Served boiling hot with milk and lots of sugar – that’s the Indian way!

This weekend, Indian authorities announced that they planned to establish Assam tea as the national drink, celebrating the life of Maniram Dewan who introduced commercial tea farming to his home state of Assam, and was also instrumental in trying to boot the British colonial administration out of India during the Sepoy Mutiny in 1857, for which he was later hanged.

Indian Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia visited Assam this weekend, where he announced the decision, saying,

The drink [Assam tea] will be accorded national drink status by April 17 next year to coincide with the 212th birth anniversary of first Assamese tea-planter and Sepoy Mutiny leader Maniram Dewan.

He added that tea should also be celebrated as “half of the tea industry labour comprises women and is the largest employer in the organised sector”.

However, not all Indians are pleased with the adoption of tea as national drink, with some complaining about the colonial associations of tea farming, and others complaining that healthier indigenous options, like coconut water, were ignored.

Traditionally, Assam tea is enjoyed with milk and lots of sugar, and sometimes spicy cardamom is added as well.

[Source: IOL, Telegraph UK]