the chai glossary

/tʃaɪ/ · चाय · noun

The word for tea in Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Bengali, Punjabi and dozens of other languages. Comes ultimately from the Mandarin chá. Means tea. Just tea. The phrase "chai tea" is therefore "tea tea".

/mə'sɑːlɑː tʃaɪ/ · मसाला चाय

Spiced chai. The default in most Indian homes. Tea boiled with milk and a blend of warming spices: cardamom, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, black pepper. Every family has a different masala. None is wrong.

/kə'ɖək/ · कड़क · adj.

Strong. Brewed long, dark, intense, almost bitter, with the milk reduced into the tea rather than just added on top. The opposite of weak. "Ek kadak chai" is what you order when you have been awake for nineteen hours.

/əd'rək tʃaɪ/ · अदरक चाय

Ginger chai. Made by crushing a generous knob of fresh ginger into the boiling water at the start. Sharp, warming, the monsoon staple, the cold-remedy default. Sometimes layered with tulsi or black pepper.

/'kʌtɪŋ tʃaɪ/ · कटिंग चाय

Half a glass. A Mumbai invention, born from labourers and clerks who could not always afford a full cup. The chai is brewed strong and served scorching in a small glass. Drink fast. Get back to work.

/duːd pət'tiː/ · दूध पत्ती

"Milk and leaf". Tea brewed entirely in milk, no water at all. Boiled long until the milk thickens and turns the colour of dark sand. Lavish, heavy, the chai you make when you want to show love through dairy.

/iː'rɑːniː tʃaɪ/ · ईरानी चाय

A long, slow chai brought to India by Zoroastrian refugees from Iran. Reduced with mawa (thickened milk) for hours. Served in old colonial cafes alongside osmania biscuits and bun maska. Smoky, soft, sweet.

/kɑːh'wɑː/ · कहवा

A Kashmiri tea made with green tea leaves, saffron, cardamom, cinnamon, and sometimes crushed almonds. No milk. Yellow-gold, floral, served in small cups after meals or at weddings. Closer to Persian tea than Indian chai.

/nuːn tʃaɪ/ · नून चाय

Pink salted tea from Kashmir. Green tea brewed with baking soda and beaten until it oxidizes pink, then finished with milk and salt instead of sugar. A winter drink, deeply regional. Crushed pistachios on top.

/tən'duːriː tʃaɪ/ · तंदूरी चाय

A modern invention. Regular chai poured into a red-hot clay cup pulled fresh from a tandoor oven. The chai foams up violently, picks up a smoky char, and tastes like nothing else. Theatre and chai at once.

/suːleɪ'mɑːniː/ · सुलैमानी

Black tea with lemon, cloves, cardamom, sometimes mint. No milk. A staple of Kerala's Malabar coast and across the Arab world. Drunk after heavy meals to settle the stomach. Light, fragrant, surprisingly tart.

/'miːtər tʃaɪ/

Chai poured between two long-handled vessels held a metre apart. The pour aerates the chai and cools it just enough to drink. Half ritual, half engineering, half showing off.

/pət'tiː/ · पत्ती

Tea leaves. The actual leaf. Chai walas typically use CTC (crush-tear-curl) Assam tea, broken into small granules, which brews faster and stronger than whole-leaf tea. The cheapest grade. The best one for chai.

/əd'rək/ · अदरक

Ginger. Always fresh, always crushed (not chopped, not powdered). The piece is smashed under the flat of a knife or in a mortar so the fibres break open and the juice runs. Added to the water at the start of the brew.

/eɪ'lɑːɪtʃiː/ · इलायची

Green cardamom. The single most important spice in masala chai. Cracked open with the back of a knife (do not skip this) so the small black seeds inside can release their oil. Floral, citrusy, unmistakable.

/lɔːŋ/ · लौंग

Clove. Used sparingly in chai. One or two cloves per pot, no more. Adds a deep, slightly numbing, slightly medicinal note. Too many and the chai tastes like a dentist's office.

/dəl'tʃiːniː/ · दालचीनी

Cinnamon, usually a small stick of cassia rather than the milder Ceylon variety. Adds warmth and a faint sweetness. Used in small quantities. In Hindi the word literally means "wood of China", a reminder of where it came from.

/'kɑːliː mɪrtʃ/ · काली मिर्च

Black pepper. A few cracked peppercorns add gentle heat and depth, particularly good in monsoon and cold-remedy chais. Not all masalas use it. The ones that do are usually the better ones.

/'keɪsər/ · केसर

Saffron. A pinch of threads steeped in warm milk before being added to chai. Pricey, golden, used at weddings and festivals and in royal-style kashmiri kahwa. A luxury garnish, not a daily ingredient.

/'tʊlsiː/ · तुलसी

Holy basil. Sacred plant, household herb, common chai addition during cold and flu season. A few leaves boiled with the water give a peppery, clove-like, slightly minty note. Pairs especially well with ginger.

/duːd/ · दूध

Milk. Usually whole milk. Usually buffalo milk in much of India, which is fattier and gives the chai its characteristic body. Almond, oat and soy work in modern variations but change the personality of the drink.

/'tʃiːniː/ · चीनी

Sugar. The Hindi word literally means "Chinese", because refined white sugar was originally imported from China. Added generously to most street chai. You can leave it out, but the chai wala will be quietly disappointed.

/gʊɽ/ · गुड़

Unrefined cane or palm sugar, sold in dense brown blocks. A traditional sweetener for chai in rural India, particularly in winter. Caramelly, faintly mineral, deeper than white sugar. Be careful: gud can split milk.

