India Tea

One of the most interesting things about visiting another country/ region is the diverse array of cuisine. Somethings you come back dreaming about (I had mouth-watering dreams about curry chicken the first day after arriving in the US from my visit to India), other things are just too adventurous for your pallet (beetle leaves...don't even ask me what this is!).

One of the things to really appeal to me was the India way of making tea and the Arabian way of drinking coffee. In addition to the regular tea bag or brewed coffee, both drinks require the use of Eastern spices. The end result....delicious!

While in Dubai we had an amazing Desert Safari tour. In addition to the sand boarding, dune bashing, belly dancer and henna tattoos, we were introduced to Arabian coffee. The coffee is brewed with Cinnamon, Saffron and Cardamom. Very different, very exotic, and to me, very appealing.


(Cinnamon )

Indian tea is a bit different- very milky and very sweet, but also extremely spicy. This too incorporates Cardamom and Saffron.

So, one of the first things I did upon arriving in the States was to purchase my very own collection of spices and concoct my own version of India Tea...call it Ria's Brew or something.


(Saffron)


Ria's Brew: One bag of green tea (wonderful if you get your hands on green mint tea), 1/2 stick of cinnamon, couple grains of cardamom and cloves, some ginger and garlic (fresh). Brew this is some hot water, add milk and sugar to taste.



Can someone say 'Ummmmmmmmmmm....'.

(Cardamom)