What is Chai Tea?

What is Chai tea? According to Hindu tradition, the Chai tea (Masala Chai) has its origins in emerging kingdoms of South Asia, what we know today as India, about 9000 years ago, when a king purifying created this drink as a remedy in traditional Ayurvedic medicine.

The history

Initially, the Masala Chai was just a mixture prepared with many spices known as "hot", among which are cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, black pepper, star anise and ginger infusion It is traditionally sweetened with brown cane sugar called jaggery. In certain areas, such as western India, is not used anise and pepper, the drink preparation itself are made from almonds, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and saffron.

Originally this drink not included tea leaves, so it did not contain caffeine and served hot or cold as a remedy for minor ailments. The inclusion of black tea leaves Masala Chai occurred around 1830, with the beginning of the struggle against British Chinese monopoly on tea, action originated from a calculation made on the high consumption of tea Britain, which proved to be of a pound per person annually. With the start of the British plantations in Assam, India, around 1935, they decided to include black tea in the mix as part of their usual, this generated almost exclusively for export product, as for native was expensive and difficult to consume.

According to huffingtonpost. In 1870, around nineteenth percent of total tea consumed in Great Britain are came from China, but into the 1900s this percentage had fallen to 10 percent, the difference in numbers was in large part by the new tea plantations, grown 50 percent in India and 33 percent in Ceylon.

In the early twentieth century, an aggressive campaign of the Tea Association of India (British owned) encouraged the local textile industry, mining and mostly to provide their workers rest periods that would include a black tea. This was served in true English style, with cold milk and sugar to taste, since initially the Association rejected the style of wallahs Chai, who made her drink with a higher proportion of milk and sugar, as this reduced consumption per capita tea leaves, and therefore purchase.

This ended in the 60's, when the CTC System (crush, tear, curl), a mechanized system for the production of tea which lowered costs, was introduced making the use of black tea in the Masala Chai and Hindus became popular appreciate the combination abiding sweetness, giving milk body and accentuates the flavor of the spice mixture, which eventually consummate not only as a popular drink in the British dominions but beyond its borders.

Nowadays, the Chai tea is the traditional drink of India and an important part of their daily diet; they serve as entertainment for the guests as their snack and 4 in the afternoon, accompanied by salty snacks like samosas, pakoras, farsan (Gujarati snacks). It is estimated that in some regions the inhabitants take 4 cups of Masala Chai during the day.

Today we find two variations, one with green tea, which comes from Kashmir and the second, which is a version with more westernized - South African rooibos (red tea), which makes this drink without caffeine.

What is in Chai tea and its benefit? 

Originally the properties of Masala Chai are:

Black tea

It helps prevent heart attacks, good for blood circulation and contains a high level of antioxidants.

Cardamom

It has many digestive properties and acts as a mouth freshener. It is diuretic, anti-gas and anti-nausea. When taken on a "Malasa Chai", cardamom mucous inhibits properties of milk.

Clove

Clove is great for chills, lethargy, depression and obesity. It contains properties that help digestion and neuromuscular disorders.

Ginger

Ginger is known as herb that can help us to deal migraines. It contains digestive toxins that help victims of rheumatism or rheumatoid arthritis. It is also used as an aid for colic, flu and laryngitis.

There is no single recipe, this can vary by family or region, but the easiest to prepare a Masala Chai (500 ml) boiling method is a quarter of milk with 3/4 parts water, 2 tablespoons of black tea 1 teaspoon ginger, 1 cinnamon stick, 4 cardamom seeds and 3 cloves. It is recommended not boil a long time because it generates a bitter taste. At the end we sweeten it with honey or brown sugar and ready to enjoy the traditional Indian drink.

Chai tea is an unexpected blow to our taste buds, takes us from the mild to strong, from calm to fierce. With all its features and qualities it becomes a delightful and soothing drink that you can make, and enjoy at home or at tea shop as Chai latte.