Tea Tasting Event with Sangeeta Kichlu organised by Splenda

Splenda gifted us a wonderful afternoon by organising a Tea Tasting event with popular Tea Sommelier Sangeeta Kichlu on 31st October'13 at Taj Bengal, Kolkata. It was a great pleasure to represent Kolkata Food Bloggers for this event. Unfortunately due to this festive season most of our Food Bloggers were tied up with prior engagements. Thankfully I was able to make it. The session began just in time when bloggers and delegates from media settled down themselves comfortably. The honourable guests of the afternoon were Eminent Tea Sommelier Sangeeta Kichlu and renowned Nutritionist Dr. Indrani Ghosh along with Sidhartha Lohia, the Director of Apurva Organics LTD and Sarita Falcao from The Practice.

The session started with an Introduction of the tea journey that we were going to make with Splenda, the zero- calorie sweetener. Sangeeta Kichlu named this session "A Zero-Calorie Afternoon".  The main goal of the event was to raise the awareness of tea and its blending with the low calorie sweetener.  Without wasting much time just after a brief introduction we all gathered in front of the tea exhibit area were a vast range of Darjeeling and Assam tea were on display. We started our tea tasting ceremony with the Green Darjeeling tea, from the lightest to the stronger Assam Tea. The session was so educative where we got to know about the cultivation story of tea gardening.  The session became more interesting when we kept on tasting each tea and Sangeeta Kichlu kept on generating the knowledge about it and Nutritionist Indrani Gupta kept on enriching our knowledge with the nutritional values of each tea and about Splenda.

As my taste is concerned I was never in love with tea. But this tea tasting session did open my taste bud and made me to differentiate and choose the particular tea that I could sip with contemplation. First inhale the smell of the tea and taste it. Yes tea should be enjoyed and taste same as we do with wine or whisky.  Liquor tea, Brewed Tea, Green tea, Black tea, Tea added with milk and then with Splenda , all opened up our eyes how to enjoy tea as a daily mandatory part of our life. Splenda on the other hand exampled as a healthy replacement for sugar for those who need their daily dose of caffeine  but are also health conscious. Unlike the other Artificial sweeteners, Splenda did not leave any bitter aftertaste.

We were also introduced with some flavoured tea which tasted better with out ilk always. The session ended with wide spread of delectable assorted snacks by Taj Bengal.  

Overall I avidly enjoyed the afternoon. I was looking more for this kind of event in Kolkata. I have just read about these kind of events in other metros. But this time it was a great pleasure to have such an event in our own city Kolkata. How I would forget to share the beautiful memento that Splenda gifted all of us.

For more photos pls visit: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.316742485131871.1073741842.157011837771604&type=3

"Sucralose, the sweetening ingredient in SPLENDA was discovered in the UK,. Researchers were looking into a new compound made from sugar, called sucralose, when the research team accidentally discovered that sucralose was deliciously sweet. Even better, they found that it contained no calories! A true no-calorie alternative to sugar was born. Sucralose is made by a patented process that transforms sugar into sucralose, the no-calorie, non-carbohydrate sweetener with the taste of sugar. Although made from sugar, sucralose is 600 times sweeter! So you need only a little to add a lot of sweetness."