Tea Heritage of Pune or Poona

AMRUTTULYA CHAHA & IRANI CHAI

VIKRAM KARVE

When I was a small boy [and even till recently] Pune [or Poona as it was known then] was a “ TEA TOWN ”. Everyone drank tea, except some quirky upaas type aunts who always insisted on sweet milky jaiphal spiced coffee and were “fasting” most of the time on yummy delicacies like Sabudana Khichadi and Wade, Rajgire, waryache tandul, healthy fruits, nourishing milk, calorie-rich pure ghee sweets and similar lip-smacking upasasache padartha.

Outside your home, there were chiefly two types of tea for the Punekar to relish – AMRUTTULYA CHAHA at the ubiquitous Amruttulya Tea Shops at every nook and corner of Pune, and the peerless IRANI CHAI served by the numerous Irani Restaurants all over Pune city and camp. And if you wanted a good cup of coffee you had to go all the way to Poona Coffee House in Deccan or the Coffee House on Moledina Road in Camp. Indeed Amruttulya Chaha and Irani Chai are an important aspect of the culinary heritage of Pune.

Amrut means Nectar, and Tulya means comparable, so Amruttulyameans Comparable to Nectar and indeed, true to its name, Amruttulya Tea is comparable to nectar, sweet, ambrosial, like the elixir of life! Amruttulya Chaha is not brewed, it is “cooked” in front of you on a Kerosine Primus Stove, pumped well, in a brass, stainless-steel, or now-a-days aluminium vessel. I love the “special” chaha. Milk and water are boiled together, with plenty of sugar, masala [comprising crushed cardamom, ginger], and tea leaves, stirring continuously to make sure it doesn’t overflow. You can drink it from the cup, or better still the saucer pulling it in with your lips and let it deliciously emulsify on your tongue for that heavenly elevating feeling. Tell me, isn’t Amruttulya Chaha lip-smacking tasty and soul-refreshing?

The Amruttulya, now vanished, nearest to where I lived on Tilak Road in Sadashiv Peth in the 1960’s was the one near Ashok Bakery [also disappeared] and further down the road past SP College towards Maharashtra Mandal there were the legendary Ambika and New Ambika Amruttulyas [a friend of mine used to say that the morning tea was superb in one and the evening tea in the other]. So if you are in Pune better hurry and relish a cup of special tea at an Amruttulya, before all of them disappear. Like the Irani Restaurants in Pune are disappearing, one by one, slowly but surely.

Irani Chai is the most rejuvenating beverage I have ever had. They keep the steaming rich tea brew and hot milk in separate containers and mix it in just the right proportion to get the terrific inimitable gulabi Irani Chai. Drench in a fresh soft bun-maska, place it on your tongue, and close your eyes – aren’t you in seventh heaven? Even a cup of piping hot Irani Tea by itself is sheer bliss.

Of my favourite Irani Restaurants, Naaz, Lucky have disappeared, and only Good Luck remains. It’s really sad. The culture of Pune is fast changing. The youngsters don’t drink tea anymore – it’s infra dig, isn’t it? So they prefer Coffee [not the peaberry-plantation filter coffee served by the Udipi Restaurants] but the expensive stylish international coffees served at posh Baristas, CCDs, and high-falutin coffee shops proliferating rapidly all over Pune. Just imagine, the other day I couldn’t get a cup of tea in a multiplex, but there were plenty of varieties of coffee all around.

And buckling under increasing international cultural invasion, as the glorious city of Pune with its distinctive heritage and unique identity metamorphoses into a faceless metropolis, Coffee-drinking thrives and prospers, and the Amruttulayas and Irani Restaurants slowly fade away. So dear fellow Punekar Tea-Lover Foodie, better hurry up and rush to your nearest Amruttulya or Irani Restaurant before they vanish from the face of Pune altogether.

VIKRAM KARVE

Copyright © Vikram Karve 2007

Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work

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