Masala Chai and Ginger Tea

So over the past few months, I have been experimenting with making Indian milk teas—usually ginger tea, but masala chai as well. Before coming to India, I always thought that mostly Indian tea would be specifically what we call "chai tea" back home. In reality, chai in Hindi just means tea, and while milk tea is very common here, it is not always spiced with the mixture of spices we expect in the West. The spicy Indian tea we call chai is called "masala chai" here, which translated means spiced tea. But there are other milk tea variations here that are very common as well—often you will just see small glasses of sweetened milk tea without spices (cutting chai), or ginger tea, which is similar to masala chai, but only has fresh ginger for spice, or perhaps fresh ginger and another spice—I like to grind in a little black pepper.

One other thing to note about Indian milk tea is that it is very milky and quite sweet, but they drink it in much smaller quantities. The typical tea cups here are the small glass ones as pictured above, or similar sized ones made of clay. So if you're worried about putting too much sugar in, you can definitely alter the sugar levels to taste, but keep in mind that it's not meant to be drank in Starbucks chai latte quantities anyway, so a little sweetness isn't a problem if you like the flavour and aren't drinking too much. 

Tea in Rajasthan

When I was in Rajasthan with my dad and aunt, there was a little streetside Rajasthani tea place we really loved, and ended up visiting daily. It was right in the old city so it was a great place to have a quick midday rest. We would sit down and all order chai—my aunt and I would each order a chai, but request reduced sugar, and my dad would order five cups of chai with no sugar. They served us graciously, but I can only imagine what they thought of us, ordering like typical, difficult North Americans. In any case, it was delicious. And thankfully they have tons of foreigners in Jaipur, so they're probably used to our weird tourist antics.

Notes on making chai

As I said, a friend of mine showed me how to make ginger tea a few months ago, and since then I have experimenting with both ginger tea and masala tea. But since we've went into lockdown, my experiments have become a lot more frequent, since my maid, who makes delicious masala chai, and had been making my tea before, is not able to get here during lockdown. I guess there are two sides of the coin to every situation, because I've really been enjoying learning to make the chai myself.

My overall tip for making chai is that you really need to simmer the tea in a little water with whatever spices you are using for 3-5 minutes to get the flavours strong. The ratio of water to milk should be about 1:2, and you need to just add the milk and sugar once the spices are fully infused, then bring it just barely back up to the boil, simmer until the sugar dissolves (30 seconds or so), and then strain it into cups or a teapot.  I recommend trying out ginger tea first once or twice and playing around with the amount of tea and fresh ginger so you know how much spice you like in your tea, and once you have an idea of that you can adjust the amount of spice you use in your masala tea to make the perfect cup for your taste.

Ginger Tea:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup water
• 2 heaping tsp powdered black tea
• 2 inches fresh ginger, peeled and crushed
• 4-5 grinds fresh black pepper (1/2 tsp)
• 1 cups milk
• 3-5 tsp sugar

Directions:

1. Place the water in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat, add the tea and ginger and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 3-5 minutes. Don't worry if the water reduces a little, that isn't a problem.
2. Once the tea and ginger are heavily infused in the water, pour in the milk, grind in the pepper, and add 3 tsp sugar. 
3. Increase the heat to medium-low and watch carefully, stirring, until the tea comes just to a slight boil, and immediately reduce the heat again. Taste the tea and adjust sugar to taste. simmer very briefly with the milk, about 30 seconds
4. Strain the tea into small cups or into a pot and enjoy.*

Masala Chai

Ingredients:

• 2 cups water
• 4 heaping tsp powdered black tea
• 4 inches fresh ginger, peeled and crushed
• 40 pods cardamom, crushed 
• 1/3 stick of cinnamon 
• 2 tsp ground cloves
• 4-5 grinds fresh black pepper (1/2 tsp)
• 2 cups milk
• 4-7 tsp sugar

Directions:

1. Place the water in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat, add the tea, ginger, crushed cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, and pepper, and bring to a boil. 
2. Reduce the heat and simmer for 3-5 minutes. Don't worry if the water reduces a little.
3. Once the tea and spices are heavily infused in the water, pour in the milk and 4 tsp sugar. 
4. Increase the heat to medium-low and watch carefully, stirring, until the tea comes just to a slight boil, and immediately reduce the heat again. Taste the tea and add sugar to taste. Simmer very briefly with the milk, about 30 seconds.
5. Strain the tea into small cups or into a pot and enjoy.*

*When you drink the tea, check the flavour, and note any adjustments you want to make next time. The thing with Indian milk tea is that everyone has slightly different preferences in terms of the strength of the tea and spices, not to mention sugar. So I suggest you start off with this ratio, which is the one I like, but then adjust it to your own preferences. Everyone here has their own personal way of doing it, and it's a very sweet aspect of Indian tea culture, in my opinion.