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Tea Blends

For Monsoon That Aren’t Just Masala Chai

Quick Summary

Tea blends are one of the most important elements when making a hot cuppa during the monsoon season. It brings a sense of comfort and satisfaction during the monsoon season. These hot brews help soothe the body during evenings, which get particularly chilly after a good amount of rain. You can buy a tea blend or mix your own loose-leaf tea into a blend that is befitting such weather. There’s soothing chamomile, tulsi-ginger, and Kashmiri kahwa, all of which are perfect for soothing not only your throat but also your soul and bringing you warmth like a ‘jaadu ki jhappi’ (magical hug) that makes you forget all your problems for a while.

Deep Dive

Masala chai tea blend tends to dominate most homes, your local tapri, the office cafeteria, and food delivery apps as the only cup that suits a rainy evening. But there are so many more loose tea leaf blends you could try (some mentioned above and the rest below). Each of these teas is soothing, with almost no calories and trace amounts of nutrients, mostly antioxidants, for those blends that have tea leaves, especially green tea or black tea. Depending on what flavour you are looking for, you can take your pick from floral, caffeine-free, warming, or invigorating teas from the list below, especially if you are only used to sampling or dipping tea bags in hot water (which uses the lowest quality of tea). Below is a short guide to choosing your first tea blend, with brewing notes for each.

How To Choose Your First Loose Leaf Tea Blend

If tea bags are all you've known, loose-leaf tea can feel like a bigger commitment than it needs to be. A few things are worth knowing before you buy your first packet:

• Caffeine content varies a lot: The ‘true’ teas that the tea snobs sip regularly, like oolong, green, and black tea, all come from the ‘Camellia sinensis’ plant and contain caffeine, while herbal infusions like chamomile, marigold and tulsi are naturally caffeine-free. If you have a low tolerance to caffeine and are drinking tea in the evening, start with the caffeine-free options.

• Water temperature is crucial: Delicate teas like jasmine and oolong turn bitter when brewed with boiling water. Both are better brewed at roughly 80-90°C. Herbal infusions like chamomile and marigold can handle boiling water.

• Steeping time changes the flavour: A short steeping period of chamomile tastes floral and light, and brewing it for longer, say 10 minutes, brings out a fuller-bodied digestif.

• Loose leaf gives you more control over flavour: Tea bags are usually filled with smaller, broken leaves or ‘fannings’, which brew faster but barely give flavour after the first steep. Loose leaf tea, with whole or larger leaf pieces, has more room to expand in the water and can often be re-steeped two or three times. If you're a beginner, a simple mesh infuser and a pot are enough.

• Start with one blend at a time: Rather than buying five packets at once, pick one caffeine-free herbal blend and one true tea (such as black tea like Assam or green tea like Darjeeling). Brew the teas and get a feel for how steeping time changes each before adding more to your shelf and saving you the dread of trying them again if you don’t like them.

Monsoon Evening Tea Blends

Most tea boxes or packets come with an instruction manual; make sure to follow it. If not, look it up online so your tea blend produces what the pack promises. It’s no magical brew, but it does hold the ability to make even a dreadful and humid monsoon evening bearable, especially after a rough day. 

1. Chamomile Tea

The chamomile tea recipe is quite simple and caffeine-free. It is one of the most soothing and easiest places to start with tea blends. Made from dried German chamomile flowers, it has a mild, floral, faintly apple-like taste. Brewing guides generally recommend around 1-2 teaspoons of dried flowers per cup, steeped for four to five minutes in hot (not boiling) water; a shorter steep time gives a lighter cup, while a longer one gives a more full-bodied cup. It’s best for a caffeine-free wind-down cup after dinner on a rainy evening.

2. Marigold Tea

Marigold tea is made from dried petals of the marigold flower (from the Tagetes or Calendula genus) and has a long history in Ayurvedic and other herbal rituals. It's naturally caffeine-free, with a faint floral and earthy flavour. Covering the cup while it steeps is worth it, as it keeps both the flavour and the aroma from escaping from the brewing pot. Add some honey and lemon juice to round out its flavour. This is the perfect substitute for the chamomile tea blend if you want to try something less common but just as light.

3. Tulsi-Ginger Tea

A staple in Indian households through the monsoon, tulsi (holy basil) paired with fresh ginger is usually brewed as a warming, caffeine-free infusion or as herbal kadha. Ayurveda associates the rainy season with a dip in digestive strength and recommends certain sattvic foods; this combination is commonly used at home to ease seasonal throat or digestive irritation. It's simple to make: boil some shredded or pounded fresh tulsi leaves and sliced or grated ginger in water for a few minutes, sometimes with tea (for caffeinated versions), then strain. If non-desi tea blends irk you, then this tea blend is a great option for a rainy monsoon evening.

4. Jasmine Tea

More common in the Orient in countries like China, jasmine tea is made with a green tea base scented with fresh jasmine blossoms (not added to the tea blend), a technique that dates back to China's Ming Dynasty. Because the green tea base is delicate, it's best brewed with water around 80-85°C for two to three minutes. Use boiling water or oversteep, and the flavour will be flat, with the jasmine barely noticeable and the green tea's bitterness dominating. The same leaves can usually be re-steeped two or three times. You can have this tea on a late monsoon afternoon alongside mild Chinese appetisers like spring rolls and dim sum.

5. Oolong Tea

Oolong tea sits between green and black tea in processing, as it's partially oxidised, which gives it a flavour range from light and floral to darker and roasted, depending on how long it's oxidised. The caffeine in it is moderate, ranging from 30 to 100 mg per cup, depending on the type of oolong loose-leaf tea and how it's brewed. Brew loose-leaf oolong at around 85-96°C for three to five minutes, and don't discard the leaves after one cup, as oolong is well-suited to multiple re-steeps, with each one milder than the last. This tea blend is for tea connoisseurs who prefer their tea with more body and complexity.

6. Kashmiri Kahwa Tea

Kashmir is known for two kinds of teas, both of which use green tea: one is the noon chai, which uses tightly rolled green tea (gunpowder tea), baking powder, and milk; the other is the more complex kahwa. The former is perfect if you want a soothing tea for the eyes and enjoy unsweetened milk tea. The latter is suited for those who like their spices and herbal brews, and the Kashmiri kahwa loose-leaf tea blend is exactly that. 

The kahwa tea is brewed with whole spices, cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves, along with saffron, slivered almonds, and sometimes dried rose petals. Unlike most teas on this list, kahwa is simmered rather than steeped. The spices go into boiling water first, then the green tea is added off the heat so it doesn't turn bitter, before straining into cups garnished with almonds and a few saffron threads. Enjoy it when you want something special during a particularly chilly monsoon evening.

Quick Overview of the Monsoon Special Tea Blends

Monsoon Evenings with Unique Tea Blends

Caffeine or no caffeine, there is something about sipping tea during monsoons when the weather turns chilly. Depending on your mood, you can pick your favourite tea blend, be it following a chamomile recipe closely and brewing something soothing for your senses, or choosing something stronger, like oolong tea, that is invigorating and wakes you up, especially if you still have things to look forward to for the rest of the night. So take some loose tea leaves, add spices, herbs, and dried flowers, and come up with your own tea blends to sip on rainy evenings that call for more warmth.