She has always strived to become synonymous with a good cup of tea. Anamika Singh, a tea-taster and sommelier by profession engaged the audience in a demo on tea appreciation and tasting at Soul City recently.
Her dynamic personality and persistence reflects in her work as she conducts tea tasting ceremonies, conferences and high profile events across the country. Her knowledge and passion for this delicious brew took her to the wedding invitation cards of Shahid Kapoor and Mira Rajput.
We prod on how it happened and the pretty lady who has introduced new infusions with natural flowers and herbs reveals, "Shahid's wedding card invite happened over an evening of dinner and gin wherein Food Talk India was organising the Unusual Table of Ten and I was one of the ten. That's where I met the fabulous designer, John Connolly who works with Ravish Kapoor. He loved what we do with tea and how uniquely we pack our gifts. He saw, he liked, he ordered and we got the contract. It was single sourced teas from our estate, Manjhee Valley estate in Dharamsala. We had infused special blends for the couple, that cannot be found anywhere else and these were then added to tubes."
She started in Darjeeling as an apprentice under her father, AK Singh (a world renowned tea specialist) and invests time at her tea gardens in Himachal Pradesh.
"I curate workshops for expats and tea enthusiasts at The Tea Room and also work with spas, star hotels and top restaurants. Sometimes I think that at birth, I probably sipped tea instead of milk as it seems to be in my blood," she quips, adding, "But on a serious note, at 14, I knew I wanted to be a tea taster and began my internship with my father and went to the factory to learn the art of making tea," states the founder of Anandini Himalaya tea.
Talking about her tasting workshop in the city, she adds, "I taught how to appreciate tea, tasting brews from Sublime house of tea and made them understand that there is more to tea than just chai and Assam and Darjeeling."
Recalling one of her experiences, she states, "I was surrounded by these lovely ladies from Ludhiana and Jalandhar who had come to Delhi for my tea appreciation workshop and when I asked them for their choice of tea, they all answered with milk tea. I smiled because I knew that if they were used to having milk tea, it would be difficult to convert them to enjoying tea without sugar and milk, which is what I advocate. I shared my knowledge and the various health benefits and informed them how adding milk and sugar hampers the whole idea and soon after a shot of green tea infused with chamomile flowers and rose hip crafted by me I converted them. It was not only a fulfilling experience for me but I realised once again, that until you try something, you will never know if you really like it or not."
