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.
