Chai, properly: the method and the arguments
The essential difference: chai is boiled — tea, water, milk, sugar and spices cooked together in one pan — not brewed and then whitened. That single method change is the whole taste.
The method
- Water into a small pan with the aromatics — crushed ginger, cardamom, whatever your house uses. Bring to a boil.
- Add strong black tea, loose. CTC — small hard granules, not delicate leaf — is what almost every household uses, because it stands up to boiling and milk.
- Boil hard for a minute or two. It should go deep and dark.
- Add milk and sugar, bring back to a rolling boil. Some let it rise and subside two or three times, which is the bit that makes the kitchen smell right.
- Strain into glasses or small cups.
What goes in — and what a household argues about
- Ginger (adrak) — the most common addition, especially in winter and in the north.
- Green cardamom (elaichi) — the other near-universal.
- Cloves, cinnamon, black pepper, fennel, tulsi — house by house, and often seasonal rather than fixed.
- Strength and sweetness — the real arguments. "Kadak" means strong and boiled long; how much sugar is correct has never been settled by anyone.
Half a glass, ordered when you want the taste but not a whole cup — or when two people are sharing one. Common at roadside stalls; the small glass is part of the point.
"Chai" already means tea, so "chai tea" is "tea tea". A café chai latte is usually a syrup in steamed milk — a pleasant drink, but a different one.
What it's drunk with
Rarely alone: biscuits for dunking (Parle-G is the national default), rusk, pakoras when it rains, or namkeen in the evening. In much of the subcontinent it punctuates the day rather than starting it — several times, in small glasses, usually with someone else.
Last updated: 2026-08-11
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