Chai
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Chai (Hindi: चाय [cay]) or Masala Chai is a term for spiced tea from India. Chai (pronounced //} is actually a generic word for tea in many South Asian countries, and also in Swahili, an Eastern African language, where it was brought by Indian merchants. The Chinese character for tea, 茶, is pronounced in Mandarin Chinese as "chá", and is the source of words for tea in many Eastern languages, hence "chai" in Central, South, and Southwest Asian languages as well as in Eastern and Central Europe and North and East Africa. In the United States, many people refer to Indian tea as Chai tea, a redundancy (since chai means tea) resulting from the fact that the two words originally derive from two different spoken forms of Chinese. In India, prepared tea is sold in many varieties, the most famous being "masala chai" (मसाला चाय [masālā cay]), masala being the Hindi word for spice, and the spice mixture is sold as "chai masala."
Chai is widely popular in India, even more popular than coffee is in the United States, and is also a relatively popular beverage in coffeehouses in other countries.
There is no fixed recipe or preparation method for masala chai and many families in India have their own special versions of the tea. Due to the huge range of possible variations, chai can be considered a class of tea rather than a specific kind. But all chai has four basic components:
- Tea: The base tea is usually a strong black tea, so that the various spices and sweeteners do not overpower it. However, a wide variety of teas can be and are used to make chai.
- Sweetener: Plain white sugar is sufficient, though unprocessed sugar, molasses, honey, and other sweeteners can be used for various flavors.
- Milk or other such creamers.
- Spices: cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, peppercorn, and cloves are some of the most common elements, though chai masala can be made with such varied ingredients as nutmeg, chocolate or licorice.
Chai can be prepared in many ways, but a typical sequence might include boiling the chai masala spice mixture with the sweetener, adding tea and milk and bringing back to a boil, and then allowing the tea mixture to steep for several minutes. See the external links for many example chai recipes.
See also
- Wikibooks:Cookbook:Masala Chai - Masala Chai cookbook
External links
- What is chai? (http://www.odie.org/chai/whatisit.html) -- a brief introduction to chai on Chai! The Enthusiast's Online Chai Resource.
- Masala chai (http://www.culinaryteas.com/Masala_Chai.html) -- a detailed article about chai on Culinary Teas.
- Silk: History of chai (http://www.silkissoy.com/index.php?id=91) -- information about chai from Silk, makers of soy chai.de:Chai