Description

Red Label has been on Indian shelves for well over a century and is the closest thing the country has to a default tea. That matters less as a piece of history than as a practical fact: recipes, family habits and every argument about how long to boil the pan are calibrated against this blend, so it is the sensible starting point if you are buying Indian tea for the first time.

It is a CTC tea, meaning the leaf has been crushed, torn and curled into small hard grains that release colour fast. Two teaspoons, water to the boil, milk in, sugar in, one more rise and it is done in under four minutes. It takes ginger, cardamom, clove and black pepper without complaint, which is why it is the base most people use for masala chai at home.

How much do I use per cup? One level teaspoon per cup for a normal brew, a heaped one if you take it karak. A kilo runs to roughly 200 cups.

What is CTC and does it matter? Crush, tear, curl, the machine process that turns leaf into grain. It matters because CTC brews fast and strong with milk, where whole leaf tea goes thin and disappears.

If a kilo is more than you will drink, take the 500 gram Red Label pouch, and every other blend on the shelf sits under Indian tea on the site. Vegetarian. Keep the pack folded shut or tip it into an airtight tin, because loose tea takes up damp and kitchen smells quickly. Order online at Panjab Supermarket for same-day delivery across Nieuwegein, Utrecht, Leidsche Rijn, Vleuten, Maarssen, Zeist, Bunnik, IJsselstein, Vianen, and Culemborg. Free delivery on orders over 49 euros.