Information about Chai

For the Hebrew word and Jewish symbol, see Chai (symbol)

Chai (Arabic: شَاي, Hindi: चाय, Urdu/Persian: چاى, Russian: чай, Turkish: çay ^[1], ultimately from the Chinese word chá (茶) ^[2]) is the word for tea generally in Asia, North and East Africa and Eastern Europe. Cognates in other languages include the Bengali chā, the Marathi chahā and the Tamil thaeneer.

In a typical South Asian household, chai is prepared by boiling loose leaf tea in a pot with milk and water. Depending on personal preference, various spices and/or sweetner may also be added at this stage. What many English speakers tend to think of as chai is, therefore, more strictly known as masala chai, (Hindi (मसाला चाय [masālā chāy], "spiced tea"). Indian markets all over the world sell various brands of "chai masala," (Hindi चाय मसाला [masālā chāy], "tea spice" ), though many households blend their own.

In India, chai is more popular than coffee, and "chai wallahs," (or chaiwala) or street vendors, are a common sight in many Indian neighborhoods.

Preparation

There is no fixed recipe or preparation method for masala chai and many families have their own special versions of the tea. The key to making good tea is to leave the tea leaves (or tea dust) in the hot/boiling water long enough to get the flavor of the tea but not too long. Excessive exposure of tea to heat will release the bitter tannins in the tea leaves. Because of the huge range of possible variations, masala chai can be considered a class of tea rather than a specific kind. But all masala chai has the following four basic components:

• Tea: The base tea is usually a strong black tea, such as Assam, so that the various spices and sweeteners do not overpower it. CTC-grade teas are often used, as they infuse quickly and strongly. However, a wide variety of teas can be and are used to make chai. Most chai in India proper is brewed with strong black tea, but Kashmiri chai is brewed with gunpowder tea. Sometimes the drink is prepared with tisanes such as rooibos, and even with the South American beverage yerba mate, though these innovations are entirely Western.
• Sweetener: Plain white sugar is sufficient, though unprocessed sugar, molasses, honey, and other sweeteners can be used for various flavors. A surprisingly large quantity of sugar is required to bring out the flavor of the spices; one recipe uses three tablespoons of sugar in 3.5 cups of chai.
• Milk: or other such creamers. Usually, whole milk is used for its richness, but any milkfat concentration will do. Generally, masala chai usually is made by having 1/4 to 1/2 parts milk mixed with water and then heated close to or to boiling temperature. Using soy milk may affect its taste and is not recommended. Rice milk may be preferred (for taste) to soy milk when preparing chai for vegans or lactose intolerant people.

• Spices: Traditionally, Masala Chai is a bracing, strongly spiced beverage brewed with so-called "warm" spices. Most masala chai incorporates one or more of the following: cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, star anise, peppercorn, and cloves. Other possible ingredients include nutmeg, chocolate, cocoa, vanilla , licorice or saffron. Chai tea almost always has cardamom in it as it would be hard to classify a tea as being chai without it. For example, cinnamon (ex. cinnamon/apple tea), vanilla (ex. tea with vanilla extract or flavor), or star anise (ex. thai tea alone) would not make the tea a "chai tea" as a there has to make something specific to make a tea qualify as chai. If the tea doesn't have cardamom in it, then it would have to use common Indian spices for it to be classified as chai. For instance, ginger, black pepper, and especially cloves are used in Indian masala mixtures and cuisine. Having ginger or black pepper is considered important as it gives chai that slightly hot flavor. In India, for example, fresh ginger is usually used Chai recipe.

Chai can be prepared in many ways. The most common way is to boil water with the sugar and spices, add tea and milk/creamer and then proceed to simmer it for a few minutes. It is then strained and served.

The green tea-based Kashmiri version of chai is brewed with almonds, cinnamon, black pepper, cardamom, and sometimes saffron. Many Western commercial preparations such as Oregon Chai are strongly flavored with vanilla and honey, with other flavors far less dominant. This results in a far mellower, "cozier" beverage than most Indian masala chais, with a markedly different flavor. As vanilla/chocolate is generally not used in authentic chai, some brands such as tazo mix vanilla and anise for example with classic Indian spices to make chai Starbucks Chai.

Etymology

A common misconception is that the word "chai" shares a root with the word "China", as well as the Chinese word for tea, "cha". However, this is a mistake. The Chinese word for China is transliterated as "jonghua" (meaning "middle kingdom"). "Jonghua" does not share any roots with "cha". Accordingly, although there is a marked correlation between the words "cha" and "china", there is no relation between the two.

The original pronunciation "cha" in the Cantonese and Mandarin languages has no [j] ending. Therefore it is merely an adaptation of the Mandarin and Cantonese word "cha" in mainly Eurasian languages that do not usually tolerate a syllable that openly ends in "[a]". The different articulations of the word for tea into the two main groups: "teh-derived" (Min Chinese dialects) and "cha-derived" (Mandarin, Cantonese and other non-Min Chinese dialects) is an interesting one, as it reveals the particular Chinese local cultures where non-Chinese nations acquired their tea and "tea cultures". Not surprisingly, India and the Arab world most likely got their tea cultures from the Cantonese or the Southwestern Mandarin speakers, whereas the Russians got theirs from the northern Mandarin speakers. On the contrary, the Western Europeans who copied the Min articulation "teh" probably traded with the Hokkienese while in Southeast Asia. Quite recently, no more than 20 years ago, "chai" entered North American English with a particular meaning: Indian massala black tea. Of course this is not the case in other languages, where "chai" usually just means black tea. English is thus one of the few languages that allow for the dual articulations of "tea" into a "teh-derived" word and a "cha-derived" one, such as Moroccan colloquial Arabic: in the case of Moroccan Arabic, "ash-shay" means "generic, or black Middle Eastern tea" whereas "at-tay" means a specialty tea: Zhejiang or Fujian green tea with fresh mint leaves. The Moroccans are said to have acquired a unique penchant in the Arab world for East Chinese green tea after the ruler Mulay Hassan exchanged some European hostages captured by the Barbary Pirates for a whole ship of Chinese tea. They have thus acquired a word for this special tea different from the generic "ash-shay".

References

External links

• What is chai? — a brief introduction to chai on Chai! The Enthusiast's Online Chai Resource.
• - a recipe from WikiHow
• Health Benefits of Chai — The ingredients of chai and their claimed health benefits, Chai.com
• A timeline of Tea drinking in China and Japan
• Article about the increasing use of Chai in U.S. coffee houses etc.