Terminology

Plain chai

By itself, chai or cha is merely the generic word for "tea" in much of South Asia and many other parts of the world. However, for many English speakers who refer to ordinary tea as "tea", the word "chai"
has come to imply "masala chai".

Although coffee is a more popular beverage in some southern parts of India, tea is ubiquitous throughout South Asia, where street vendors called "chai wallahs" (sometimes spelled "chaiwalas") are a common sight. Chai is also a popular item in the genre of South Asian restaurants known as Irani cafés or Chai Khanas.

The traditional brewing process boils or simmers the tea leaves over sustained heat, instead of steeping them in preheated water as it cools down.

Spiced tea

For many English speakers outside those regions, the term "chai" is synonymous with masala chai, as further described below. The redundant chai tea is sometimes used to indicate spiced milk tea as distinct from other types of tea. Numerous coffee houses use the term chai latte for their version to indicate that the steamed milk of a normal caffè latte is being flavored with a spiced tea concentrate instead of with espresso, without necessarily implying the addition of coffee. Some coffeehouses and brand names refer to their product as chai tea latte.

Ingredients

There is no fixed recipe or preparation method for masala chai and many families have their own versions of the tea. Most chai contains trace amounts of caffeine. The tea leaves (or tea dust) steep in the hot water long enough to extract intense flavor, ideally without releasing the bitter tannins. Because of the large range of possible variations, masala chai can be considered a class of tea rather than a specific kind. However, all masala chai has the following four basic components:

Tea base

The base tea is usually a strong black tea such as Assam, so that the spices and sweeteners do not overpower it. Usually, a specific type of Assam is used called "mamri". Mamri tea is tea that has been cured in a special way that creates granules as opposed to "leaf" tea. It is inexpensive and the tea most often used in India. However, a wide variety of teas are used to make chai. Most chai in India is brewed with strong black tea, but Kashmiri chai is brewed with gunpowder tea.

Sweetener

Plain white sugar, Demerara sugar, other brown sugars, palm or coconut sugars, or honey is used. Jaggery is also used as a sweetener, mostly in rural parts of India. While some prefer unsweetened chai, some sugar enhances the flavor of the spices.

A large quantity of sugar may also be required to bring out the intricate flavors of some spices; some recipes use up to three tablespoons of sugar in 3½ cups of chai. Condensed milk can also be added as a dual-purpose
sweetener and dairy addition. Sugar is typically added to suit the drinker.

Milk

Usually, whole milk is used for its richness. Generally, masala chai is made by mixing ¼ to ½ parts milk with water and heating the liquid to near-boiling (or even full boiling). As noted above, some people like to use condensed milk in their masala chai to double as the sweetener.

For those who prefer to drink chai without milk, the portion is replaced with water.

Spices

The traditional masala chai is a spiced beverage brewed with different proportions of so-called "warm" spices. The spice mixture, called Karha, uses a base of ground ginger and green cardamom pods.

Most masala chai found in restaurants or homes incorporates one or more of the following: cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, fennel seeds, peppercorn, and cloves.

Traditionally, cardamom is a dominant note, supplemented by other spices such as cloves, ginger, or black pepper; the latter two add a piquant flavor suitable only in colder weather. The composition of spices often differs by climate and region.

In Western India, fennel and black pepper are expressly avoided.[citation needed] The Kashmiri version of chai is brewed with green tea instead of black tea and has a more subtle blend of flavorings: almonds, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and sometimes saffron. In Bhopal, typically, a pinch of salt is added.

Other possible ingredients include nutmeg, rose flavouring (where rose petals are boiled along with the loose-leaf tea), or liquorice root.

Outside of India

As the popularity of masala chai has spread around the world, the nature of the beverage has changed in various ways beyond the redundant terminology noted above. Its original form remains available in restaurants that serve South Asian cuisine, but outside those venues, many Westerners are just as likely to consume their "chai" as a slushy iced beverage resembling a milkshake as to drink it as hot spiced tea.[citation needed] Chai flavouring is also used in baked goods such as pumpkin pies, biscuits or butter tarts.

Tea-based mixes/concentrates

Liquid "chai concentrates" have become very popular for their convenience, as these spiced, sweetened tea-based syrups merely require dilution with milk, water, or both to create a flavorful hot or cold beverage. Most coffeehouse chains use commercial liquid concentrates instead of brewing their own chai from scratch. Dry powdered or granular mixes similar to instant coffee are also commercially available.

Both dry instant mixes and liquid concentrates can be replicated at home. A liquid concentrate can be made by brewing an unusually concentrated pot of highly spiced tea, so that the dilution of a small amount into a cup of hot water or a glass of cold milk results in roughly the same concentration of tea as in a normally-proportioned brew; e.g., to make a syrup from which one ounce suffices to make one eight-ounce cup of normal chai when diluted, brew tea (and the proportional quantity of spices) at eight times normal concentration.

Similarly, unsweetened iced-tea powder can be tailored to individual taste with powdered spices, sugar, and (if desired for convenience and texture) dry nonfat milk and dry non-dairy creamer; the result can be mixed with hot water to produce a form of instant chai masala. This form of dry mix has certain disadvantages, however: the powdered spices may leave a grainy residue at the bottom of the cup, and it may dissolve poorly in cold water, especially in the presence of dry milk/creamer powders.

Other chai shortcuts

Many Western supermarkets now sell pre-packaged single-serving teabags of "chai". The packaged directions generally call for steeping the small bag of ground spices and tea leaves/dust in a cup of hot water for several minutes longer than plain teabags, resulting in a beverage which is slightly stronger than the average teabag brew but still not as intense as traditional preparations.

Some American supermarkets also carry bottles of "chai spice" alongside their dried herbs and other spices. Unlike Indian spice mixtures, the American ones are generally made from powdered spices (cinnamon tends to be the dominant flavor) and sometimes sugar; this mixture can be added at the last minute to an already-brewed cup of tea as there is no need (or way) to strain off the solids.

Cold "chai"

As an alternative to the hot tea format, several types of cold "chai" beverages have become popular in the United States. These range in complexity from a simple spiced iced tea without milk to a slush of spiced tea, ice, and milk (or non-dairy creamer) mixed in a blender and topped with whipped cream.[6]

Components

Many Western commercial preparations such as Oregon Chai use non-traditional ingredients such as vanilla or chocolate, relegating the traditional masala spices to a relatively minor role.

During the Christmas season, a quick chai fix can be made by combining plain tea with eggnog as a convenient pre-spiced, pre-sweetened dairy product.

Non-tea-based variants may be prepared with herbal tisanes such as rooibos, or with the South American beverage yerba mate.

Some coffeehouses in the United States offer a version of masala chai augmented with espresso, but this beverage does not have any one universally recognized name. Depending on the establishment, it may be called "java chai", "red eye chai", "chai charger", "tough guy chai", "dirty chai", or many other different names.

However, despite the common tendency in many countries to use the term "latte" to mean "cafe latte", the term "chai latte" does not generally imply the presence of coffee in the beverage; see the Spiced tea terminology above.