Easy recipe of Indian masala chai with fresh spices

Some call it chai tea, others masala chai and Starbucks lovers call it chai latte. Whatever the case, the blend of black tea, spices, sugar and milk is one of the most popular Indian beverages in India and abroad.

To introduce you to the world of Indian food, it is ideal to start with this infusion so characteristic of the Indian subcontinent.

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Perks of masala chai

Chai masala ( चाय मसालाा ) is the quintessential Indian drink. It is always a good time to have a tea with spices and milk, smooth and sweet. It is sold on every street corner, in stalls that could hardly be called tea shops.

It is consumed sitting in a corner or standing in the middle of chaos. However, when you travel to India, sitting down to tea at any tea stall, no matter how humble, is equivalent to a second of peace in the continuous hustle and bustle of Indian life.

Chai is prepared on any stove with mastery, without pretension, and yet, when we try to reproduce it at home, something is missing. Maybe it’s the milk, or the spice mix, or the proportions…. Or a little bit of everything.

There are some Indian food dishes that have to be accompanied by a chai, like an appetizer of pakoras.

Do you know why tea is called chai in India?Do you know why tea is called chai in India?

I’ll tell you about it at the end of this post

Origin of tea in India

The tea plant existed in India before the arrival of the British. Specifically, the variety of camellia asamesis, is native to the northeast of the country and can be used for the preparation of the infusion. However, it was not consumed in India and was brought to the country by the colonizers. From these times have remained the great producing areas of Assam, Darjeeling and the mountains full of tea plantations in Kerala.

According to what I have been able to read in a reliable source, masala chai was invented or popularized by a British lady in Calcutta in the 19th century. She was the wife of an important tycoon of the East Indian Company. In the boredom of her daily exile, she used the spices manually to flavor the teas she would later serve to her British guests.

This story is quite plausible. While spices were infused in India to make such interesting drinks as Kashmiri kahva, tea drinking was not popular among Indians until the late 1800s with the arrival of the British Tea Company. By then, chai masala had already taken shape.

Masala chai recipe

The steps to prepare a good chai are simple. However, the taste of chai in India is very difficult to replicate at home. The key is the fresh ingredients used in India, especially the fresh spices versus the dry powdered spice mix. It also changes the Indian cow’s milk, which is less processed. I do not rule out that the special flavor is given by the environment in which it is cooked, the noise, the chaos, the intensity? This cannot be reproduced in a Western kitchen.

Everyday chai is a cooking with ginger for winter and cardamom for summer. There are other recipes with more spices, and many of the chai masala preparations include black pepper, cinnamon or cloves. The spices can be added as you find your taste.

Ingredients of chai tea

The Indian tea recipe varies and can be adapted to taste. You can follow my recipe for chai masala to have a guideline quantities and then adapt it to your taste. Basically, there are three elements that you can modify: the amount of milk, the amount of sugar and the spices you add. As I explained before, cardamom is usually added in summer and ginger in winter. Calculate the following proportions per person:

• One teaspoon of black tea leaves (Nilgiri Hills or Assam)
• Half a cup of milk
• 3/4 cup of water
• One teaspoon of sugar (or to taste)
• Fresh ginger or one whole crushed cardamom

Masala chai blends on the market lose the richness of aromas and flavors by substituting dried or powdered spices for fresh ingredients.

Preparation

• Crush the spices in a mortar and pestle (if you do not want the cardamom to have a strong flavor, put the whole pod).
• Boil the water and add the milk, tea and sugar to taste. Bring to a boil.
• Remove the mixture from the heat and add the spices.
• Boil the tea a third time. This will allow the spices to release their full potential, but will not mask the flavor of the black tea, which should be integrated, smooth and sweet.
• Strain it.

Service of Masala Chai

Indian chai is not cooked or infused in front of guests, and enough should be prepared to at least fill the cup once. At home, a porcelain or ceramic cup is usually used.

On the streets of Delhi, you will be served in distinctive glass chai cups. Surely, you have seen them in some movie about India. In the villages, on the other hand, disposable earthenware cups, fired by traditional potters, are used.

Unfortunately, many businesses have replaced the traditional proximity and biodegradable containers with paper or plastic cups that are left in the middle for many years.

DID YOU KNOW…
Countries where tea was introduced by the Portuguese use words derived from cha, which was the Cantonese word for tea. However, where the English were the introducers, they use derivatives of the word tea, which has its origin in the Fujian dialect.