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In our fast-paced world of modernity, convenience and on-the-go everything, one staple that continues to fuel India is the humble masala chai, which has been around for decades.
In fact, the origins of this delicious beverage start centuries ago when traditional Ayurvedic practitioners ground up powerful and aromatic Indian spices and boiled them in a concoction of water and milk to help everything from indigestion to improving the body’s immunity.
While it is widely known that the British introduced tea to India by setting up tea plantations in the 1800’s, the addition of freshly ground spices to this beverage has made this beverage intrinsically Indian and forever changed tea to chai in the country.
As tea became widely available to Indians for the first time in the late 1950’s, it became fashionable to add milk to tea. It also co-incided with the “white revolution” in India and milk production boomed. A concerted promotion effort by the Tea Board as well as the Indian Government to popularize “paisa chai” – a small packet of tea for one paise – resulted in masses taking up this drink as their way of choice to start the day. It was and still is an affordable and delicious start to the day for millions of Indians and a way to get energy into the system and deal with the frenzy of life in modern India.
So how is the perfect cup of “masala chai” made?
This is a contentious topic, and everyone has their patented “masala” mix that they add to their freshly brewing chai. This mix generally consists of some combination of ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. In different regions, black pepper and lemongrass make their way into this mix to add a more popular local flavour to the brew.
While it would be sacrilegious for us to “teach” people the best way to make masala chai (we can hear Indian grandmas everywhere sharpening their chopping knives), we’ll give it a go with the below recipe for the best tasting “masala chai”. It took us months to perfect our “masala mix” and then blend it with high-quality, Assam CTC chai in the perfect ratio. It helps that we grow our own tea and spices and have decades of experience running the Jokai Tea Plantations in Assam, which were established in 1872 by the British. The outcome was the Fearless Bombay Masala Tea which is “powered with 6 natural spices” that you can see and a whole lot of oomph.
This Bombay Masala Chai is designed to transport you to the beautiful mornings or magical evenings spent in the “City That Never Sleeps” sipping on a robust, comforting beverage and dreaming about the endless possibilities that today’s Fearless India has to offer.
Ingredients (Makes 2 cups)
Recipe
