The Indian Masala Chai Tea is prepared with spices, milk and tea leaves.
I show you in my video how to make your own spiced milk tea with my real Indian chai recipe from scratch.
Also, you can choose to prepare your Indian tea with whole spices or with a spice blend.
What warms you up when cold winds and weather threaten your comfort? A good cup of hot tea.
In Europe, we love out black or green tea. In India, people enjoy tea and not just any tea, the Indian masala chai.
What is Masala Chai Tea?
Masala Chai is a spiced milk tea from India.
Masala means “a blend of spices” and chai means tea.
In the west, people tend to say Masala chai tea, which is actually wrong. It would mean that you simply repeat the word tea two times, Masala tea tea (which sounds totally ridiculous to an Indian).
But so that we understand each other better, I will continue to call it chai tea in this post.
Types of Indian Chai Tea
In India, you have mainly 3 types of Chais.
Chai – prepared with just black tea leaves, milk, water, sugar and sometimes one or two spices. Variations exist all over the country and even outside the Indian subcontinent. Indian migrants in Dubai, for example, have a chai variation made with cardamom called Karak tea.
Masala Chai – prepared with the same regular chai ingredients but a whole set of spices is added to infuse the chai with flavors. Many fold variations exist and all spiced Indian milk tea can be called authentic chai tea recipes (not set in stone and depends on region, status etc).
Black Tea – just black tea, water, and sugar. No milk is added here. If you want to order tea without milk in India, you order black tea or black chai or kali chai.
Of course, there are countless regional chai variations, the most well known are the pink Kashmiri chai and the Kerala chai.
Masala Chai Ingredients
A real Masala Chai is always prepared with whole spices because the flavors will be more intense.
However, I’m not narrow-minded. You can skip all the spices in the recipe below and switch them with my masala chai spice mix.
I don’t recommend you use masala chai tea bags, those tend to be tasteless.
My BASIC masala tea recipe includes whole spices:
- Milk
- Water
- Black Tea powder such as Assam tea or Darjeeling teas
- Cinnamon Stick
- Green Cardamom
- Cloves
- Star Anise
- Black Pepper
I skip the sugar (yep!), but in India, they add tons of sugar! How much you add is up to you. You can try adding brown sugar to your Indian tea recipe.
Masala Chai variations
You can also add the following spices to your masala chai to customize it to your liking.
ADVANCED Indian Masala Tea – add small quantities of one (or a combination) of these spices to the basic recipe:
- Fennel Seeds
- Pink Pepper
- White Pepper
- Dried or fresh Ginger
- Vanilla Paste
- Red Chili Pepper
- Turmeric
- Allspice berries
How to make masala chai?
For a homemade chai tea, you will need loose tea in leave form or granulated ground powder. Do not use tea bags!
Step 1 – Basically, the tea with the spices is brought to a boil with the spices.
Step 2 – The chai tea with milk is then left to infuse so that the flavors come to be!
Step 3 – The loose tea and chai tea spices are strained and discarded
Step 4 – Your Indian spiced tea, Masala Chai, is ready. Mix in sugar and serve a cup of chai tea hot.
More Milk Tea related reads!
Do you like milk teas? Check out my Chai Pumpkin Spice Tea or how about this low carb golden milk.
Ever been to a tea garden plantation? I visited Munnar in South India and had tea in the clouds!
Dear Reader, have you tried an advanced flavor variation of the basic chai recipe?
Please feel free to share your thoughts and ideas with us in the comment section further below!
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Indian Masala Chai Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup Water
- 3 cups Milk
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons Black Tea *see Notes
- 5 Green Cardamom
- 5 piece Cloves
- 1 Cinnamon stick
- 1 whole Star Anise
- pinch Black Pepper
- Sugar optional
Instructions
- Heat up a pot and pour in water and milk.
- Add the black tea and all the spices including green cardamom, cloves, cinnamon stick, star anise, and black pepper.
- Mix everything in and bring to a boil.
- Take from heat and allow the tea and spices to infuse into the India milk tea.
- Strain and discard the tea leave pieces and spices.
- Briefly, heat up again the tea and serve the masala chai hot in cups with sugar.
Notes
- Use loose black tea leaves, never tea bags! Loose black tea leaves or granules are more intense in flavor and higher in quality.
- You can skip all the whole spices in this recipe and switch them with my homemade chai spice blend.
- You can add sugar, you don’t have to.
Nutrition
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Can i use honey in masala tea instead of sugar???
