"Chai"( Hindi) or "Cha" (Marathi and Mandarin) simply means TEA.
In India tea is preferred with milk. So Chai is a black or red tea with milk. Chai can be more elaborate and then is referred to differently, like Masala Chai (tea steeped with various spices which Americans commonly associate with "Chai tea"), or Adhrak Chai (Ginger Chai, the milk is steeped with ginger)
Growing up I was not a fan Chai in all its forms. A ritual in India of sorts is in the afternoon, you have Chai, and a snack. The Indian tea time if you will although South India substitutes filter coffee. A favorite thing to do is to dip Parle- G (a slight sweet biscuit/ American cookie) in chai. I ate the biscuit dipped in tea left the Chai.
Later in life I discovered I love plain tea. Black, and Green tea equals great. Much later I discovered I also adore Masala Chai, it takes plain Chai and makes it absolutely delightful.
Unfortunately, I still have not discovered the perfect Masala Chai Recipe. My parents are not big on Masala Chai so my normal solution of ask "Mom" with Indian food is sort of a fail. M and I, often experiment with Chai Recipes, we have had some good, some bad but nothing great.
So when we want good Masala Chai we go to Indian Restaurants. Our favorite for Chai here in Madison, WI is Dhaba! We also find most coffee shops' Chai to be not very good. Surprisingly Dunkin' Donuts has a Vanilla Chai, which is pretty decent. Its not really a true Masala Chai, but good in it's own way.
So a goal for this summer is to find my go to "masala chai" recipe.
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