At its most basic level, masala chai is made with strong black tea leaves, spices such as ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and black pepper, water, milk, and sugar. Within seconds of heating the pot, aromas fill the air that excite the senses even before the first sip.

Legend has it that the origins of masala chai date back thousands of years to when an ancient king in what is now India sought out a medicinal beverage. The drink he created did not include tea, but it was full of spices, rich in antioxidants meant to aid digestion, calm the nerves and enhance circulation.

The British developed a taste for Chinese tea from the 1650’s onwards, but by the 1820’s the Chinese began restricting trade with the East India Company because they knew that the trading company was trying to steal plants and tea knowledge from Chinese growers.

To boost the tea industry, the British government agreed to basically give away land to any Europeans or wealthy Indians who were willing to plant tea, and to build transportation and communication systems for the plantations. From 1860 to 1947 planters transported 3 million indentured laborers from other parts of India to work in a vast system known as the Coolie Trade of Assam. The local population labored in appalling conditions to produce the tea but never drank it themselves or reaped the financial rewards. 

The tea tasted terrible. The Brits lacked the workers, processing knowledge, and efficient systems of transport that made Chinese tea great. So the planters began to worry about low sales and started looking for new audiences for their product.

The Indian Tea Association, made up of British owners of most of the tea estate agency houses realized they could profit more if Indians drank tea too! So in 1901 the Association launched a 40-plus-year campaign to indoctrinate Indians into drinking tea. The Association pushed cheap tea to the masses, giving it away at public gatherings and brewing demonstrations, and setting up tea stalls everywhere: railway stations, post offices, religious festivals. By the end of the 20th century, Indians consumed more than 70 percent of the tea produced in India.

In railway stations, street vendors known as chai wallahs made and sold chai in clay pots, called Kullhars. They started adding masala to tea sometime between World War I and the 1930s. This innovation was likely inspired by those Ayurvedic and Muslim medicinal spice brews—and because the cheap tea tasted bitter and strong.  As the tea leaves were the most expensive ingredient in the beverage, vendors also often re-used left-over tea leaves. 

Masala chai became even more popular in India during the 1960s when a mechanized form of tea production made black tea affordable for the Indian masses. CTC (Crush, Tear, Curl) tea lacks the nuances that many crave in an unadorned cup of tea. It does, however, have a bold, tannic flavor that made it a tasty foil to masala chai’s sweet, creamy, and spicy notes. For this reason, CTC masala chai remains a staple in many parts of India where it is traditionally used to welcome guests into a home.

The brewed concoction uses different proportions of warming spices. Traditionally, masala chai uses a spice mixture with a base of ground ginger and green cardamom pods. To this base mixture, other spices are added like cinnamon, star anise, fennel seeds, peppercorn, nutmeg and cloves.  Cardamom plays a significant role in most masala chai recipes. Supplemented by other spices like cloves, ginger, or black pepper; the latter two added to induce heat to the flavor.  However, the compositions of spices vary from region to region. A popular time for chai is around 4 p.m. with an afternoon snack. This snack may include savory treats like samosas, pakoras, farsan, and nashta (savory breakfast foods that double as snack foods).

As the worldwide popularity of masala chai grew, so did the number of variations of it. For example:  Indian masala chai is usually sweetened with a form of local, unrefined palm sugar called jaggery. Elsewhere, it is sweetened with more widely available sweeteners, such as cane sugar and honey in the United States. 

In U.S., over the years, the name “masala chai” shifted to “chai” or even “chai tea.” This is a bit misleading, however. Since “masala chai” means “spiced tea”, “chai” simply means “tea”. Worse yet, “chai tea” would translate to “tea tea”.  Unfortunately, it is true most Americans only know chai that is widely available as a syrup concentrate or processed powdered mix —common in coffee house chains—and as a tea “blend” with dried spices, but it is rarely made from scratch.

At Chai House, we are on a mission to save U.S. consumers from the travesty that is the sugary, pre-packaged, mis-named “chai” products found in U.S. grocery stores and coffee shops with our authentic Signature Spice Blends, like Madison Masala #17™and Green Bay Golden Milk™.