What belongs in masala chai?
A one-stop chai shop + ingredients to make your cup stand out.
Meet the chai scientist
The tea: Masala chai blends sold by Anjali’s Cup, $15 to $17.50.
I’m a big believer in leaving complex cooking tasks to the experts. That includes baking bread, making sausage, and blending the spices for my masala chai. Sure, I could gather a few green cardamoms, a stick of cinnamon, a couple cloves, a spoonful of black peppercorns, a petal of star anise, and coins of sliced ginger to my pot of tea on the stove. But I’d prefer to use a certified banger blend of spices made by someone who treats chai with the meticulous exactitude it deserves. Which brings us to Anjali Bhargava.
Anjali launched Anjali’s Cup in 2014 to bring a better chai to the masses: one that, in her view, acts as a medicinal brew informed by Ayurvedic principles. “As popular as masala chai has become,” she writes to me, “most of what is on the market ends up being a culturally appropriated sugary mess that functions as an alternative to a treat drink like cocoa, but doesn't actually function as a practical alternative to a daily coffee.” Her spices come from the good people at Burlap & Barrel, who have a knack for finding ingredients that taste fresher and more vibrant than anything on store shelves.
The company makes two superb varieties of chai masala—one ginger-forward, one dosed with turmeric and saffron—and a blend of turmeric and spices for homemade haldi doodh, or what the American market calls golden milk. To go along with these spices, Anjali carries an organic CTC Assam black tea that brews strong and malty. In New York, you can find chai made with her bottled concentrate at Joe Coffee and Cafe Grumpy locations. Paid subscribers can see another way I’ve put this concentrate to work down below.
The concentrate makes an excellent cup of chai with minimal sugar. The flavor is rich, deep, and surprisingly fresh for something that comes out of a bottle. But a home-boiled chai made with Anjali’s tea and spices carries a brighter and more intense aroma. I love the rootsy, medicinal qualities of the turmeric and saffron masala. The brew tastes opulent, yet like it’s doing my body some good.
To brew: I like my masala chai strong, milky, and unsweetened, so that’s how I make it. Combine 6 ounces of water and 6 ounces of whole milk in a tall saucepan with 2 to 3 teaspoons of Anjali’s CTC Assam and 1/2 teaspoon of chai masala. Bring the mix to a boil over medium-high heat, scraping the bottom of the pot with a spatula to keep the milk from sticking. Once it boils, let the mix bubble halfway up the pot, then quickly remove it from the heat until the foam subsides. Repeat this process for 2 to 4 additional boils until the brew has reached your desired color. Keep your eyes glued to the stove while you do so—the milk will boil over the instant you look away. Pour the chai through a strainer into your mug, gently pressing on the tea leaves with the back of a spoon to extract their full flavor. For a more majestic cup, strain your chai into a pitcher or some vessel, then decant from a height of 2 to 3 feet. This will aerate the frothy head and reward you with a milky chai mustache as you sip.
The multiplicity of masala chai
The masala chai that’s become popular in the United States draws heavily from the punchy, peppery cups often served in north Indian cities like Mumbai. But that’s only the tip of the chaiceberg. In South Asia, everyone and their grandmother makes their own kind of chai, and as drinkers, we owe it to ourselves to investigate that wider world of chai possibilities. The beauty of chai is its multiplicity: all the things it could be. So I’ve compiled a list of ingredients—some traditional, some not—that can make your chai taste a little more special and a lot more yours.
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