Masala Chai: The Story Behind Nepal and India's Everyday Tea

In Nepal you do not ask a guest whether they would like tea. You ask how they take it, or you just bring it. The word is chiya, the cup is small, and it shows up at the start of the day, at the end of a meal, and at every pause in between. Refusing the first cup is fine. Refusing the second is nearly impossible.

So it surprises people to learn that this habit, which feels as old as the mountains, is younger than the automobile.

A short, true history of chai

Tea grows wild in Assam, in northeast India, and local communities there drank it long before anyone thought of selling it. But across the rest of India, almost nobody drank tea until the twentieth century.

The British planted huge tea estates in India in the 1800s, mostly to ship the leaves home. For decades, Indians grew the tea and did not drink it. That changed when growers needed more customers. Through the early 1900s, and with real urgency in the 1930s when the Depression left estates with tea they could not sell abroad, the industry set out to teach India to drink tea. There were free samples, tea stalls at railway stations, and demonstrations of the proper English way to brew a mild cup with a splash of milk.

India took the tea and ignored the instructions.

A mild cup was not what anyone wanted. So people boiled the leaves hard, added far more milk and sugar than the British thought sensible, and reached for what was already in the kitchen: ginger, cardamom, sometimes clove, black pepper or cinnamon. Vendors found that a strong, granular style of black tea stood up to all that milk and spice better than delicate leaves did. The result was masala chai, which simply means spiced tea.

It was a small act of taking something handed to you and making it yours. Within a couple of generations it was the national drink.

What is in a proper cup

Every family has its own chai, and every family believes theirs is the correct one. The basics do not change much:

• Strong black tea. It has to stand up to milk.
• Milk. Simmered with the tea, not poured in afterward. This is the biggest difference from a Western cup.
• Fresh ginger. For warmth at the back of the throat.
• Green cardamom. For the smell that fills the room.
• Sugar. Chai is meant to be a little sweet. The sugar rounds off the tannin in the tea.

The tea is boiled with the spices, the milk goes in, and it is brought back up to a simmer until it turns the color of caramel. Then it is strained into the cup. A good chai is never watery and never rushed.

Our tea is made that way: hot milk tea brewed with ginger and cardamom.

Chiya in Nepal

Nepal grows its own tea in the eastern hills around Ilam, across the border from Darjeeling, and the country runs on it. On a trekking trail, a teahouse is not a cafe. It is where you sleep, eat and warm your hands around a metal cup. In the cities, the day does not start until the first chiya is poured, and the neighborhood tea shop is where news travels.

Nepali chiya is often a little simpler than Indian masala chai, with fewer spices and sometimes just ginger or cardamom, but the idea is the same. It is less a drink than a reason to sit down for five minutes.

What to have with it

Chai is at its best next to something to eat. A few pairings from our menu that we would stand behind:

• Samosa and tea. The classic. A crisp, hot samosa and a sweet, spiced tea is the afternoon snack of half a continent.
• Pakora and tea. Traditionally a rainy-day pair. It works just as well on a dry Texas afternoon.
• Gulab jamun and tea. Warm, syrupy and soft against something hot and spiced. Order this at the end of the meal.
• Tea on its own, after a big curry. A cup of ginger tea at the end of a heavy meal is an old habit across Nepal and India, and a good one.

If you want something cold instead, a mango lassi is the other great drink on the menu. Yogurt and mango, thick, sweet and cooling. It is the one to order alongside a spicy dish.

Frequently asked questions

Is "chai tea" the right name?

Chai is simply the Hindi word for tea, and chiya is the Nepali one, so "chai tea" means "tea tea." Everyone will know what you mean. Masala chai is the name for the spiced, milky version.

Does chai have caffeine?

Yes. It is made with black tea, so a cup has caffeine, usually less than a cup of coffee.

Is your tea like a coffee-shop chai latte?

It is the original that drink is based on. Ours is brewed from tea leaves, fresh ginger and cardamom, and it is less sweet and more spiced than most syrup-based lattes.

Is chai spicy?

Warm, not hot. The ginger gives a gentle heat, but there is no chili in it.

The next time you eat with us, stay for the tea. Come in or add one to your pickup order. Nobody here will hurry you out while there is still some in the cup.