From: waynelui@nttica.ntt.jp (Wayne Lui)
Newsgroups: rec.food.drink,soc.culture.indian,soc.culture.indian.telugu
Subject: SUMMARY: *** Chai anyone? *** (long)
Keywords: chai, tea, summary
Date: 29 Sep 92 01:31:17 GMT
Followup-To: rec.food.drink
Organization: NTT Opto-electronics Labs., Atsugi, Kanagawa Japan
Originator: waynelui@nttioe

Thanks to all who response to my request on chai recipes.  Below is 
a summary of what I've rec'd in the past 12 hours.  Arigatou!

                                         Wayne Lui
                                         waynelui@nttica.ntt.jp

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 My original post:

 For quite some time now, many of the more trendy cafes  in  Tokyo
 and  Osaka put "chai" -- the Indian milk tea -- as a regular item
 on their menu.  Some of them have quite an extensive menu, with a
 variety  of  chai and a number of different spices to be added to
 choose from.  So far, ginger chai remains to be my most favorite.

 Recently, I bought a box of chai tea leaves (originally from  Sri
 Lanka)  and  decided to try it out myself.  Since the instruction
 on the box is rather brief (it didn't tell me how and when to put
 the  spices  in,  for  example), wonder if some expert on the net
 could fill in the details.  Would most appreciate it.

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From: Michael Rettelbach <mlrettel@cip.informatik.uni-erlangen.de>
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 92 13:50:44 +0100

I joined some lessons in cooking indian food in germany. we produced
the chai in the following way:

bring water to boil. add tea leves (any low quality black tea as BOP)
and reduce heat (don't switch off). Add the spices: some cloves,
cardamon (sqeeze the whole nut a little before adding), cinnamon (stick, 
not necessary). cook slowly for one or two minutes. add some milk (not too
much, about 100ml/1l tea) and cook a little more. Then pass all through
a sieve. Sugar on your own taste.

I didn't see any chai with ginger yet, but i think you can also add
stripes of ginger with the spices. I sometimes add some peppercorns,
too. You can add the spices (not the tea leaves) to the cold water,
too.

In India on the streets chai is normally produced in another way:
They have a hot mixture of milk water and sugar (seldom some spices).
This liquid is pured into a glass with a tea-bag. But this is no good
taste.

In Germany you can buy a mixture of spices called Yogi Tea. It tastes
similar to the indian chai, but is not that good, I think. An other
disadvantage of that mixture is, that you have to cook it for at least
half an hour.

Michael

-------------------------------------------------------
 Michael Rettelbach,  Universitaet Erlangen-Nuernberg,
 Informatik VII, Martensstr. 3, 8520 Erlangen, Germany
 email:      mlrettel@immd7.informatik.uni-erlangen.de
 Phone: +49 9131 / 85 7009       Fax: +49 9131 / 39388
-------------------------------------------------------

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From: Krishnan Seetharaman <kseethar@cs.ulowell.edu>
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 10:14:18 -0400

Ha, my favourite drink, and topic! How to make the perfect chai and
then sip (note sip, not drink!) it in peace.

The Perfect Chai:

- For each cup, of chai u need about 4/5 th cup of water, u are going to
  lose some water in evaporation etc.. and u are going to add milk for the
  rest. This measure can be changed to suit your proportion of tea+milk.

- Boil the water and then pour it into the tea pot. Now ad the tea leaves,
  I use about 1 teaspoon/cup.

- Now close the pot, and if u want to preserve the heat, close it with
  a sort of insulating cap u get for the pot.

- Now heat some milk separately.

- The cups can be pre-heated by rinsing with hot water.

- After the tea has brewed for 7-10 minutes, pour the tea into the cups
  thro a strainer, add milk + sugar.

- Enjoy.

Modified Chai (doesnt need pot etcc..)

- Boil the water in a regular vessel

- Turn off the gas, add chai and close the vessel with a plate so that
  the steam stays in

- Other steps are same

Ginger+Ilaichi chai :

- Cut some pieces of ginger, crush them with a spoon. Add it to the water
  when u boil it. U can also add Ilaichi (cardammon ) to add flavor.

U can try various types of tea. The best is got by mixing the so called
dust tea and leaf tea. Dust adds strength, while leaf gives a distinctive
flavor to it. Try Darjeeling tea, its great.

