Get your caffeine fix, munch your way through

Chai-lovers unite at three-day event that celebrates Karachi’s love for tea

KARACHI:

The city’s very first tea festival kicked off on Friday evening in the Frere Hall gardens much to the delight of residents, craving fun things to do over the weekend and their love for chai.

It was perhaps due to two separate protests taking place in other parts of the city that very few people made their way to the festival on the first night. The crowd did swell considerably on Saturday evening.

The entrance to the festival on Friday evening was nearly dark. If it wasn’t for the blue and purple lights thrown at Frere Hall’s façade, you could not tell a festival was under way. But Mai Dhai’s earthy voice beckoned many to the elusive tent that led to the ticket counter. The entry ticket was Rs250 per head.



Bites versus sips

Karachi is not short of chai lovers but for the few, who are not addicted to their daily dose of caffeine, the festival offers many options for snacks and meals. If you are craving anything from pizza paratha, cheese paratha to khao suey, samosas and mutabbaq, you will find a stall selling one of these items.

While most tea stalls offered basic doodh patti, there were two or three vendors that offered signature tea flavours, such as Kashmiri, orange saffron, pomegranate, and orange and pineapple ice tea.

“Flavoured tea is a tricky concept here,” said Asim, the owner of one of the stalls. “People don’t drink tea without milk here.”

Asim experimented with the idea of offering flavoured tea and designed syrups to add as an additive in milk tea only, he said, pointing out the range of Kashmiri tea syrups and orange and caramel flavours at his stall.

More curious, less daring

A few families were seen seated at the stalls set up by big tea brands, others just strolled along the other tea stalls, throwing a question or two at the vendors. “What’s disco tea?” a woman asked. It’s regular doodh patti with loads of almonds and pistachios, he replied.



“What fruits are in this ice tea?” inquired another. “Fresh oranges and pineapple. Want to try some?” said the girl behind the ice tea stall only to be responded with a swift no. “Let’s have this mutabbaq instead” said someone as the man flipped parathas after parathas of the Arabic snack and people watched him prepare.

Café Piyala has done good job of recreating its chai dhaba at the festival. Their stall is decorated with shiny silver kettles and plastic jars carrying rusk, cake rusk and plain cakes. Several charpoys have been placed in the back garden for their customers while the servers are dressed in white shalwar kameez and black and gold vests. Their most popular beverage is the doodh patti.

Two kinds of fermaishi chai [chai on demand] are also listed on the menu but the server had no clue what it was. “God knows what fermaishi chai is. Our seth [boss] came up with it. He is fermaishi,” he shrugged, before heading to the nearby pan to flip egg and lentil patties for bun kebabs.

The live music is an added bonus with a stage set up specifically for the purpose. Even if the festival fell short of the hype it created, there is little to complain when you can sit in the Frere Hall gardens, sip a cup of tea and enjoy Karachi’s pleasant evening breeze.

On the last day today, the festival starts at 10am and ends at 11pm.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 6^th, 2016.