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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7 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.