I already wrote about he and I's meeting eight years ago, along with our comical exchange, but on this trip alone, I must have gone to his little—can I even call it a cafe? Probably not. This little table outside of a closet that he sets up shop daily in. Whatever it was, Mr. Man Singh was my totem. My person to run to and hide out with when India got to be too much... which was often. But even without his hair, his quiet demeanor and his kind face, he happens to also make the best cuppa I've had in India—which is saying something, as I'm on about 7-10 a day (oh shut up, they're tiny). So one day, I sat there longer, watching him brew and taking notes, in hopes you'll do him the honor of recreating it.
(Note: I made this in my apartment here and found out it's easiest to just give ingredients and measurements for a normal cup.)
Ingredients:
Black tea
Sugar
Whole milk
Ginger
Instructions:
Boil 3/5 coffee cup of water
Add 1/2 cup of whole milk to pan
Add as much sugar as you can handle
Shave (?) a thumb-sized bulb (?) of fresh ginger
Bring all to boil
Strain and serve
... Ginger here is the key. It's hanging all over his little space and he returns to that bag often for more. You'll notice a lack of masala—which is shocking by any standards—but I really think that's what makes it delicious, as you're not going over all of these flavor profiles with each sip. Obviously, Masala Tea is wonderful and you can easily add a few pinches of (your desired mix of masala—clove, cardamom, cinnamon, etc) to the water in the first step).
Lemme know how it turns out!
