Masala Chai

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 0.6 liters of water
• 0.6 litres of milk, 3.5%, homogenised or fresh milk
• 3 tsp, heaped tea, black, e.g. Darjeeling, strong and finely ground, fineness: Dust
• 3 cm ginger root
• 2 cardamom pods, green
• 0.2 tsp, leveled spice mix for tea, finely ground, (cardamom, ginger, nutmeg, pepper, clove(s))
• 4 tsp, heaped sugar

Instructions

Working time approx. 15 minutes; Total time approx. 15 minutes

traditional Indian spiced tea

After spending three weeks in Rajasthan (North India) and drinking Masala Chai at least once a day, I didn’t want to withhold the recipe from anyone. I think a billion Indians can’t be wrong about the taste. Heat water in a kettle. Open the cardamom pods and crush them in a mortar and pestle. Finely chop the ginger and crush it in a mortar and pestle. Place the hot water, tea spice, fine black tea, ginger, and freshly crushed cardamom in a large pot and bring to a boil over high heat for 3-4 minutes. Then add the milk and boil for another 5 minutes. To give the drink a spicy taste, plenty of oxygen needs to reach/into the tea. Therefore, it’s important to boil with plenty of heat and foam (hence the large pot). Finally, pour the tea between two pots in a thin, long stream, repeatedly, to create a nice spicy flavor. Then strain the tea through a finer kitchen sieve and add sugar to taste (very fine tea strainers will clog due to the milk and ginger fibers). The tea should be drunk very hot.