True blue brew? Loose leaves, best tea
The foreigners left, the flags changed, but the tea plants - harvested from plantations, or growing wild - remained a constant.
Travellers north of Wellington can savour a good cup of tea thanks to a shop in Paekakariki’s train station, started to share its owner’s love of the drink from her childhood growing up in northeast India.
Paekakariki woman Helen Keivom has launched Petticoat Junction Tea Shop, borrowing its name from the title of the 1960s TV series, run in partnership with the Paekakariki Railway Museum.
Her earliest memories of tea came from home in Manipur, ‘‘next door to the more famous tea district of Assam’’.
India was originally colonised by the East India Company, which made a fortune from controlling the tea trade, she said.
Nowadays tea plants still grow wild in India, but in New Zealand it is mostly found in captivity - bagged up and dropped into hot water.
A good cup of tea should have ‘‘depth and breadth, much like a coffee’’, she said, and the secret was to let the leaves go free.
‘‘Nothing beats loose leaf tea, though you do have to have the patience to let it brew for a few minutes, so the tea’s unique flavour is released.’’
The tea shop opens to catch peak hour commuters, Monday to Wednesday in summer, and on weekends throughout the year during the museum’s opening hours.
She said it serves loose-leaf teas - black, green, herbal, fruit - and masala chai, the famous spiced tea from India.
India was a place where the local tea shop was a communal hub, Keivom said.
They were gathering places for locals to exchange village gossip or ‘‘ruminate over the latest politi- cal shenanigans’’.
‘‘In Manipur, you find one, often just a tin shack, all over the place. My favourite one is near my cousin’s home. It sells an assortment of vegetables, handmade knives, and what I assumed was some kind of juice, but which turned out to be petrol in water bottles.’’
Tin shacks and bottled petrol have made way for free wifi and comfy armchairs at Keivom’s tea shop, but memories like her first tea, ‘‘a concoction of leftover rice in a glass of sweet black tea’’, and travel, have kept her love for leaves, and her homeland, fresh.