Masala Chai

Chai from the Aunty

Ingredients - per cup of chai

• 1 mug water

• 1 tbsp black loose leaf tea

• 40% mug milk (preferably whole milk but any milk will do)

• 1 inch ginger

• 3 cloves

• 3 cardamom pods

• 1 tbsp sugar

• 1 tsp additional black tea

Recipe

1. Bring a mug of water to a boil in a medium pot over high heat.

2. While the water is boiling, crush the cloves and cardamom and chop the ginger.

3. When water is at a rumbling boil, add the tea leaves and immediately bring the heat to low, until the water is just bubbling. Simmer for 5-6 minutes.

4. Add the milk, turn up the heat again and bring to a bubble. At this point, you're looking for a light bubble and a layer of malai (fat) starting to form at the top.

5. When the milk is bubbling slowly, lightly begin to blow the malai (or just move it with a spoon) to one side.

6. In the bubbling liquid under the chai, add the sugar, crushed spices, ginger and the additional chai.

7. Bring heat to a low simmer allowing chai to rest for anywhere between 5-25 minutes (seriously). When you're ready, strain into a mug.

Chai from the Student

*different from the first recipe

Ingredients - per cup of chai

• 1 mug water

• 1 tbsp black loose leaf tea

• 40% mug milk (preferably whole milk but any milk will do)

• 1 inch ginger

• *3 whole allspice berries

• *4 whole black peppercorn

• *1/4 tsp fennel

• 4 cardamom pods

• 1/2 tbsp sugar

Recipe

1. Bring a mug of water to a boil in a medium pot over high heat.

2. *While water is boiling, crush the allspice, black peppercorn, and fennel. Chop the ginger as well.

3. *When water is at a rumbling boil, add the tea leaves, crushed spices, and ginger and immediately bring the heat to low, until the water is just bubbling. Simmer for 5-6 minutes.

4. *While the chai is simmering, crush the cardamom.

5. Add the milk, turn up the heat again and bring to a bubble. At this point, you're looking for a light bubble and a layer of malai (fat) starting to form at the top.

6. When the milk is bubbling slowly, lightly begin to blow the malai (or just move it with a spoon) to one side.

7. *In the bubbling liquid under the chai, add the sugar and crushed cardamom.

8. Bring heat to a low simmer allowing chai to rest for anywhere between 5-25 minutes (seriously). When you're ready, strain into a mug.

Q/A with the Aunty

Chai Pod - In this post, I actually sat down and recorded the Q/A. If you want to listen to two grown ass men talk about chai for an hour, then please join us next time because we need dedicated people like you. If you don't, Q/A is below. Enjoy!

*Note: Aunty for this post was a man and the actual podcast starts at 50 seconds.

Q: Why do you bring chai to a boil more than once?

A: Boiling the water first allows a natural circulation when you put in the tea leaves. It mixes everything without you ever having to touch the chai. The second time is historically for safety, because milk was not pasteurized. Another reason is that when you add the spices and sugar into the bubbling milk, you allow for that same circulation towards the end. Really this is up to you, and you should try doing it multiple ways.

Q: Why do you add more chai at the end?

A: When you steep the leaves from the beginning, you get a strong extraction of the tea leaves. At the same time, the fresh taste and mainly the fresh flavor of the leaves is lost. You can bring in that smell by adding in the tea leaves to the very end, something that Aunty loves. See if it makes a difference for you.

Q: What's up with blowing the milk?

A: What forms on the top is a layer of fat that accumulates at the surface of the pot, the coolest point of the whole thing. Aunty blows the chai because when he add the spices, the spices might get stuck to the malai and not circulate with the bubbling chai below. Blowing the air to the side creates a small gap to pour in the spices and get them into the rumbling chai below. I have to admit, I think part of this is just for finesse though. Aunty's gotta get a flex in.

Q: A lot of chai wallah's add the spices at the beginning, not the end. Why do you it your way?

A: Aunty brews chai for a longgggg time, probably around 20-25 minutes when there's no rush. Technically, his spices do steep, but they're not steeped from the beginning. They're added after the layer of malai is formed because they are fat soluble.

Q: Have you tried toasting the spices?

A: Short answer, never. In my own experience though, toasting the spices was an unsuccessful experiment. They were just too... much. The clove became aggressive, the cinnamon was burning and the black peppercorn? Let's just leave it at, "It didn't work." Maybe I steeped them too long, maybe I toasted them too much. It's worth exploring.

