Green Cardamom Loses Its Point Within Weeks of Grinding
The compounds that make cardamom worth using are volatile, and pre-ground pods have already lost most of them.
Sunayana Bose
Contributing writer, Indian Chai Masala
Sunayana writes about regional chai and has ridden a lot of trains for research.
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6 articles
Fresh Ginger Will Curdle Your Milk If You Time It Wrong
Ginger carries a protein-cutting enzyme, and dropping it into hot milk is a reliable way to break a pan.
Cloves Are the Spice Most Likely to Ruin Your Masala
Eugenol is powerful enough to numb the tongue, and two cloves too many will silence everything else in the blend.
Almost Every Cinnamon Stick Sold as Cinnamon Is Cassia
The two barks sit side by side on a shelf, behave differently in a pan and are not interchangeable by weight.
Black Pepper Does Something in Chai That Ginger Cannot
Piperine bites at the back of the throat rather than the front of the tongue, and that changes how a cup ends.
Fennel Makes Chai Taste Sweeter Without Any Sugar Going In
Anethole registers as sweetness on the tongue while contributing nothing that a sugar-reduction plan would object to.