what is chai?

Answer 1

The word (chai) meaning this beverage of tea is an interchangeable word for it's manner of preparation involving milk & spices. This word began to be shared by Arabic, Hindi, Urdu/Persian, Chinese languages. Hence chai became the word for tea throughout the eastern world; near Eurasian, Orient, Arab & African countries.

Chai is now the universal word for "tea" in so many countries. Everyone who says chai doesn't like to hear chai be followed by the word "tea" since that would mean the same thing; & therefor be redundant (annoying).

Chai is an amber colored beverage that's the result of boiling loose leaf, strong black tea leaves (such as Ceylon or Assam or Darjeeling) in a pan of water; then adding more or less equal parts of sugar & milk & optionally spices to the pot.

This tea has a few variations on the black tea species used. Chai's most popularly recognized as a most frequent drink of China & India.

There's no fixed method to produce a Chai beverage; but everyone who does so generally uses three key ingredients:
A strong black tea, Usually cows whole milk, A large amount of white cane sugar; being the most popular sweetener whereas
some use honey. (Honey goes with the warmer spiced ingredients more-so.)

To make chai it is essential to follow the Indian custom that all the ingredients be brought to a boil together. Doing so gives chai a different taste & feel than would be obtained by just adding milk and spices to hot tea. (Milk can burn if the heat's too high).

Chai should prepared by hand stirring not blenders. One starts with a finest black tea as one can find. Preferably a high quality full-bodied broad-leaf be used; & Ceylon's the broad finest.
One uses equal parts water and milk.

Instructions for one pot of chai: (gives 2 servings):

1. Add 2 cups water to pan & bring to boil on medium heat.

* OPTIONAL STEP HERE: Insert a spice blend to produce a masala or similar: Bundle up the bits of spices of choice inside an unbleached muslin bag (This be named a "bouquet garni"; to which string be tied around to dip out easy after insertion).

2. Insert the "bouquet garni" & boil for 10 minutes (depending on how strong a spice flavor you want.)

3. Add 2 & a half teaspoons of tea leaves to pan. Steep the tea brew for 10 minutes.

4. Add 2 cups of whole milk. Bring the water to a VERY LOW boil & cook gently for 3 minutes. (milk may be allowed to produce a froth.)

5. Remove from heat; & strain the chai into a pot. Done, Enjoy

If you don't have whole milk, you can also use non-fat or low-fat milk, just add some cream to it, a few tablespoons.

Chai-wallahs in India pour the milky water rapidly back & forth between two pans to improve chai's texture.

other information:

One could simplify even more & use one instant bag (Darjeeling be more easy to find in North America) & to one cup electric stove top heated water leave bag in 10 minutes. Then add milk & sugar, ground spices to get attempt to get the mimic of chai taste.

"English Breakfast" may be substituted for broad-leaf Ceylon.

The practice of milk in tea with plenty of sugar & spice flavoring began in China; then India's Indians added even more spices. As India's practice grew popular chai took the world by storm. When the British went to India during Victorian age they fell in love with chai.

By saying "spiced milk tea" in Africa or "tea latte" in North America, you could say that & be brought same thing as chai./

The traditional drink of India is masala chai./ masala" is Hindi for "spice"/ with black tea many Chinese believe "the older the better"./

The phoneme "jia' from China later became 'cha' and 'chai' (Russia, India)./
The first use of the word Cha instead of 'tu' for tea was in Lu Yu's Cha Jing, The Classic of Tea of 760 AD.

Indian and Ceylon tea is usually named after the region of origin: Darjeeling, Assam, Ceylon.

Literally translated, "Garam Chai," means "Hot Tea."/ A "chai-ki-dukan" = a roadside tea stall in china.

Recipes for chai are like recipes for fried chicken so every region, family & "chai-ke-dukan" (tea house) thinks theirs be the best.

India is The world's largest producer of tea in general./Black tea is quite rare in Japan.

Answer 2

I would like to have a Chai with Milk. Ek Pyali Chai Malai Marke

Answer 3

chai in any indian home or at a tea stall or snack shop is simpily just ,tea.Recently on holiday in kenya i was surprised when the options stated both tea & chai,eager to try i then learnt that when chai was served it was with the usual chai masala added.Now commonly accepted,when you ask for chai you get tea with added tea spices.The taste & acceptance for this beverage seems to have spread to many countries.

Answer 4

"Chai" means "tea" in many languages. From India to Europe, which by itself is a phenomenon. In Egyptian Arabic is pronunciated as "shai", in Russian and other Slavic languages is "chai" too.

I cannot agree with the participants,who explain that "chai" is exactly the rich black tea, spiced with cardamon, ginger, etc. "Chai" is a general word for "tea" and of course, it could be herbal, black, green. From region to region people differ in the way they prepare the tea, hence they may add other spices..

Hope that helps!
Have a nice day!

Answer 5

the term "chai" simply means tea in India. "Masala Chai" means
tea with spices (usually cardammom, cloves, nutmeg, ginger...).
You can buy this in an Indian grocery store, along with Indian tea.

In India, tea is usually black leaf tea. They use tea leaves rather than tea bags with lots of milk & sugar. Best teas are Darjeeling & Assam.

In the US, chai refers to spicy black tea (masala chai in India).

Chai ice cream is very good!

Answer 6

Chai actually means tea in many languages.

Answer 7

Chai is the Chinese word for tea. It is pronounced the same in Russian. It's pronounced cha in Japanese. The word cha was brought to Britain by soldiers who'd served in the far east. So it's one of the few words that all three languages have borrowed from Chinese.

Answer 8

The word "chai" is the word for tea in South Asia. As a tea product, it is a black tea with spices such as cinnamon, ginger and cardamon.

Answer 9

Chai is spiced milk black tea.

Answer 10

Chai is spiced black tea, milk or cream is often added.