"Ek cup cha hoye jaak — let's have a cup of tea?"
The best ideas Bengalis ever had were kick-started by a cup of doodh cha or milk tea with sugar — the quintessentially Bengali beverage. From the mellow, muscatel notes of Darjeeling tea to the bold, wild palate of Assam tea, Bengal's love for cha is thicker than blood. We start our mornings with tea to keep warm in the winter, and we drink cha with chop — spicy, savoury fritters — in defiance of the sweltering Bengal summers. Adda — the popular Bengali pastime — goes hand in hand with parra-r cha dokan or neighbourhood tea shanties. From Office-parra, Kolkata's office district in the historic city centre, to the suburbs in the north, the city is chock-full of hundreds of shops, cabins, and cafés serving tea in all its avatars.
Not all tea is made equal, however. While you'll find a quick fix for your tea cravings anywhere and everywhere in Kolkata, here are five tearooms across the city that do it better than the rest:
Now in its seventh year, this award-winning café and culture space in Bhowanipore is known for its wide range of Indian-origin coffees and teas. Their eclectic beverage menu ranges from classic hot teas like Earl Grey and the Kashmiri Kahwa to iced blends like Roselle and Moroccan Mint. The art wall at Artsy also showcases paintings, sculptures, and photographs by both emerging and established visual artists from the city.
Where: 230/B, Minto Park, Acharya Jagdish Chandra Bose Road, Bhowanipore, Kolkata 700020
When: 8 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.
A new entrant in Kolkata's tea scene, The Glenburn Café by the owners of Darjeeling's iconic Glenburn Tea Estate might be the newest kid on the block, but this quaint café in Russell Street is no joke. The café serves the entire range of Glenburn's own teas with a small-plates and tapas menu designed by Chef Shawn Kenworthy.
Where: 7A, Russell St, Park Street area, Kolkata 700071
When: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Opened in 2000, Cha Bar at the Oxford Bookstore in Park Street was the original new-age tearoom in Kolkata. From flowering teas, organic teas, herbal teas, fruit teas, and bubble teas to a wide range of single-origin Darjeeling, Nilgiri, Sikkim, and Oolong teas, complimented by Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Moroccan, Russian, Sri Lankan, South African and Thai teas, Cha Bar's tea menu boasts of more than 150 varieties of tea. With the iconic Oxford Bookstore right underneath, Cha Bar is the perfect blend of the Bengali love for books and tea.
Where: 17 Park Street, Park Street Area, Kolkata 700016
When: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
The Garden Café at the Elgin Fairlawn, a heritage hotel founded in 1783, serves a variety of teas, coffees, as well as sweet and savoury appetisers with a side of history. The original Fairlawn building has existed on the location since 1783, and was requisitioned for Canadian Airforce personnel for two years during World War II. It was converted into a hotel in 1936.
Where: 13A, Sudder Street, Esplanade, Kolkata 700016
When: 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Founded in 1988 by India's first woman tea-taster and auctioneer Dolly Roy — a former employee of Tea Board of India — Dolly's - The Tea Shop in Dhakuria's Dakshinapan Shopping Complex has been an iconic South Kolkata establishment for over three decades. The first tea boutique of its kind in Kolkata, Dolly's was largely responsible for nurturing the nascent tea-tasting subculture in the city.
Where: Shop No. G 62, Ground Floor, Dakshinapan Shopping Complex, Dhakuria, Kolkata 700068
When: Monday to Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
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