IT was �high tea� with a difference. The tea was consumed at a great height, 15-storeys up in the Oberoi Towers of Bombay, in the bay-facing personal apartment of the hotel�s suave vice-president, Sanjiv Malhotra. The hostess was his warm and welcoming wife Poonam. And the Raj touch was introduced by the Oberoi F&B staff in the form and taste of watercress and cucumber sandwiches, muffins, crumpets, eclairs and fruit cake.

The tea came mostly in tea bags. There was Zakir Hussain�s favourite Taj Mahal, but the Ustad was not there to say �Wah!� Instead, Bombay�s supercop, Police Commissioner M. N. Singh, looking like a policeman taking a tea break despite the safari suit disguise, gave his cuppa a sharp look and said, �Good!� Which, loosely translated in English, was the Ustad�s exclamation of approval.

And there was another favourite, Lipton Yellow Label, which most people have at home without realising, because Mother buys the packaged tea most of the time. The Oberoi staff brewed it in Poonam Malhotra�s pantry. It wasn�t the young, gorgeous and upcoming Bollywood actress Aarti Chhabria�s favourite, though. She killed her Lipton Yellow Label with excessive milk because her childhood phobia was that if she drank black and strong tea, she would turn dark!

Twinnings� Earl Grey was the afternoon�s winner through and through. The dusky and hot Poonam Bhagat, sipping cup after cup daintily and pouting with full lips, correctly identified the �masala flavour� that everybody liked as that of Bergamot oil. Meera Gandhi, New York�s favourite Indian socialite here on a break, downed her cuppas with the air of a veteran tea drinker. She loved the pure Assam taste of Society Tea best. �Its simple taste is so down-to-earth, it�s perfect,� she purred sexily.

And Dilmah Tea, Sri Lanka�s pride, was appreciated by hostess Poonam Malhotra, who found it aromatic and not too light. Former Test cricketer Dilip Sardesai said that Dilmah was not like tea at all. While rugged painter Laxman Shreshta, used to Darjeeling tea in the Himalayas, declared that Dilmah was the kind of tea that would wake anyone up. He liked his tea without milk and sugar, thank you. And if there was more flavour and aroma in Dilmah, perhaps a blend of tea leaves, he wouldn�t object!

M. N. Singh is a Brooke Bond-Lipton man at home. He has tea in the morning with his wife and mother after a brisk walk along the seaface. In the police commissionerate, he sticks to Twinnings� Earl Grey and offers all his subordinates a cuppa in the evening over the crime and law and order meeting. He hates the sarkari tea he is often forced to have at the government offices in Mantralaya. �There�s nothing as bad as that!� he said with dislike.

Aarti Chhabria, who is just getting used to celebrityhood with Awara Pagal Diwana her debut film being a hit, insists on tea with lots of milk. It peps up her day, she said. Her tea just has to be perfect even if it�s weak. On shoots, the film units kept up a constant supply of tea for the stars, she said. Did she enjoy that tea? �Yes, but with lots of milk,� she said.

Poonam Bhagat on the other hand, was the real tea aficionado. Or addict. Twinnings� Earl Grey simmers in a bit teapot whole day at her home, she said. She has it without sugar and milk. And mild. �At 4.30, I have the proper Gujju masala tea with lemon grass, mint, sugar, milk, the works. The tea leaves I use for this cup? Lipton Yellow Label!�

Meera Gandhi, whose mother�s Irish, is used to the 4 o�clock teatime ritual with scones and cake. She finds drinking tea most relaxing. In New York, unfortunately, nobody has the time for tea. �But tea rooms and high teas are coming back in a big way, the fashion is being revived,� she said excitedly. She used to drink six to eight cups a day at one time, but is now down to one. �I think it pours the insulin back in the blood,� she complained uncertainly. �Or it stimulates the hormone that makes one hungry and fat!�

Poonam Malhotra, as a hotelier�s wife and one used to hosting tea parties, is used to drinking a lot of tea. Earl Grey is her favourite, too. She keeps drinking it through the day interspersed with jasmine tea. �It keeps me fresh,� she said, �it acts like a booster.� And because Poonam doesn�t drink alcohol, she drinks iced tea in a champagne glass at parties so that people don�t keep trying to force a drink on her all the time.

Dilip Sardesai has a cuppa as soon as he wakes up each morning from his Test playing days. He can drink eight to ten cups a day without any problem and is not particular what tea he drinks. �As long as it is good,� he said, eyes gleaming over his cup of Dilmah. Laxman Shreshta, who visits many art galleries in a day, drinks that many cups of tea as well. He prefers Lipton Yellow Label and can go upto 11 cups a day. But his main cuppa is at 3 o�clock. �I like it without sugar and milk,� he added.

Comparing tea-tasting notes later, the UpperCrust�s tea-drinkers of the afternoon realised that the Taj Mahal was alternatively strong, had a bitter aftertaste, was aromatic, lovely, full of tannin, and would (this is Laxman�s suggestion) perhaps taste good with Gujarati tea masala! The Lipton Yellow Label was good, not too aromatic, tasted like ghar ki chai, which is a childhood taste, was too strong, and gave the impression of a good tea. Twinnings� Earl Grey was like a perfume (�like Liril soap,� said Aarti), had a lingering aroma, was mild, herbal, smelt of flowers and plants (�I�d like to have it in a jungle!� said Laxman), was very aromatic, and tasted unlike tea!

The Society tea was smooth, it had a black taste, was very, very strong, but simple, had lots of body, and was the tea that took some getting used to. Dilmah, pure Ceylon tea, was okay, aromatic, not too strong, a little bitter, it was unlike any other tea, was rather nice, aromatic, and fine.

After everybody had tasted five cups of tea minimum, they found a tea to their liking, then settled down with a final cuppa... their sixth of the afternoon! UpperCrust suggested that doctors would frown on six cups of tea as being too much of a good thing. �Doctors can eat cake,� said one tea-drinker rudely, pointing to the cake by the side that nobody had even tasted. We won�t tell you who this tea-drinker is, but she wasn�t M.N. Singh, Laxman Shreshta or Dilip Sardesai!