This is a fantastic but simple masala chai. In my head, the basics are cinnamon (cassia), cardamom, and a little clove. Ginger is a good addition, but not absolutely necessary. This tea covers the basics, is very flavorful, and holds up to at least one good resteeping. Though, we only tend to brew the first steeping for about two minutes (and by we, I mean Missy).
A few years ago, when working on our new payment system, I got to sit down several times for tea with a man named Amarjit. Brilliant man, excellent system designer, very entertaining conversationalist.
Anyway. Had Chai Tea with him one day. He told me to stop repeating myself.
snicker
He had the good graces to explain to me that Chai is actually the word for Tea, not the spices themselves (masala). It was fairly amusing. Now I feel like I’m in on a joke, when ever I see something/someone/somewhere offering Chai Tea. MarketSpice calls it Indian tea. Two points for not repeating themselves :).
I’ll probably find other teas that might edge out this one, but I’ll probably keep it around for blending. We blend it with Serendipitea’s Colonille (vanilla), and it..is…SUPERB!
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I believe you, sir, are incorrect when you say you will probably keep it around!
Reading this reminds me something I heard about calling pizza, pizza pie. My understanding is that pizza means something like pie (in Italian?). So saying pizza pie is like saying, ‘pizza pizza’!
I think ‘chai’ is one translation of the pronunciation of the word for tea in Chinese which passed though Mongolia, India, and then to Russia; and the other translation, pronounced something like ‘tae’, from Chinese (either Cantonese or Mandarin) was heard by the Dutch importers in the 1600’s, which eventually made it to England (and the US) whence it became, ‘tea’.
So if you’re Little Caesar, it’s totally okay!
Tea is probably one of those things that has so many names, even within single cultures. From what I’ve read, Pekoe is supposed to be a bastardization of a different Chinese word for tea. It’s like the joke about Eskimos having hundreds of words for snow :).
I believe you, sir, are incorrect when you say you will probably keep it around!
Reading this reminds me something I heard about calling pizza, pizza pie. My understanding is that pizza means something like pie (in Italian?). So saying pizza pie is like saying, ‘pizza pizza’!
I think ‘chai’ is one translation of the pronunciation of the word for tea in Chinese which passed though Mongolia, India, and then to Russia; and the other translation, pronounced something like ‘tae’, from Chinese (either Cantonese or Mandarin) was heard by the Dutch importers in the 1600’s, which eventually made it to England (and the US) whence it became, ‘tea’.
So if you’re Little Caesar, it’s totally okay!
Tea is probably one of those things that has so many names, even within single cultures. From what I’ve read, Pekoe is supposed to be a bastardization of a different Chinese word for tea. It’s like the joke about Eskimos having hundreds of words for snow :).