I don't care to know about the gossip or the preferences and peccadilloes of their clients --what interests me about these people (or the "flower vendors" and recyclers in a different way, etc.) of large Asian cities is the perseverance and tenacity of the people to make their own living as meager as it might be.
I was taking a $10 equivalent taxi ride late at night the other day, the driver opened his window at a traffic light and bought some fragrant flowers from a woman selling them in the median at the equivalent of $2. I asked why he would buy those flowers, he said essentially, "I made some money, she needs to make her money and I get a fresh car in return".
There are poor people for sure, but you will not see too many outright begging --they still offer the dignity of exchange of money for something tangible --even if it's tea-eggs on the corner (or in Mexico people peddling junkfood at major bus stops). We seem to have lost some of that dignity, I think. The only think that comes close are the people who try to push you to buy some panhandler advocacy newsletter --I have not seen them in years and that pub was utterly useless.
Black youth. At worst, they would've been let go with a warning if they'd been white. FTA: "My kids sell water and everyone smiles at them. These kids do it and get arrested. It IS racist"
You put it nicely. Its a great enterprise they make, there is always a chai wallah at the railway station, office buildings, construction sites. It is also interesting to note College & university students have a cult following for their chai wallah. When alumni visit their alma matter, a trip to the chai wallah is a must.
Reminds me of the paranthewalla (an Indian bread) and maggiwala outside IIT Delhi who certainly had a huge cult following in 2000. He used to be so popular because he was the only vendor in town open at 3am serving hot paranthas to students. Very enterprising guy.
I remember cheddies at iitkgp gate serving maggi & snacks like that. those days the rumor was that cheddies has not been closed since it opened in 80s. anytime you go there you can find another sole having a sudden urge for late nite snacks.
There are chai wallahs who rent out their properties to the top IT companies in India. I worked for one such company and regularly had tea with those wallahs. Their shops are still just outside the company's premises :)
A friend from Taiwan once said "If you have a blanket, you have a shop." In some ways I wish it was the same way here in Canada. In many respects we are overregulated. That said, I wouldn't want to eat a meal cooked from gutter oil.
In all seriousness, I have citizenship in CAN and the US. You seem to do alright. I've never tried to open a business, but some of my relatives own businesses. They mostly complain about taxes, and not regulations.
Generally I make it for 2-3 people. The following is for one cup.
Ingredients:
1 cup Whole Milk
2-3 Cardamom Seeds
1 Cinnamon (Add a small bark, nail length)
Raw sugar
Breakfast Black Tea (Preferably loose)
Suggested Brands:
Mumtaz Tea (Loose Black Tea) - Available at Amazon
1. Crush cardamom seeds and cinnamon, preferably with coffee/spice grinder, do not use the powder form, lightly break apart the seeds and bark, a few taps should suffice.
2. Place 1 cup of whole milk and spices into a small pot, simmer milk.
3. Add 1 tablespoon of tea. Note that this measurement may be different depending on brand. If you added too much, you can balance it out by adding more milk.
4. Add raw sugar, start with single teaspoon, add more as necessary
5. Simmer for 10-15 minutes, milk will slow turn khaki, once you start seeing microbubbles, tea is almost ready.
6. Use a tea strainer or sieve
Minor note: Many South Asians will add a thin slice of ginger while the milk is simmering. Traditionally served with rusk.
I'd say black pepper is essential - it gives a little bite at the back of the mouth that complements the ginger (also essential! :) ) perfectly. You only want two or three peppercorns though. Star anise is a great occasional addition, but I wouldn't want it every time.
Wholeheartedly agree. Black pepper is a seemingly strange, but necessary addition. It fills a small gap in the flavor profile between the tea and the spices. My preferred ingredients are cardamom, cinnamon, black peppercorns, cloves, and a very small amount of nutmeg. I like to add 1 part honey for every 2 parts sugar.
It's tough to get the perfect ingredient ratio without making large batches or using a scale.
Whole milk (or cream) is important for the fat content.
In general my chai does not come out as dark as the chai I had in the Pune region, but does have a remarkably similar taste. As I understand it they sometimes make the base the day before. The color difference could be because of my preparation haste, shorter brew time, different ingredients, or adding too much milk/cream.
The chai in India also has a different mouthfeel. I'm not sure if it's loose spices in the brew or if they add something but it feels almost like pulverized rice in the tea.
I personally am fond of the 'Wagh Bakri' brand of masala chai. I'll add candied ginger after milk and the microwave because I'm lazy and don't want to oversugar it.
These instructions seemed a little strange to me, until I later read the article and found out why.
> tea using a technique that is unique to the state of Tamil Nadu — frothy milk is pulled with sugar and then combined with black tea that has been brewed separately.
I'm used to this one, and I thought it was the only way until today.
I like to add a couple strands of saffron towards the end of brewing time, also I use half whole milk half water and brew the tea in bags in the milk water mix.
