Blog Post 10 — Masala Chai
Throughout these blog posts, I have chosen to focus on different types of Indian food, and their histories. However, in that process, I have ignored one major part of Indian cuisine — masala chai. Chai, or tea, is drunk at almost every Indian home at least once a day, if not more, and everyone has their special combination of milk, sugar, and spices that make their tea distinctive. In this blog post, I will be exploring how chai was grown, and it’s presence in the mainstream today.
The most well-known drink from India is masala chai, a staple in both small Indian restaurants and large coffee house chains. Tea in India generally originates from the state of Assam in the northeast but was considered as a herbal medicine rather than a beverage until recently. During the times of British East India Company, tea was often sourced from China due to their monopoly on it. However, over 30 years, the British started to source their tea from Assam and British Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and by 1900, that made up 83% of their tea sources. Tea finally entered the mainstream through the Indian Tea Associaton, another British owned industry that encouraged the creation of tea breaks, and was initially consumed the British way, to maximize the amount of tea purchased. However, soon people started adding milk, sugar, and spices in the tea, creating the masala chai that people adore today.
Masala chai is extremely varied in the different ingredients used to create it, as different people make different alterations to their liking. Generally, the tea blend used is Assam tea. The spice blend, which is also referred to as karha, is comprised of different spices, with the most common ones being elaichi (cardamom) and adhrak (ginger). Other common add-ons include cinnamon, star anise, fennel, cumin, and many other different addons depending on taste and the region that one’s from. In terms of milk, masala chai is unique in that the tea is cooked with the milk instead of the milk being added afterward. Finally, the most common sugar used is white sugar, but there are many substitutes that people use, such as jaggery, brown sugar, and honey. The main way of making it is boiling the tea, adding the milk and the sugar, and then straining it when serving.
Masala chai is extremely common across India and is one of the most popular drinks across the subcontinent and its surrounding countries. People will make chai in their own houses and drink it as a part of afternoon tea (a page taken from the British) with biscuits. If people are outside, they will oftentimes meet up at a chaiwallah (a person who sells chai on the road) or a small cafe to get their fix. However, chai can be found everywhere in India, from small restaurants along the road to large luxury hotels.
Outside of India, masala chai has taken a much wider interpretation. It is also very popular in the Middle East, oftentimes referred to as Chai Karak. In the western world, we see that chai mixes or teabags are readily available in supermarkets. Furthermore, in many shops, we see both hot and cold chai-based drinks, such as chai lattes, which are all generally topped with whipped cream. Finally, in recent times, “chai” has become an umbrella term to refer to any drinks with Indian influence in many coffee shops, such as a “dirty chai” (a chai with espresso) and an “iced chai tea latte”.
All in all, chai is an extremely popular drink across the subcontinent and has gained popularity in coffeehouses across the wold, cementing its status as an iconic and treasured drink.