Yes you can 🙂
Which particular teas and spices are less prone to mold growth & subsequent mycotoxin contamination? This is a major problem in the USA with lack of safe quality standards and as a result we have people severely ill and even disabled from food contamination. Making matters worse, processors & sellers are uneducated and unaware that these items need to be stored in cool temperatures with controls to keep the humidity low (less than 50%). Perhaps specific plants or processors can help Masala Chai lovers enjoy their tea without harming their health.
Any recommendations for a good milk alternative that won’t hinder the flavor too much?
I would use coconut milk or almond milk. However, I haven’t tried it yet. I’m not sure if oat milk is much of an option. You can try it out and see how it turns out Kathy.
Masala tea. Taste so good..
thanks for sharing Sadia
It’s finally getting a bit cooler here. This chai would be so nice for those cooler nights. It looks so good!
Your Chai looks beautiful and the post is brilliant. I am so glad that you explained the meaning of Chai and Masalas. So many people don’t understand it and use the word Chai incorrectly. Anyways, I agree with your spice discussion. My hubby and I also have some differences.
I LOVE this chai, thanks for Sharing!
omg, i love chai. and now i can make my own. it’s perfect for winter, and the smell of the spices are already enough to make you feel warm and cosy inside! this is my first time at your blog, and I’m really glad I dropped by and found the chai recipe (:
Hi Shuhan! I agree I love the aroma of chai its so very comforting. hope to see u soon on my blog, u r always welcome! =)
@Nami its realy tima that I moev from google before they try to close my blog again (freaks). I got many complaints from my readers saying they cant comment for some crazy reason.
Your comment was there yesterday Nami on top and now that u r saying it.. its for some reason gonne ( I dont delete comments!!)
sorry for the inconvinience nami and thank u soo much for taking the time and leaving your comments again.
my husband enjoys his chai with just cardamon and sugar too. he likes it more simple.
thanks and sorry again nami!
wish u a wonderful weekend!
Oh now I see my comment… okay my first comment didn't go through for some reason.
I wrote that I make chai every day twice, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. My neighbor Indian friend who became my very close mommy friend taught me how. It's almost same way as yours but she put sugar and cardamom together. It's so yummy and I got hooked on the first day I tried! Love your first picture!
Did you see my comment that I sent out? I don't see my post and I didn't see any message after I hit publish… if it's not there I'll write again later. 🙂
@Anita thank u dear! yeah there r a lots of ppl who cant live without their chai. XD kept already aside for u! 😉
@Rosa thank u =) I am glad I am not in the cold! O.O but that chai would defenetly warm u up.
@Joanne oh then I am glad to have taught u something new. 😉
@Jay @Aarthi thank u both! =)
@Purabi u r always welcome! ah the cups r actualy from our restaurant. hihi
@Karen that sounds great, u r always welcome to join!
@FrugalinWV thats great, glad u learned something new and maybe useful to u in the future. 😉
@IndieTea In goa they dont even add ginger in most of the restaurants and shaks. they add cardamon and cinammon only. I think too much ginger takes away some of the other spices properties while drinking the chai. as I mentioned above, everyone experiences spices differently. and this spice blend is suitable for everybody ( I made that sure!).
@Kiran I had heard somewhere in austria once that ladies from the fine houses would drink their hot coffee when the weather is hot because it would give them a soft lovely skin and the weather wouldnt be that hot anymore after drinking something hotter. the question is if it is true and if yes if one can apply that rule with chai too. have a nice weekend Kiran! =)
Just simply love masala chai — perfect any day, well, except during scorching hot summer 😀 Have a great weekend, sweetie….
Kiran @ KiranTarun.com
We usually do our masala chai with a LARGE dose of ginger, cardamom, clove, pinch of pepper…very comforting 🙂
I don't think I've ever had this type of tea, it looks like it would be great for the cold mornings we've had around here. As usual I love all your pictures 🙂
I love tea and would enjoy sharing a cup of your chai tea. It would be great fun sipping tea while we talk about our favorite recipes.
I want to join for a cup of masala chai. The very sight of the chai is so comforting! Loved the chai cup as well!
http://cosmopolitancurrymania.blogspot.com
They look yummy
Aarthi
http://www.yummytummyaarthi.com/
wow…super yummy chai..
excellent captures..love your presentation..;)
lovely recipe …very tempting..
Tasty Appetite
I love chai tea but I don't think I've ever had this particular spice blend. It sounds like something that would make my afternoon all the more delicious.
Mmmhhh, I'd love one of those now! It is sooooo cold outside.
A lovely collection of recipes!
Cheers,
Rosa
The chai is the best thing in the world, my hubby claims. I am not at tea drinker but I know for a fact that many people cannot start their day without their hot cup of chai. I love the write up about how different spices mean and taste different things to people.
Enjoy your chai and spare some of those yummy pakoras for me.