- Noon Chai is a traditional salty pink tea popular in Kashmir
- The tea gains attention from a key scene in Dhurandhar, starring Ranveer Singh
- Noon Chai is made by boiling tea leaves with baking soda, milk, and salt
Salty tea may sound like an oxymoron. It is, however, anything but. The tasts buds of those who love the flavour or have developed a liking for it dance once they take a mere sip of this tea with salt, called Noon Chai.
'Noon' in Kashmiri is 'salt', hence the term, Noon Chai. Salt is called 'noon' also in Hindi and Bengali. A favourite drink of Kashmiris, Noon Chai is one of a kind just like the Kashmir Valley.
Noon Chai is not a new phenomenon but it has come back in everyday parlance thanks to Dhurandhar, which started streaming on Netflix last week.
What Has Noon Chai Got To Do With Dhurandhar
In a key scene of Dhurandhar, Gaurav Gera's Aalam Bhai takes Hamza (Ranveer Singh) to his old place of work, a biryani and tea shop named Washma Butt, where he walks him through the nitty gritty of Lyari town and the gangs of Rehman Dakait and Babu Dakait.
"Apne Butt sahab chai mein namak daalte hain. Yahan ke logon ko ye waahiyaat lagti hai, lekin mujhe pasand hai. Mere gaon mein sirf khaara paani tha, chai bhi namkeen banti thi. Yahan ki chai mujhe mere ghar ki yaad dilati hai (Butt sahab puts salt in his tea. People here find it disgusting. But I like it. Back in our village, we only got salty water, so our tea always tasted salty. His tea reminds me of home)" Aalam Bhai tells Hamza.
Hamza asks "Kahan hai aapka ghar? (Where are you from?)" but that remains a secret as the tea in question arrives right on cue.
They conspire against the Lyari ganglords while listening to Ghulam Ali's classic ghazal Chupke Chupke; Hamza spits out the salty noon chai back into the cup as soon as he sips it. Like many, noon chai is not his cup of tea. For some, it is an acquired taste.
Typicaly, the Kashmiri Noon Chai is pink in colour, but the tea Aalam Bhai and Hamza drink in Dhurandhar looks like any other regular milk tea.
What Makes Noon Chai Special
Traditionally, a cup of noon chai is pink in colour. But why? Warmth and comfort pooled in a cuppa, noon chai is prepared by boiling Kashmiri tea or green tea leaves in water. Like people, the methods to prepare the tea also vary. Some boil the tea leaves along with baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). Aromats like green cardamom can be added to enhance the flavour. If all goes well, by now the tea should appear dark red in colour due to the addition of baking soda. With milk and salt, the tea changes its colour to a pink hue, thus also getting another name of Gulaabi Chai.
Tea doesn't grow in Kashmir, so how did the people of the Valley get obsessed with this pink tea? It is widely believed that Noon Chai came to Kashmir through Persian and Central Asian traders. Noon Chai is probably a little less popular than the sweet Kahwa, the other form of tea from Kashmir which is sans milk and salt.
What Goes With Noon Chai
If we go by Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, the British like their tea with "some cookies" or "a drop of lemon in it". For countless Indians, a steaming cup of masala chai with Parle-G is the OG national breakfast. But what goes best with Noon Chai is freshly-baked bread, often the Bakarkhani, or naan khatai. Dry fruits also go well with the pink, salty tea.
Chinese and Koreans brew flowers and tea leaves as is and consume it as tea. The British manually add milk and sugar cubes to their tea. A major part of India brews and overbrews its tea with ginger, cardamom, pepper, and other aromats, some like their tea black like in the South. Then there is the Kashmir Valley that finds comfort in Noon Chai, noon or evening.
Tea lovers should definitely give Noon Chai a try, though it's worth noting that its distinctive taste may take some getting used to. Yet it's as unique as the region it comes from, making it well worth the experiment.
Also Read | How Doodh Soda, A Pre-Partition Drink, Became A Main Character In Dhurandhar
