65/ 100 Clay Pot Dog

When you buy a cup of delicious sweet milky chai tea from a street stand you will often be served it in a small clay cup. They are obviously cheaply made, usually with a very basic pattern on them, and are normally quite wonky. It isn’t just chai that is served in these little cups either – lassi (a milkshake type drink) and the sweet milk dessert known as Makhan Malaiyo that I wrote about recently also come in slight variations of these vessels. The lassi cups are actually quite large and probably hold about 300ml.

These traditional clay cups are known as kulhads, and they are disposable, single-use only!

I have always found these cups fascinating, and for my environmentally conscious side, perhaps a little horrifying at the same time. Why do people use them in the first place, and then why do they throw them away? I took it upon myself to ask everyone I could, whenever I was stood holding my own kulhad of chai on a street corner.

There were four predominant answers to my question about the reason for using a kulhad as opposed to a paper cup (sometimes used), a metal cup (occasionally used in a restaurant) or a proper glazed teacup (I have never seen one in India).

1. The chai tastes better.

It definitely tastes different but whether or not that taste is better is a matter of preference. The tea tastes a bit earthier, which in itself is quite nice I suppose, but the clay also picks up the flavours of the ubiquitous thick wafts of incense smoke that continually drift around and adding the perfumed tinge to your tea isn’t so nice. Also, if it apparently makes the chai taste better then why are they also used for lassi and makhan malaiyo?

2. The cups are hygienic.

Many people seem to think that the kulhads are much more hygienic because they were, at some point in the past, heated in a kiln and sterilised. Then, once you have used your cup, you throw it away so you know you aren’t drinking from another person’s cup. Some people adhere to a rule that you should throw your cup away with such force that you smash it on the floor so that nobody can ever use it again, unless they are handy with a dab of superglue.

I imagine the cups are very clean and sterile when they are first made, but then they are loaded on a truck and driven through the dusty streets to be delivered to a supplier somewhere. There they sit in a crate on the floor for some time, collecting more dust and debris, before being moved to their cardboard box next to a chai stall in a far-flung town. Because they are often quite gritty inside they are usually wiped out with some scrunched up newspaper, or a rag (origin and age unknown). Admittedly they will be sterilised a second time by the addition of red-hot tea but what about the cold drinks?

3. The kulhads are environmentally friendly.

People will regularly tell you that the cups are well liked because they are biodegradable. They are made of earth and therefore you can use them once and return them to the earth as though they will be absorbed and turned back into soil. In order to make the kulhads the clay has to be gathered, shaped into the cups and then fired in huge kilns which change the clay into a hard and durable ceramic. When you throw a kulhad away it doesn’t biodegrade as such, it just turns into small lumps of kulhad.

They are perhaps more environmentally friendly than a plastic cup (largely because they would probably just throw it on the ground too) but a reusable cup would be better. But then how do you clean such a cup on the side of a busy street in Delhi with no running water? They are introducing truly biodegradable cups in India that are made from plant materials and it will be interesting to see if they catch on, in the meantime paper cups are probably best.

4. The manufacturing of the kulhads supports people’s livelihoods.

It seems to be a common train of thought in Indian cities that the things that are supplied to them are all made, or grown, in some far-off village in the countryside. Apparently the people living in that village rely completely upon their income from whatever goods they are producing for the folk living in the towns and cities. Perhaps this all goes back to the ever-present pursuit of karma that’s always there, guiding choices and actions and, if you use a kulhad, you are helping the person who made it. We were also told by somebody that working in these kilns is a horrible job, and that the relentless smoke pouring from the chimneys pollutes the countryside.

I don’t really know what the solution would be, or even if there needs to be one at all. Although I have had my chai and Makhan Malaiyo in a kulhad numerous times we do always ask for the little paper cups if they are available. It’s difficuilt though because the chaiwallas often like to give us their special kulhads because we are tourists. I simply can’t bear the waste, knowing how much energy and resources went into making such a thing simply so that it can be thrown away.

Not being able to bring all my little clay pots home for my greenhouse also kills me, although four did make it home with us this last trip.