How to make masala chai

There are as many masala chai recipes as there are kitchens. What follows is the method underneath all of them — get this right and the variations look after themselves.

Masala chai being poured from a steel pan into a glass — Chai is cooked in a pan, not steeped in a cup.

What you need

Black tea — 1 teaspoon per cup, strong and malty (Assam, broken leaf or CTC)
Water and milk — two parts water to one part milk
Whole spices — cracked, never ground
Sugar — to taste, added during the simmer, not after
A small pan and a strainer — chai is cooked, not steeped

The method, for two cups

Start cold. Put 240 ml water, 120 ml milk and your cracked spices in the pan together and bring them up to the boil. Starting cold gives the spices the longest possible extraction.
Add the tea. Two teaspoons, once the liquid is at a boil.
Add sugar now, not at the end — it changes how the spice reads.
Simmer 2–3 minutes, until the colour turns a deep coppery brown. Keep it at a simmer; a hard rolling boil scalds the milk and pulls bitterness out of the leaf.
Strain into the cup and drink it hot. Chai does not hold well — it is made in the quantity that will be drunk.

The three common mistakes

1. Ground spices instead of whole

Powder clouds the cup, sinks as sediment and turns bitter under a long simmer. Crack whole pods and corns with the flat of a knife instead — they release oil slowly and strain out cleanly.

2. Too much clove

Clove keeps extracting for as long as the pan is hot and will dominate everything else. One or two per pot is the entire allowance.

3. Weak tea

If the base is too light, the milk and spice swamp it and you are drinking spiced milk. The tea has to be strong enough to still be identifiable at the end — which is why Assam is the standard choice.

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Adjusting to taste

More milk gives a rounder, softer cup; more water gives a brisker one that shows the tea. Longer simmering deepens colour and body but costs aroma — the volatile notes in cardamom and lemongrass are the first things to go. Most people land somewhere near 2:1 water to milk and about three minutes, then adjust from there.