Irani Chai Keeps the Decoction and the Milk in Separate Pots
Hyderabad solved the speed problem by never mixing the two until the moment a glass is actually ordered.
Aditya Sane
Contributing writer, Indian Chai Masala
Aditya writes about blends and keeps a notebook of ratios that mostly worked.
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12 articles
Darjeeling Is Wasted in a Chai Pan and Assam Is Not
Two famous Indian teas, two completely different responses to being boiled with milk for four minutes.
Your Spice Grinder Is Probably Cooking the Spices While It Grinds Them
A blade grinder run for sixty seconds gets hot enough to drive off exactly the compounds you were trying to capture.
Tea Leaf Goes Stale From Air and Light, Not From Time on the Shelf
A sealed opaque tin in a cool cupboard will keep leaf good for a year; a clear jar by the window will not last a month.
Chai Boils Over Because of a Skin, Not Because of the Heat
Milk forms a protein film that traps steam underneath it, and understanding that gives you three separate ways to stop it.
Induction Changes How a Chai Pan Behaves, and Mostly for the Better
Heat that starts and stops within a second removes most of the timing problems that a gas flame creates.
Making One Cup of Chai Is Harder Than Making Three
Small volumes evaporate proportionally faster and lose heat quicker, which throws every ratio you were relying on.
Sri Lanka Grows Enormous Amounts of Tea and Drinks It Plain
A country synonymous with tea exports runs a domestic habit built on plain black tea, heavy sugar and a very different pot.
Where You Keep the Ground Masala Matters More Than How You Ground It
A carefully built blend can lose most of its character in six weeks sitting in the wrong jar in the wrong part of the kitchen.
Flame Size Does More for a Chai Pan Than Burner Power
A big burner running low is not the same as a small burner running high, and the difference shows up on the base of the pan.
Cleaning a Chai Pan Is About the Milk Film, Not the Colour
The invisible layer of cooked milk protein on the base is what makes the next pan catch faster than the last one did.
Making Chai in a Rented Room With One Ring and No Storage
Strip a chai kitchen down to what fits in a drawer and almost nothing essential is lost, provided you choose the right compromises.