Tea vs. Chai

[elion_84]

What's the difference btween Tea and Chai? Is Chai just a special preparation of tea?

I couldn't find a definitive answer. What makes it even more confusing for me is that in Russian, the word "chai" means tea.

[jgm]

I'm definitely not an expert, but all of the chai recipes I've seen, start with black tea and spices are added. Seems like I read an article a few years ago indicating that chai is somewhat individual, in that everybody makes it differently in India, where I believe it originated.

Can't back any of this up with references, sorry!

[phaelon56]

I can't speak to the circumstances in other markets but here in the US, black tea is typically a component of chai but not the only one. Most cafes offering chai prepare it by mixing a liquid chai mixture with equal parts steamed milk. The chai misture is also available in a powdered form.

Ingredients typically include vanilla, a sweetener such as honey and a variety of other spices or herbs. These will often vary from supplier to supplier as will the overall sweetness level. It can be consumed cold and soy milk is often used in place of cow's milk but a hot "chai latte" seems to be the most popular form for consumption.

When I first tried it years ago the taste was explained to me in advance as being aking to "liquid pumpkin pie". At the time that description seemed quite apt but the chai I've tried on occasion since then has been markedly sweeter with a somewhat different range of spices. I think I might actually enjoy it as a straight tea beverage without milk if the sweetness was brought down quite a few notches but the commercial preparations I've tried are just way too sweet for my taste.

[petite tête de chou]

Perhaps these threads will help? click

[Mirandar]

chai is definately spiced black tea with milk and sweetner of some sort. Its just another name for tea. thus it drives me nuts when people say "chai tea" because its totally redundant.

[Moopheus]

thus it drives me nuts when people say "chai tea" because its totally redundant.

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Which is another discussion in itself.

[Yajna Patni]

As far as I know, Chai comes from the chinese for tea which is Cha I think, and has been adapted by other countries as tea hs traveld. Chai is tea in India, reagardless of how it is prepared, I have a chaldean friend, and they call tea chai too, so basicly chai means tea. HOWEVER in the US it usualy means the tea is mixed with spices and pounds of sugar.

[andiesenji]

Technically, the stuff that is marketed in the US as "chai" would be called Masala Chai in India.

Masala is a combination of spices that are mixed with the tea, which is stewed in milk, not brewed in water then mixed with milk.

Madhur Jaffrey's recipe for massala chai is the one I have used for many, many years, long before one ever saw "chai" in a store.

There are several recipes for the beverage on

this page.

The top 40 Indian recipes accessed on RecipeZaar include, at #11, a recipe for masala chai.

Indian recipes at RecipeZar