When I first heard of this cool, new chai and coffee house in Camden, I assumed it was some new hipster place that was going to be making drinking chai trendy by mixing things up. Well I was wrong about the latter, though Pam Ban will certainly be making drinking chai fashionable but not by changing things up.
Being of Asian descent myself, I’m ashamed to say I know very little about chai and therefore have no real appreciation for it. So I was in awe of Mayhul Gondhea and Aruna Sellahewa, founders of Pam Ban who exuded their passion for tea through the sheer amount of knowledge they had surrounding the tradition of tea making, its cultural significance and their own heritage of India and Sri Lanka.
This passion and expertise resonates throughout the store, everything from the spacious layout and natural design of the café to serving the beverages in clay cups. Pam Ban is definitely heading in the right direction in their vision of making chai houses great again.
So I, along with other food bloggers was invited to attend a private event celebrating the launch of Pam Ban a couple of weeks ago. On arrival we were greeted with a sample of their drinks menu, on paper its everything you would expect from an Indian & Sri Lankan café. They had Faludas, Mango Lassis, just that these were not the ordinary drinks you’d probably been served in Indian restaurants. The Jaggery Milkshake for example, jaggery is unrefined, raw sugar, a concentrated product of date and cane juice which also has numerous health benefits, which would make you think why it’s not been done before. So the flavours were original yet authentic and the presentation; totally instagram worthy.
After the tasting session we were led to the coffee section of the café. There a barista talked us through the coffee making process, everything from the café’s choice of using organic coffee, to the temperature and precision of filtering the beans ending with some beautiful demonstrations of latte art. I’d been to enough coffee workshops to see these guys were serious about their coffee.
Then the final treat, the chai making master class. I’ve had my fair share of Chai lattes from Starbucks and the odd masala chai from Asian weddings and have not been impressed with either, so I was intrigued to see what Pam Ban would offer.
The fresh spices were laid out and the hosts talked us through the selection of mixtures that complimented each other, it’s an exciting process with so many combinations and no it’s not all over infused cinnamon and cardamom. The brewing process was therapeutic and left an ambience of warm and subtle tones of Indian flavours. We got to taste the tea made by the volunteers alongside Pam Ban’s House Chai, my favourite remains their saffron tea.
The master class was not just a treat for us bloggers, Pam Ban will continue to do these chai making workshops and I highly recommend you book yourself in. They also hope to utilise the space for further upcoming projects and workshops so get on their mailing list if you don’t want to miss out.
Pam Ban are located at North Yard Chalk Farm Road London, NW1 8AH
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