And remember tea should never be boiled, it should be brewed.

Good Luck

Enjoy and let me know how it turns out ..

Regards
-ks 

-- 
Krishnan Seetharaman	
E-mail     : kseethar@cs.ulowell.edu		       Phone : 508-934-3628
Snail-mail : Department of Computer Science, UMass/Lowell, Lowell, MA 01854.
"I used to think I was indecisive, but now I'm not so sure"

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From: "Shyamala Parameswaran  " <U11983@UICVM.BITNET>
Date: 28 September 1992 12:31:21 CDT

I put a mug/cup of water to boil. Add a 3/4 inch piece og ginger,
crushed with a mallet to it and let the water boil a couple of
minutes (to get the ginger essence in), then pour over tea-leaves
(amt. depends on what tea leaves are used - I use Darjeeling and
throw in one and a half heaped tspns) and let steep two mins. or
until leaves are settled at the bottom of the pot. Pour into mug
add milk, sugar and enjoy!

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From: yogen@picasso.ocis.temple.edu (Yogendra Sanghani)
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 92 15:58:33 EDT

Hi 'Chai' fan.  I happen to be a fan of 'massala chai' (Spiced tea)
myself.  You always put spices in first and let it boil. (Well, it
depends on what kind of spices you are using, for example it will not
work if your are using a fresh ginger, in which case you first have to
mince ginger, but it'll work in general.)  Also, almost all tea
manufacturers recommend adding tea leaves after the water is boiled, if
you like strong tea add tea leaves while the water is being boiled and
let the leaves boil, then add the milk let it boil and then filter out
tea leaves.   Hope you have a great tea.
--

Yogendra Sanghani
1300 Cecil B. Moore Av. #127
Philadelphia PA 19122
(215) 787-3542

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From: mahesh@bigbro.ColumbiaSC.NCR.COM
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 92 17:11 EDT

There are 2 methods you could make tea the Indian way.

1) Boil water - nothing is added till the water is boiling. Stop the
heat source. Add tea leaves and spices (I will give you a list of spices
at the end). The tea and spices are usually added to the boiling water
in a Bone China tea decanter. The decanter is then covered with a "tea cozy"
for around 3-5 minutes (to allow the tea to brew).
Filter into tea cups, add milk and sweetner to taste. 
This is considered the sophesticated method and is used for the more exotic
tea leaves. Usually not many spices are added in this type of preparation.
By exotic I would say - Darjeeling varieties.

2) Boil a mixture of water, milk (as much as needed for the entire serving).
This mixture is then brought to a boil. Once that happens, add the tea leaves
and spices and continue to heat - please note that this is the important
difference in the two methods - the "hotch potch" is boiled for about 5 minutes
and you would have to keep stirring the mixture (other wise it would boil over)
Strain the tea directly into tea cups. This method is used for the not so
exotic variety of tea leaves - Basically, you depend on the spices to give you
the flavor. 

Spices
------

There are a lot of varieties which are used.
Combinations are made usually depending on the taste the individual likes.

Ginger (as you had mentioned)
Cardamom
Cloves
Whole white pepper (this might not be available freely - check Asian-Indian
grocery stores)

I can give you certain other names - but I know only the Indian names. Dont
know the English equivalent. If you are interested you could email me for an
extended list. Most of these would be available at Indian (Asian Indian) stores
I am not giving the list right now - by the time you get back to me I'll try
and find the English name equivalents.

All these are part of mix-n-match variety. All of them need to be ground before
added to the tea preparation. A coarse grind should be enough. You need not add
all, then again you could - depends whether you like what you get as end product
Trial would help you out.

My favorite though is a mixture of giner and Cardamom added to tea.

For this I add about piece of ginger (size of a grape) cut in small pieces
and 2-3 pods of Cardomom (grind it coarsely - or just powder it with something
heavy). This is added for a 2 cup serving.

Enjoy yourself

mahesh
mahesh@bigbro.ColumbiaSC.NCR.COM

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From: PSEKHER@uoft02.utoledo.edu
Date: 28 Sep 1992 18:14:27 -0400 (EDT)

Boil the water and then put the chai leaves keep the boiling
water covered for about 5 minutes. Boil the milk seperate and
mix them in 1: 2 ratio.

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Newsgroups: rec.food.drink