Indian Prince Tea

'Indian Prince Tea'. Now there’s a grand name, perhaps in the same aristocratic vein as Greys Earl, Lady and Empress. And if the grand name and appealing packaging do not sell it to you, try the description:

Carefully selected and blended. Strong and bright with a refreshing full flavour, this tea is made with carefully selected leaves from Kenya and the Nilgiri Mountains in India. The leaves are selected by our master blender who tastes over 400 cups every day to ensure each blend is always the very best quality.

400 cups every day, indeed! I don’t fancy the colour of his teeth, nor the state of his bladder. Yet if this fellow is to ensure that his Indian Prince Tea is of the highest quality, he must needs put his taste buds to regular work. I rather like it, though I may struggle to differentiate it from a good number of other, pleasant blends. Tasting 400 cups per day may assist me in this regard.

I have a rather romantic impression of Indian princes: pampered and splendid maharajahs enjoying the riches and privileges, though not the powers, of Victoria’s sprawling empire. Curiously, Indian princes are mentioned in the Bible, but under, or partially under, the imperial yoke of another great power: the Persia of Xerxes the Great, husband to Queen Esther. In the eighth chapter of that book bearing her name, we read of the King’s decree regarding the Jews:

So the king’s scribes were called at that time, in the third month, which is the month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day; and it was written, according to all that Mordecai commanded, to the Jews, the satraps, the governors, and the princes of the provinces from India to Ethiopia, one hundred and twenty-seven provinces in all, to every province in its own script, to every people in their own language, and to the Jews in their own script and language. And he wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus, sealed it with the king’s signet ring, and sent letters by couriers on horseback, riding on royal horses bred from swift steeds. Esther 8:9-11, New King James Version

India is, and always has been, a great nation, or collections of great nations, and its leaders powerful and glittering. Yet there is a glorious status and dignity which even India’s vast resources and population cannot bestow: that of sons and daughters of God, who graciously adopts people into His family. Christ bestows a royal dignity on all who come to Him, whether they were born in the gutter, slum or workhouse. There are beggars and Shudras in today’s India who shall enjoy greater eternal dignity that Western billionaires and aristocratic landlords. Indian Prince’s Tea tastes perfectly pleasant, but the riches of Christ are sweeter still.