Q: How big of a difference does freshly grinding the spices really make?

A: We aren't scientists so we can't speak to that, but freshly ground spices have a certain earthy, rawness to them. When I was experimenting, I was dead set on grinding spices fresh every single time. Over time, it became part of the ritual, a satisfying way to start off the practice. Take it to a mortar and pestle, and go nuts. That being said, grinding spices fresh everytime is ridiculous and definitely not "dal chawal." It doesn't make always make sense to have them whole, or measure them out each time. Make your chai masala in advance, grinding whatever spices you want and storing them in an airtight container. Add them with the chai or with the milk, whichever you prefer.

The Endless Pursuit of the Perfect Cup

I've been really hesitant to write this post. I still have a lot to learn about chai and to try and create my own recipe for it seems... too emboldened. It took two months for me to get my head straight on this drink and feel comfortable writing about it, though some of it, admittedly, was just laziness to write. Before this, I didn't even drink chai everyday, much less make it myself. If someone made it for me, I'd definitely have it, but my attempts at making it myself usually ended in a bitter, watery, and almost undrinkable mug of liquid. It really was embarrassing. It got to the point where I asked my girlfriend to write the recipe on a Post-It note and stick it to the cabinet. Evidence is below. Even with that, my chai was a 6/10 at best. She can attest to that if you don't believe me. All that to say, I really shouldn't be writing about chai. I shouldn't really be writing about Indian cuisine, I'm not the expert. That's why I have the aunty.

This post was inspired by a blog post I read about chai. These individuals were trying to figure out which was better between toasted chai spices and untoasted chai spices. I read it and thought "This is exactly up my wheelhouse! I love precisely measuring every granule of whole spice that goes into a mix, tinkering with each variable to try and hit the right note (shouts out to my chemistry parents)." I quickly started measuring out spices, toasting some, grinding the others fresh, and the first testers were done. *sip* They were awful. I spent the next week obsessively reading and learning about chai. I looked through dozens of recipes, trying to track patterns and observe what people were doing differently. I used this time to come up with a list of 9 spices that I wanted to play around with. In order of how often I saw them recurring:

1. Ginger

2. Cardamom

3. Clove

4. Cinnamon

5. Black Peppercorn

6. Nutmeg

7. Star Anise

8. Allspice

9. Fennel

This is not the only list of spices you can put in chai. There's also no limitation to how many or how few of these you use. I recently found out lemongrass is another ingredient that people add as well. My friend's mom adds mint to hers and it's incredible. I tried making chai with as many different variations of these 9 spices as I could, holding two things constant: ginger and cardamom. I really feel like masala chai is not masala chai without the slight kick of ginger and the fresh, sweetness of cardamom. Cup after cup, I scientifically narrowed down my list to my top 7, top 5, and finally the top 3: fennel, allspice, and black peppercorn.

Fennel is something I picked up from my sister. I saw her starting to add it whole to her steeped chai, and I particularly enjoy the fresh flavor it leaves on your tongue. It takes me back to the candied saunf I would eagerly take at an event or Indian restaurant pre-COVID.

Allspice is magical. I didn't know a thing about it until I found it could be used in chai, and I became obsessed. In my opinion, allspice is the real star of the show, and grinding it fresh sends out an aroma that is a blend of the sweetness of cinnamon, the numbing bitterness of cloves, and the spice of ginger.

Black Peppercorn is a real personal preference because I LOVE when chai has a strong kick to it. That tingle in the back of my throat is something I am chasing, and not something everyone enjoys. Use with caution. Or don't.

I spent a lot of time over the past two months making chai, at least one cup a day. I tried between 30-40 different spice and recipe variations, a lot of them turned out like crap and some of them hit it out of the park. Side note: I also hit an all-time high in overboiling milk and having to clean up my stove. Some chai makers might prefer dried ginger over fresh ginger. Another might insist on adding the milk at the beginning, while another learned to add it at the end. Some prefer more sugar, or some might be vegan or lactose intolerant and use a different milk. I saw recipes being made with goats milk and maple syrup. The list goes on and on. The point is that making chai is making a cup that you want. It's a sense of freedom in the kitchen to explore your own curiosity, your own inner scientist if you will. At least, that's what it's been for me.