My friend Sherebanu Baldiwala was in town from Mumbai last week, and when we had breakfast at the recently-opened Peel's on the continuously-gentrifying Bowery, she presented me with a tin of chaitime tea, saying that although she knew how much I loved coffee, she really loved the tea's packaging. I do too. I particularly respond to the rectangular tin and stamped top. The brand's overall effect is so nifty that it doesn't matter that I'm fuddy-duddily not crazy about the type for "chaitime," which, for me borders on goofy. Sherebanu's prezzie of tea combines relaxation, spices, and long-lived local—and international—customs; it will certainly help me stop and smell the cardamom.
