Kalami/ Gulabi tea
 

I regularly drink a large-leaf tea called "Kalami" or "Kalmi" tea,
also marked "Gulabi" tea. It seems to be a fairly low-grade Indian
tea mostly for domestic consumption, definitely not a first-flush
thing. It comes into the country from a lot of different companies,
like "Tea India" and "Scheherazade."

What IS this stuff? Where does it come from? The quality is quite
variable, but the better and fresher batches usually have a good clean
floral or peach smell to them, and it's inexpensive enough to take a
gamble and pitch the stuff that is not.

Is "Kalami" a place or a thing or what? What am I drinking here?
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

For what its worth.
I think this tea is meant for ethnic Iranian market in the US. It is
definitely Indian but the ones I saw were all aromatized.
Not my cup of tea.

Sasha.

"Scott Dorsey" > wrote in message
...
>I regularly drink a large-leaf tea called "Kalami" or "Kalmi" tea,
> also marked "Gulabi" tea. It seems to be a fairly low-grade Indian
> tea mostly for domestic consumption, definitely not a first-flush
> thing. It comes into the country from a lot of different companies,
> like "Tea India" and "Scheherazade."
>
> What IS this stuff? Where does it come from? The quality is quite
> variable, but the better and fresher batches usually have a good clean
> floral or peach smell to them, and it's inexpensive enough to take a
> gamble and pitch the stuff that is not.
>
> Is "Kalami" a place or a thing or what? What am I drinking here?
> --scott
> --
> "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Kalami is Indian for whole leaf assam. Barooti is Indian for broken
leaf assam. Gulabi is another term for Kalami. That might be an
Arabic translation but I'm not sure. There are earlier threads on the
subject.

Jim

Scott Dorsey wrote:
> I regularly drink a large-leaf tea called "Kalami" or "Kalmi" tea,
> also marked "Gulabi" tea. It seems to be a fairly low-grade Indian
> tea mostly for domestic consumption, definitely not a first-flush
> thing. It comes into the country from a lot of different companies,
> like "Tea India" and "Scheherazade."
>
> What IS this stuff? Where does it come from? The quality is quite
> variable, but the better and fresher batches usually have a good clean
> floral or peach smell to them, and it's inexpensive enough to take a
> gamble and pitch the stuff that is not.
>
> Is "Kalami" a place or a thing or what? What am I drinking here?
> --scott
> --
> "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Space Cowboy > wrote:
>Kalami is Indian for whole leaf assam. Barooti is Indian for broken
>leaf assam. Gulabi is another term for Kalami. That might be an
>Arabic translation but I'm not sure. There are earlier threads on the
>subject.

That makes perfect sense... and it's true that these teas do seem to be
intended for the middle eastern market.

But what language are these words in?
--scott


--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

I don't know perse if Kalami(Ghalami) for whole leaf assam or
Barooti(Barouti) for broken leaf assam are Arabic or Indian terms. I
suspect they're Indian trading terms for assam used in the Arabic
market. I've got other packaging from Calcutta which says Kalmi but
again intended for Arabic markets. So it could swing either way. I
ask in the Arabic markets and all they say is Indian tea. I misspoke
before Gulabi is a brandname. My mind did a short circuit because I
confused it with Ghalami. While I'm here Mamri is another Indian term
for assam tea preferred in making Chai.

Here are the Ahmad links for what we're talking about but there are
other brands such as Gulabi:

http://www.baltcoffee.com/catalog/pr...5ac36dd27a5ce3
http://www.baltcoffee.com/catalog/pr...roducts_id/679

BTW why would Russians care about Arabic terms in these two examples?
So more evidence of Indian terms.

Jim

Scott Dorsey wrote:
> Space Cowboy > wrote:
> >Kalami is Indian for whole leaf assam. Barooti is Indian for broken
> >leaf assam. Gulabi is another term for Kalami. That might be an
> >Arabic translation but I'm not sure. There are earlier threads on the
> >subject.
>
> That makes perfect sense... and it's true that these teas do seem to be
> intended for the middle eastern market.
>
> But what language are these words in?
> --scott
>
>
> --
> "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."