Masala Chai video recipe
Masala chai podcast episode
Chai culture in India and the complicated history of masala chai
Masala chai is a big deal for my wife’s family. Every morning starts with the question “Who wants chai?”.
You probably heard the same question in your own family growing up or you remember the sights and sounds of chai brewing on the stovetop.
I’ve heard many American born desi friends talk about memories of their grandparents making chai, pouring it from one stainless steel cup to another to mix and cool, and finally drinking it slowly one sip at a time.
Chai means tea in Hindi along with many other Indian languages. Masala, of course, is a generic word used to describe a combination of spices usually in a powder. So Masala chai is a tea flavored with multiple spices.
This brings us to many desis’ pet peeve of Starbucks’ Chai Tea Latte which just means tea tea latte and sounds ridiculous.
We’ll get into a full shaadi quality masala chai recipe at the end of this episode, but it’s important to know that masala chai is usually black tea and spices brewed in water. Then milk is added and the whole concoction is brought to a boil.
The spice blend varies from family to family, but the two most popular spices are green cardamom and ginger. Other common spices are cloves, black peppercorns, cinnamon sticks, and saffron.
Most people also add a sweetener such as sugar or honey. Most of my research suggests that jaggery was the traditional sweetener years ago, but white sugar is more common in everyday masala chai now.
Masala Chai’s history
Despite masala chai’s immense popularity today, Indians didn’t start drinking masala chai daily until the twentieth century.
Scholars claim that an ancient form of masala chai existed 5,000 years ago. The exact spice blend for the ancient drink is unknown, but it was used for Ayurvedic medicinal purposes. It was often used to help cure mild illness. This was also only used in the regions of India where tea is grown. Tea plants do not grow well in the majority of India so chai was typically only consumed in mountainous regions of the north and east.
India’s desire for a daily cup of chai began during the British colonization of India.
In 1830, the British were concerned by a growing Chinese monopoly of tea. At the time, 90% of British tea was imported from China.
In response, the British East India Company found that some people in the modern-day northeast Indian state of Assam put leaves in their drinks. After examination, it was discovered that the leaves were a variety of tea. At the time, Assam was controlled by Burma so the British started a war to gain control of the tea growing region. By 1840, the British East India company won the war against Burma and seized control of Assam to grow tea and export it home.
Despite control of tea production, the British lacked the centuries of experience and knowledge the Chinese tea farmers used to grow their tea. The tea exported by the British East India company tasted far worse than the tea from China so their sales were terrible.
The British owned Indian Tea Association decided they could improve sales by getting Indians to drink tea too. The Indian Tea Association launched a multi-decade advertising campaign to increase chai consumption. They also established roadside tea stalls which are the predecessors of today’s chaiwallas. They lobbied local governments to require breaks for industrial works pushing them toward the chaiwallas on their time off.
Because the tea was of poor quality, the chaiwallas found that they could make more money by adding spices to the drink. They may have taken inspiration from the ancient ayurvedic drink or perhaps it was just natural Indian Uncle business skills to make the drink taste better and improve sales.
Of course, the Indian Tea Association didn’t like the addition of spices because it decreased the amount of tea leaves necessary and also decreased their profits. They sent inspectors to stalls to make sure the tea was unspiced. But as we know from today’s modern drink, many chaiwallas continued to spice their chai.
Chai was still very expensive for many people and it did not gain widespread popularity until the 1960s when new machines lowered the cost of tea production. Afterwards, many working class Indians could afford daily drinks of chai.
Masala Chai culture
On average, each Indian consumed over 2 pounds of chai in the year 2022.
Many Indians enjoy drinking chai in the morning very similar to western coffee culture, and some also drink a second and third cup of chai in the afternoon and evening.
In cities you will find many chaiwalas continuing to serve chai on the roadside. You can find videos of them on YouTube.
The most popular chaiwalla on the internet is a man in Nagpur (नागपूर) who is known to westerners as the Jack Sparrow of India. His stall name is Dolly Ki Tapri. He gained online fame for the flair and showmanship he uses to make chai for his customers. I will have a link in the show notes where you can see a video of him: Dolly Ki Tapri (YouTube).
According to a survey of Indians, chai is 15 times more popular than coffee in India. This is partly because of price. A roadside chaiwalla can sell a cup of masala chai for Rs 6, just a few cents in US currency. A cup of coffee will cost Rs 120, or twenty times more than chai.
Coffee is traditionally popular in South India where it is grown and its popularity didn’t spread to other parts of India until recently. There is an interesting folktale of how coffee arrived in India which I’ll save for a future episode about South Indian filter coffee. As a result, the rest of India tends to prefer masala chai over coffee and the majority of India’s population lives outside South India. In addition, coffee is sometimes viewed as a luxury with Western chains like Starbucks operating stores in India.
It’s common to offer visitors to your business or home a cup of masala chai soon after they arrive. I’m sure you’re familiar with this practice as this is something desis in North America continue to do today.
