Assam 1860 Gourmet Black Tea : Tea As It Should Be

'Chai, Chai, Garma Garam Chai, Chai Chai, Kadak Chai'

How many times have we woken up to this while traveling in our trains? :) India looooooves tea, it is our national drink. We love it so much so that when we visit each other's homes,a kettle for tea is put on automatically,isn't it! Somehow I never latched on to the habit of drinking tea, the only reason I can vaguely remember is someone having conversation with my grandma that drinking tea makes a child dusky in complexion and she passing that on to my mother. Ironically, my mom is a tea addict since decades and milky white in complexion, so yeah, put it down to things that happen in incredible India :D 

Seriously though, I think my dad never encouraged us kids in the house to drink tea maybe because he and my mom cannot function without drinking 6-8 cups of tea throughout the day,so he probably didn't want us to turn into addicts too :) Of course,I have tasted tea and coffee both, at college, at friends' houses, at certain events, but I am not an addict or regular drinker.

So when I got an email from the good peoples at Assam 1860 to taste their tea and review it, my first thought was to tell them, I don't know the T-E-A of tea :D I have a basic idea of how it is supposed to taste but I am no connoisseur but then I realized I have 2 heavy-duty tea-loving addicts at home. So yeah,I was up for it :D

 Now I am going to let them tell you all about Assam 1860 tea themselves. Read on!

Whoa, this is one big win for Make In India campaign! So, it is fresher and better. Hmm, I checked out Assam 1860 website too and these caught my attention:-

Are you excited enough? Wait till I tell you about my experience of receiving the sample when I opened it up to find this beauty :)

Now if you are following me on Instagram, or even reading my blog carefully, you will see how obsessed I am with design elements. I love things/ places/ events that are well thought out, well designed, quirky, cute, unique! I have not seen any tea brand with such beautiful packaging before this. To me, this shows the sincerity and love with which the team behind this brand is engaged in its production and marketing. It might not mean a lot to a lot of people but I personally always find it a positive point when I meet someone so passionate about something that they would go the extra mile,like the team at Assam 1860 has :) Good work folks. The color combination, the characters, the general vibe is definitely in sync with the best that modern India has to offer, it is funky & beautiful and I can see this creating a unique niche in International markets too *just my 2 cents* :)

Okay,enough of my design obsession :D Oh,the gorgeous tea bags *swoon*..when I showed these to my mom, she asked me, 'Am I going to drink tea or use this to decorate something? It is so pretty' :D There were 5 tea bags inside and I asked her to use it the next day to brew tea for herself and dad and wake me up before the process so I could click pics. 

Now my parents wake up at 5 AM and I sleep by 4 AM ;D. Obviously, I was not going to wake up at 5, but miracle of miracles, my mom did manage to wake me up at 8 with these exact words, 'Get up or you will not get a chance to click a pic of the last cup that we are having!' 

Say whattttt, last cup? Yup, my parents loved the tea so much, they used up all the tea bags the same day one after the other :P Hey,but I did manage to click a pic of the last cup and here it goes. 

According to my die hard tea loving parents, Assam 1860 gives a full-bodied,malty flavor and a beautiful color while brewing. They have their tea with milk and sugar but my dad even had one cup without milk & sugar just so he could taste the bitterness of tea by steeping/brewing it in hot water a bit longer. He LOVED it. My mom hates bitterness and so she loved the earthy,mellow flavor and oh that amazing fragrance she got by steeping/brewing it for about 3 minutes. They both agree that this tastes better, definitely fresher and packed with a punch that they both adored. I vouch for the fragrance that had enveloped me as I entered the drawing room to take the pic of last cup :) I think my parents are now going to permanently shift to drinking Assam 1860 only. 

My dad usually doesn't care about brands but this was the first day in years when he asked mom, 'This tea tastes different, good different, have we switched brands?' I think that explains it all.

Assam 1860 gourmet black tea can be bought from their Website as well as on Amazon and Paytm :)

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