The chai wallahs exist in Pakistan as well and I can relate to many experiences shared in the article. The chai wallah next to our university was a frequent hangout spot.
Yes, as an Indian living in the US chai is one of the things I miss dearly. Also the chai latte etc. one gets at Starbucks & co are a misnomer, they are no where same as Chai.
So as a someone who's only experienced chai in North American Indian restaurants or with my best friend's family (who immigrated from Punjab), I'd love to hear what makes the real thing unique and different!
Is it richer? Sweeter? Less sweet? More bitter? More spiced?
I have no doubt this is a tough question to answer... my understanding is every wallah may have their own masala and so forth.
>I'd love to hear what makes the real thing unique and different!
There is no one unique kind of chai. (Lots of things are less standardized in Indian than, say, some Western countries, like in Europe and the US - though I know there are a lot of variations there too).
A few common ways of making chai that I have seen and had and done myself:
- boil equal amounts of water and milk together, so about 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 cup water per person
- some people add the tea leaves [1] (around 1 teaspoon per person, and in English style, one "for the pot" :) before boiling the milk-water mixture, others add it at the end, after the liquid comes to a boil. Depending on strength of tea wanted, people either take it off the gas immediately, and maybe let it steep for a while, to get a bit stronger, or let it boil or simmer for a bit.
[1] Dust tea is sometimes used instead of leaf tea, but I don't prefer that, though it is cheaper - it tends to make the tea too strong. Can't control the strength as easily, IMO.
Spices (like many others have said in this thread), like pre-made chai masala (not so good an option), or individual fresh spices (common ones are cloves, cardamom and cinnamon, ginger too) can be added while the liquid is heating. The ginger is crushed on a flat stone or using a mortar and pestle to bring out its flavor and juice, before adding it, otherwise it doesn't work.
- Black tea is always used for chai, not green tea.
- Indians mostly (as far as I have seen) drink tea only with milk (made the way I said above, or some variant), not black tea (made with water only), i.e. not the way many Americans drink black coffee.
- Strain using a strainer into cups, add sugar (or add it during the boiling, or no sugar if you wish), and drink it hot. Tall tales while sipping, are optional but allowed.
I've never been to Nepal, but my guess is that there could be both similar and and different ways (from the Indian ways) of making tea, in Nepal. Similar, because India and Nepal have some common cultural background in some areas, and different, maybe because Nepal is near Tibet. E.g. had been reading about those areas recently, and had read that Tibetans make tea with (yak?) butter and salt. Think I read that some Nepalese make it that way too. And I actually tried having tea with (regular cow) butter and salt once, it was not bad :)
they did originally use yak butter, and still do, but increasingly do use butter made from cow milk, since it is more available now. Maybe you saw a case of that.
Update: Just searched again and found a few more interesting links. Also, they (Tibetans) pour the butter tea into their tsampa, also a staple food among them:
Boil black tea in water, add some milk and boil some more. Almost always has sugar. Rarely any flavors such as lemon or orange (yikes - totally contra)! Of course you can add spices such as cardamom, fennel seeds, ginger, cloves, mint, tulsi - but you will try these variations at home - they do not do starbucks like pick and choose when you are drinking tea outside with chai wallahs - they will have their own picks or use a pre-mixes masala.
The chai in Starbucks and its friends is a concoction of spices, very little tea leaves and it is all in steamed milk? Quite a bit of difference between boiled water tea and steamed milk (which is also quite richer).
Loose black tea, cardamom (I don't crush them), Cinammon (bark preferred), and clove. Mix 1:1 water and milk (2% or whole) or just go with less water if you like that. Medium heat so it doesn't burn The problem with stores is that they aren't fresh ingredients and there's too much sweetener and other garbage. I find powdered Cardamom and real green cardamom pods to be completely different tastes.
It would be different from place to place. In Bangalore you get a milky thick tea while in my coastal town its more watery liquid. Not a liker of masala tea, don't think its too common down south.
It is worth mentioning that coffee is much more popular than tea in Bangalore (and other cities of southern Karnataka) in most middle class joints. However on the streets, tea still rules. Probably because cheaply made tea is more palatable than cheaply made coffee.
No, you can get tea flavored with spices (added while making the tea, not during production of the tea leaf), in the south too. Ginger and cardamom are more common though, IME. See my other reply.
What lovely pictures, such a colorful and unique country.
In Kolkata the Chai often comes in little clay plots almost like mini flower pots called 'bhar.' They are meant to be disposable. And I saw many people break them on the ground when they were finished with their tea.
Here's a nice short read about the tradition if anyone is curious:
It's not only in West Bengal. Tea was still sold in kulhars (kulhads) in North India (from say Madhya Pradesh and up north) some years ago when I used to travel more in trains - this was decades after Independence in 1947. Apart from the disposable factor, I guess another reason may be that the clay pot keeps the tea warm for longer - and it can get pretty chilly in North India in winter, though not quite comparable to more northern countries. It even gets quite chilly in say Maharashtra (south of Madhya Pradesh), more in the interior areas away from the coast, in winter.