/sɔːnf/ · सौंफ

Fennel seed. Sometimes added to chai for a light, anise-y sweetness, especially in Gujarati households. A teaspoon, no more. Often paired with cardamom rather than the full warming masala.

/kə'ɽɑːiː/ · कढ़ाई

The wide, deep, round-bottomed metal pot the chai is brewed in. Usually steel or brass at home, aluminium at a stall. The shape encourages the chai to bubble up and reduce evenly. The defining vessel of street chai.

/'kʊlɦəɽ/ · कुल्हड़

A small unglazed clay cup, smashed and returned to the earth after a single use. Adds a faint earthy taste to the chai. Found especially in Kolkata, Varanasi, North India. Zero waste, fully biodegradable, perfect.

/tʃaɪ glɑːs/

A small, thick-walled, slightly waisted glass holding 100 to 150ml. The standard chai stall vessel for cutting chai. Reusable, washable, slightly nostalgic. Holds the heat just long enough to drink fast.

/'tʃəlniː/ · चलनी

A fine wire-mesh strainer. Used to catch the tea leaves, ginger pieces and crushed spices as the chai is poured from the kadhai into the cup. The pour from a height through the chalni is the chai wala's signature move.

/mə'sɑːlɑː 'dəbːɑː/ · मसाला डब्बा

The round metal spice box found in every Indian kitchen, containing seven small bowls for daily-use spices: typically turmeric, chili, coriander, cumin, mustard, salt, and a household chai-masala blend. The chai wala equivalent is smaller and lives on the shelf above the stove.

/'sɪɡriː/ · सिगड़ी · चूल्हा

A small portable stove. Traditional sigris ran on coal or kerosene and you can still find them at older stalls. Modern chai walas have moved to gas or LPG chulhas. The flame and the kadhai together are the entire chai stall infrastructure.

/'kɑːɽɑː/ · काढ़ा

An Ayurvedic decoction of spices brewed in water, often with honey added at the end. The original "chai", predating tea in India by thousands of years. Ginger, tulsi, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, black pepper. Drunk during colds, after meals, before bed. Masala chai is essentially kadha that adopted tea and milk in the 1920s.

/kə'rək tʃaɪ/ · کرک چائے

"Strong" chai. The Gulf-state cousin of masala chai, made famous by South Asian workers across Dubai, Doha and Bahrain. Uses evaporated milk and condensed milk for extra richness. Heavily sweetened, heavily spiced with cardamom and saffron. Served piping hot in small disposable paper cups at karak cafes that stay open all night.

/tʃaɪ 'wɑːlɑː/ · चाय वाला

A chai vendor, almost always running a small independent stall. The suffix -wala means "the one who". Chai wala literally translates to "the chai person". Shantanu, who runs a stall in Pune, is the chai wala this site was built around. There are millions like him across India, and roughly one billion cups of chai sold daily pass through their hands.

/'təpriː/ · टपरी

A small temporary roadside stall, often with a tin roof and a wooden bench. The setting for most street chai. The word is informal, slightly affectionate. "Chalo tapri?" means "shall we go grab a chai?"

/'ɖɑːbɑː/ · ढाबा

A roadside eatery, usually on a highway, serving simple Punjabi food and excellent chai to truckers and travellers. Open all hours. Often the source of the best chai you will ever drink on a road trip.

/'əɖɖɑː/ · अड्डा

A regular gathering place where the same people meet to talk for hours, usually with chai. The word originated in Bengali. A good adda has bad lighting, ancient benches, and conversation that loops back on itself.

/fenʈiː hʊiː/ · फेंटी हुई

"Beaten". A style of chai where the brewed tea is aerated and frothed by pouring it back and forth between two vessels at height. Foamy, light, often a Karachi-style move. Cousin of meter chai.

/eɪk fʊʈ kiː tʃaɪ/ · एक फुट की चाय

"One-foot chai". Chai poured from one foot above the cup. The drop aerates the chai and gives it a thin foam on top. Chai walas do this without spilling a drop. You will not, the first few times.

/məlaɪ mɑːr keɪ/ · मलाई मार के

"Hit with cream". A chai topped with a spoonful of thick milk skin or fresh cream, found especially in Old Delhi and Lucknow. Decadent. Once-a-week chai. Not for the lactose-shy.

/məsɑːleɪ'dɑːr/ · मसालेदार

"Heavily spiced". Used to describe a chai with an extra generous hand of masala, particularly during cold and flu season. The opposite of a plain or "sada" chai.

/'sɑːdɑː tʃaɪ/ · सादा चाय

"Plain chai". Just tea, milk and sugar. No spices, no ginger. The morning default in some homes, particularly in eastern India and Bangladesh where the masala tradition is lighter.

/eɪk tʃaɪ/ · एक चाय

"One chai". The most-uttered sentence at any chai stall in India. The two-word complete order. Add "kadak" or "adrak" or "kam meetha" (less sweet) to customize. The chai wala remembers.

/'gərəm tʃaɪ/ · गरम चाय

"Hot chai". A redundancy in theory (chai is always hot) but the universal call of railway platform vendors moving through carriages. "Chaaaai, garam chai, garam!" If you have taken an Indian train, you know this sound.

/kəm 'miːʈʰɑː/ · कम मीठा

"Less sweet". The polite phrase you say to the chai wala when you want him to ease up on the sugar. The opposite is "zyada meetha" (more sweet). The default is usually too sweet. That is part of the charm.

/'bɪskuːʈ/ · बिस्कूट

Biscuit. The English word, lovingly mangled. The small glucose biscuit, marie, or rusk you dunk into your chai for exactly two seconds before pulling it out. Too long, it collapses. The dunk is its own discipline.