by Sophie S Smith

Created on: July 30, 2009   Last Updated: October 11, 2010

Chai is the sweet, milky tea that everyone in India drinks cup after cup at any given time of the day. Chai is the Hindi word for tea, and in India often means just tea served with milk and sugar. However, and especially among tourists to India, the word chai is also used to mean masala chai or spiced tea.

Masala chai, then, can be flavoured with fragrant spices such as ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, black pepper or even star anise. Chai recipes vary by region, but also by household: every housewife will have their own chai recipe, and their own favourite method for making chai.

India's favourite drink

Chai is a big part of daily life in India. Morning starts with chai, and the day finishes with it. Chai is served after meals, and cups after cups of it are drunk at chai stands, where people meet over a steaming hot glass or steel cup of their favourite drink. Somehow, that hot steel cup or glass never seems to burn the fingers of the chai-loving locals, and it is only tourists who complain.

Every visitor to India remembers that strong, sweet chai at Indian railway platforms, and one of the best parts of a train journey through India is the chai from the chaiwallah in the train. (Chaiwallah is the man who walks along the carriage from 5 am until late at night shouting "chaichaichaiii" as he goes.) Unfortunately, train chai is not what it used to be. It is too often served in plastic cups, and one usually gets just a teabag with some lukewarm milky water, instead of the slowly brewed, sweet and warm drink that used to be served in clay cups - which were biodegradable and could be handily thrown out of the window afterwards.

Chai has become incredibly popular in coffee shops in the West, and it even comes in the form of tea bags in supermarkets. However, as chai really just means "tea", those asking for "chai tea" in the local coffee shop are actually just asking for "tea tea". "Chai tea latte", then, is an interesting mix of Hindi, English and Italian words and translates simply as "tea tea milk".

And in India, chai is rarely, if ever, decaf!

The art of making chai

Everyone has a recipe for their favourite chai, but most recipes involve loose black tea, water, milk, sugar and spices: fresh ginger, cardamom pods, cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, black pepper, star anise, etc.

Everyone also has their favourite chai making techniques. The simplest way is to boil a mixture of milk, water, loose tea leaves, sugar and spices together. Some like to boil the water

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