Throwing Tea

“Throwing tea” is a subcontinental tradition. A person making tea will often pour the milk and tea mixture from one container to another and then back again, over and over, in order to blend and froth the tea. You’ll see people do this all over the Subcontinent, but nowhere as dramatically as in South India, where a tea maker will have an arc of milk tea that is three to four feet long flying through the air. An expert thrower never spills and can work with the smallest of containers, even while gazing in a completely different direction, making the performance even more impressive. The effect of all this is to froth the tea (and the same is often done with milk coffee) when it finally gets poured into individual cups, much like frothing milk for cappuccino. It tastes better.