The magical sip of a masala chai on cold December morning in a kullad. Using different spices and cut tea leaves is a story of romancing winter.
The masala chai is a spiced beverage brewed with different proportions of warming spices. The spice mixture can be ground ginger, green cardamom pods, cinnamon, star anise, fennelseeds, peppercorn, nutmeg, cloves, cardamom seeds, ginger root, honey, vanilla. Some people put anjeer (fig) and rose. It has great health benefits.

Traditionally, cardamom and ginger are the dominant notes, supplemented by other spices such as cloves, or black pepper; the latter two add a heat to the flavour and the utilization of cloves is more typical and popular throughout India.

 The Kashmiri kahwa is brewed with green tea instead of black tea and has a more subtle blend of flavourings: almonds, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, and sometimes saffron. In Bhopal, typically, a pinch of salt is added.

Other possible ingredients include nutmeg, mace, black cardamom, chilli, coriander, roseflavouring (where rose petals are boiled along with the loose-leaf tea), or liquorice root. A small amount of cumin is also preferred by some people. A less common addition to the spice is lemon grass.

A common Maharashtrian practice for preparation of one cup of chai is to first combine one half cup of water with one-half cup of milk in a pot over heat.The classic Ayurveda tea uses ginger, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon and star anise. 

The noon chai or sheer chai is also made from green tea leaves, milk, salt, and baking soda. Nuts are added for flavouring.

In parts of Nepal, near the border with Tibet, po cha replaces masala chai. Po cha uses yak butter with tea and water, to which salt, not sugar is added. It’s buttery, almost soupy to drink. Butter tea in Bhutan is suja, which translates as churned tea. Fermented yak butter is added to boiling water and tea. The flavoring of choice is salt, not sugar.
According to tea researcher Peter Lutgendorf tea drinking was “as Indian, and perhaps as old, as the Vedas,”. How are you enjoying your tea?

Nona Walia 
Journalist & Writer, Motivational Expert, Wellness Blogger
Former Senior Assistant Editor of Times of India
Author for Thrive Global