Where is chai grown
Tea is best grown in high mountain climates. It also requires an even distribution of water so it grows best on the slopes of tropical mountains where the water will flow down from the top of the mountain to the base. The soil collects only the water it needs and the rest flows down preventing water logging.
If you look up photos of tea plantations, you will see some of the most beautiful landscapes on the planet. Vibrant green tea plants grow on hilly landscapes. And because they are in tropical mountains, you see a beautiful contrast of blue skies, fluffy white clouds, and neatly planted rows of bright green tea trees meeting together at the horizon. The tea plantations of India must be some of the most beautiful sites in the world.
The northeast Indian state of Assam is the world’s largest tea growing region by production output.
Assamese tea is typically black tea and is very popular for making masala chai; although, the region does grow some green and white teas.
Tea from Assam has a distinctive taste due to the tropical climate. Some describe the taste as malty.
Another large tea producing region is Darjeeling in West Bengal. Darjeeling also grows black tea along with green, white, and oolong teas. Western companies like to market Darjeeling tea as organic or fair-trade. Teas grown in this region are typically less bitter than other varieties and are popular for teas without sweeteners.
Nilgiri tea is a third Indian variety grown in the Nilgiris District of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka in Southern India. It also produces black tea, but to a lesser extent than Assam and Darjeeling. Nilgiri tea is usually described as lighter than other black tea varieties and is popular for iced teas.
Today, India is the world’s second largest tea producer after China.
Despites Indian tea originally having a reputation for worse quality in the 1800s, Assamese and Darjeeling teas are considered among the best in the world now.
How to make masala chai
No podcast about masala chai would be complete without a general recipe.
Recipes are best taught through video or text so I have a full video recipe on my YouTube channel CookLikeAnAunty where you will learn how Indian aunties make masala chai in North America.
But I will give you a basic idea of how to make masala chai now.
As stated before, masala chai recipes vary from family to family. The recipe I will provide is a very common recipe, perhaps the most common. If you want your family’s specific recipe, I recommend that you make this recipe as a first try, then ask your favorite aunty or uncle for the spice blend your family uses. The process and order of operations will be very similar.
This recipe makes 2 cups of masala chai so scale the amounts up or down accordingly.
You will need a few ingredients. First, get a black tea. You can buy Lipton black tea from the American grocery store. If you want a pakka Indian tea brand, you can order Red Label tea online or get it at an Indian grocery store.
Next you will want milk. Whole milk is usually considered best, but you can substitute skim milk or soy milk based on your dietary needs.
Also get a sweetener such as sugar, honey, or jaggery.
Then you need spices. We will use green cardamom pods and about a half inch chunk of ginger root.
Start by crushing 3 green cardamom pods and the half inch chunk of ginger with a mortar and pestle. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, you can crush them under something heavy or try to chop them with a knife.
Then put 2 cups of water in a saucepan.
Before the water heats up, add the cardamom pods and ginger.
Then turn on the heat so the water will reach a gentle simmer. You don’t want the water too hot or your tea will become bitter. The scientifically recommended temperature is 180 degrees Fahrenheit, but you don’t need a thermometer. After all, we are cooking like an aunty and no aunty uses a thermometer. Just bring the water to a simmer.
After the water reaches a simmer, add 2 Tbsp of black tea to the water. Also add 2 tsp of your sweetener of choice. In the Cook Like An Aunty YouTube channel, I used white sugar.
Then let the chai brew for 2-5 minutes. The longer you brew, the stronger your chai will be. But if you brew too long, the chai may become bitter.
After brewing for a few minutes, add about 1 cup of milk to the saucepan. 1 cup is an approximation. I usually just eyeball the amount of milk based on the color of the chai. Once it gets to the shade of brown I like, I stop adding milk.
Now bring the milk in the chai to a boil. You may need to increase the heat on your stove a bit. Getting the milk to a boil will take a few minutes.
You’ll know the milk is boiling when you hear it make a hissing sound and it rises in the saucepan.
When the milk boils, turn off the heat and move the saucepan to a cool burner.
You could be done here, but if you want a shaadi quality chai to impress aunties and uncles, you can do a double boil.
Put the saucepan back on the heat and boil the milk again. Once the milk boils, turn off the heat and move the saucepan to a cool burner again. The double boil creates a creamier chai that lots of uncles and aunties enjoy.
Finally, pour the chai into mugs. Use a strainer to filter out the spices and tea leaves when you pour.
If you want to see a more detailed recipe, checkout the recipe on the CookLikeAnAunty YouTube channel or cooklikeanaunty.com.
Thanks for listening! And see you next time.
Podcast credits
Background music by Shobana Music: https://youtu.be/gHRmeQXXL3o
Title music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/simon-folwar/flow-of-the-ganges License code: M1ADLQ9V0KCQ3ECP
Sources
Caffeine, the Most Popular Stimulant by Richard Gilbert (Archive.org)
How Tea was Discovered in Assam (Tea Orb)
How Chai Arrived in India 170 Years Ago (The Hindu)
Masala Chai History Recipe by Leena Tridevi-Grenier (Epicurious)