Nice article, but they're missing one (the most?) quintessential Indian chai experience: the chai wallahs on the trains. Waking up to the chant of "Chai, chai, chai garam" (Tea, tea, hot tea) and having a clay cup of sweet, hot, milky tea on board is about as Indian as it gets.
The first time I heard the term chai wallah was in Slum Dog Millionaire — the game show host used it (somewhat disparagingly) to refer to Dev Patel's character.
Another interesting take on tea (in India) is the rather strong tea you (used to) get at Irani restaurants in India. They boiled it for a long time, is why it was strong. There is a community of Iranians (not Parsis) who had come to India several (maybe a hundred or more) years ago, and settled here. Some of them started a typical (for them) kind of restaurant(s) - with bent rosewood chairs, marble-topped tables, mirrors on the walls, etc. There are (mostly were, now, sadly) a sort of institution in India. College kids, working people - both blue- and white-collar, oldsters meeting to chat and gossip, all kinds used to hang out at those places, have the famous / standard items (apart from their unique take on tea) like bun + butter / brun + maska, omelettes, samosas, khari (a dry baked wafer), etc. The younger generation of them unfortunately didn't want to continue the businesses, plus the restaurants were often situated in central areas in Indian cities, so had high real estate value, so many of them have been closed and the spaces sold to Barista, Pizza Hut and the like. A loss ...
Used to hang out regularly at such places in school and college days.
They were very correct in their dealings, and wouldn't tolerate any crap from anyone - customer, supplier, etc. - would bawl them out immediately (including with curses sometimes), which was part of the charm of going to such places.
Ha ha, interesting thread, will check out the article too.
Coincidentally, I was just reading about Masala Chai, recently, got reminiscent, and and that prompted me to start making and drinking it again, after being a coffee and herbal tea guy for a long time :)
Incidentally, US guys (some of you anyway), it's not called "chai tea", just "chai". Both words mean the same (in Hindi and English respectively), so "chai tea" is redundant. Had heard some American colleagues using the former term in a company I worked at earlier.
2) is not a valid concern. Unless you are planning to melt the cookware down, trepan yourself and inject the melted aluminum into your brain, you should be fine:
Fun fact: Current Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (who incidentally meets President Trump for the first time this week) was a "chai wallah" in his younger days at some train station.
The term "chai wallah" was used as a jibe against Modi by senior Congress politician Mani Shankar Iyer but the people of India chose the chai wallah instead of the "crowned prince" of the Nehru-Gandhi family with a thumping majority.
Despite being a democracy India has been ruled by the Nehru-Gandhi family (via the Congress Party proxy) for more than 60 years since its independence in 1947.
The activist who asked about tea selling asked a fake question.
The activist does it all the time.
Also, Modi never claimed he was registered to sell tea.
Had the Congress government been so proactive in 55 years by mandating registration of tea sellers, India would be much safer, more cleaner, and less corrupt.
Fun fact : That activist is from Congress party.
Another fun fact : Such activists do not disclose the exact wordings of the RTI query, they intentionally post ambiguous queries and use the reply to create sensational headline.
I can challenge any of the Modi haters to share their exact RTI queries before they make sensational headline
> Had the Congress government been so proactive in 55 years by mandating registration of tea sellers, India would be much safer, more cleaner, and less corrupt.
The Congress is incompetent, no doubt. But does that absolve Modi of tax-evasion now?
> Fun fact : That activist is from Congress party.
Sure. What difference does that make to the outcome of the RTI request?
> Another fun fact : Such activists do not disclose the exact wordings of the RTI query, they intentionally post ambiguous queries and use the reply to create sensational headline. I can challenge any of the Modi haters to share their exact RTI queries before they make sensational headline.
The article says "A Congress supporter and social activist Tehseen Poonawalla, had sought information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act from the railway board about whether there was any record, registration number or official pass issued to Modi allowing or entitling him to sell tea on trains and at stations." I don't really see how the wording here could be ambiguous, but I'd be happy to read an explanation.
I know there are plenty of political shills on online forums, but I think it's our collective responsibility to hold political leaders to high standards of virtue, like truth, something Narendra Modi has been fairly inconsistent with.
I was taking a $10 equivalent taxi ride late at night the other day, the driver opened his window at a traffic light and bought some fragrant flowers from a woman selling them in the median at the equivalent of $2. I asked why he would buy those flowers, he said essentially, "I made some money, she needs to make her money and I get a fresh car in return".
There are poor people for sure, but you will not see too many outright begging --they still offer the dignity of exchange of money for something tangible --even if it's tea-eggs on the corner (or in Mexico people peddling junkfood at major bus stops). We seem to have lost some of that dignity, I think. The only think that comes close are the people who try to push you to buy some panhandler advocacy newsletter --I have not seen them in years and that pub was utterly useless.