Masala chai
India's masala chai boils black tea, milk, sugar and spices together into one sweet, aromatic brew — a drink sold on every railway platform and street corner by chaiwallahs.
Masala chai is India's ubiquitous everyday tea: black tea leaves, milk, sugar and a blend of spices (cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, black pepper) all boiled together in one pot rather than steeped separately. Its modern mass form is surprisingly recent — tea only became a working-class drink in the early 20th century, when the Indian Tea Association promoted it at railway stations, factories and offices and encouraged vendors to serve it milky, sweet and spiced. From that push came the chaiwallah, the street tea-seller who ladles chai from a battered pot into small glasses or clay cups all day long. Chai is a punctuation mark in Indian life: the reason to pause, to talk business, to wait out a monsoon downpour, to welcome a guest. Regional cultures shaped it — Mumbai's 'cutting chai' is a strong half-glass for a quick lift; on the railways, tea poured into throwaway clay kulhads gives an earthy note no ceramic can match.
How it's prepared
Water, milk, sugar and crushed spices are brought to a rolling boil together with black tea (often strong CTC Assam), boiled and stirred for several minutes so everything infuses at once, then strained into cups. This decoction method — boiling rather than steeping — is what distinguishes chai from Western milk tea.
The vessel
The iconic vessel is the kulhad, an unglazed terracotta cup thrown on a potter's wheel and fired without glaze. It lends the tea a faint earthy aroma, is used once and smashed, and is strongly associated with railway and street chai. Small glass tumblers ('cutting chai' glasses) are the other everyday vessel.
Its social role
Chai is the connective tissue of Indian daily life — shared at tea stalls, offices, homes and stations. Offering chai is basic hospitality; declining it can read as cold. The tea stall is a democratic social space where strangers, workers and friends pause and talk.
What accompanies it
Biscuits (Parle-G, rusk), samosas, pakoras, vada pav and other fried snacks; sweets. Chai is a breakfast drink and an all-day pick-me-up.