious celebration and a time for contemplation than a mad rush to the mall worrying about gift giving. Families go to Church to celebrate mass and then visit each others home to wish them a Merry Christmas. I have to say though, that now that I have a daughter of my own, I find a lot of joy shopping gifts for her and her little friends! Yes, Santa does visit this Hindu household!!

So today as I think about the old country, and old friends I left behind, I want to wish my American friends a very Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year. May Santa bring you and your families lots of joy.

Jaya is not well today. Some minor cold and congestion, and she kept me up all night long. So when I woke up this morning I felt like having a nice cup of tea. I decided to go for 2004 Thurbo first flush, which has a nice floral aroma, and an infusion that gets better with longer steep. Here is a picture of the infusion of Thurbo.

You can see the large leaves in the infusion with the thick veins, but hardly any stem. This is a characteristic of good tea. This Thurbo is graded FTGFOP1 Clonal, which means, Only the Finest Tips of Golden Flowery [containing a lot of buds] and Orange Pekoe [largest leaf - the best variety of leaf in Darjeeling teas that were not broken at the time of picking] from Clonal bushes, were used for producing this tea.

Simply put, this tea was produced using some of the finest large leaf and contains a fair amount of golden tips and flowery buds. Important to note that there are no tea FLOWERS in this because tea flowers are NOT used in producing tea.

Ahh, what a wonderful tea this Thurbo first flush is…just opens up my heart like nothing else. The delicate floral aroma, the muscatel flavor and the light taste, all just made my troubles go away. As I sit here writing this piece, the aroma still swirls around me rising from the open cup.

One thing about Darjeelings that many people who are used to drinking Chinese and Taiwanese Oolongs don’t understand is that Darjeeling teas are cut leaf teas, so they require quite a bit less of a steep time than the full leaf teas like Oolongs.

It is also important to note that I used only 1 round teaspoon of tea with 2 cups of hot water for preparing this brew (the picture above is that of the second steep), and I kept drinking out of the tea pot until the tea was gone. Doing this you will notice that the tea gets a bit stronger as it sits, but you won’t notice any bitterness whatsoever. On top of that, the second steep seems to bring out some more of the delicate muscatel flavor.

Japanese green tea is increasingly gaining acceptance in the west, but I have to admit, I don’t know a whole lot about it. So, when I came across this page that describes Japanese teas very simply, and with a lot of pictures, I found it very useful. According to this page, there are five types of Japanese teas: Sen-cha, Ban-cha, Gyokoru, Gainmai-cha, Hoji-cha and Ma-cha. Here is a summary of the types of teas. For more information visit the Eat-Japan website.