Trading Masala Chai for Good Convo

ready for virtual chai

I’ve been hosting chai sessions at our home in Brooklyn, where invite someone over to talk cultures, holiday traditions, bi-/multi-/inter-X life, identity…. over a big pot of masala chai.  Sometimes the chai is accompanied by cookies or upma or pulau w/ a fried egg if we’re lucky… but the staple is the chai.  Now that I’m having more of these convos via video chat with friends around the world, I decided to start packaging up the dry portion of my chai recipe into pot-ready portions.

Are you next?  Hit me up via this google form (or contact page), and I’ll send you some ready-made masala chai in exchange for good convo.

In the meantime, here’s the recipe for when it reaches you via mail.

Miss Meghna’s Masala Chai

Makes 3 good-sized cups of chai.

  • My ready-made masala chai packet (tea, sugar, ground cardamom, fennel seeds)
  • 3 cups water
  • 1.5-2 tbsp size piece of fresh ginger, sliced thin right off the cleaned root, skin and all
  • 2 cups of organic 1 or 2% milk (I’m particular about the Organic here because I find it thicker than “regular,” without being whole milk. That said, I’d use whole milk in a pinch, possibly watered down a bit.)
  1. In a medium-sized pot*, pour in the contents of the ready-made masala tea, add the water, and turn the heat to medium. cut thin slices of ginger off the root, directly into the pan.
  2. Stir occasionally until it comes to a boil. Reduce the heat and let it simmer for a couple minutes.
  3. Pour in milk and let it slowly heat, but don’t let it boil. At this point, I prefer to let it sit for a bit to continue to steep, or maybe have just a teensy bit if I really can’t wait.
  4. Strain into a mug and enjoy!!!

Chaiwalla bonus points: to cool it off and make it a bit frothy, you can “pull” it by pouring it back and forth between two mugs.

 * This pot (Note: I have the 1.5L size but I don’t see that anymore.  That said, I’ll trade you my old 1.5L for the 3L! :-)) and strainer make chai-making life so much easier that I bought a second set for my parents’ house.   You won’t regret it!