Proper Chai Tea

First published 28 May 2008 · revised and expanded 30 October 2026.

Loose black tea, a pinch of your own masala, and milk brought to a boil. Everybody likes authentic chai, and it’s pretty easy.

Serves

2 American-sized cups

Tea

loose black, never bags

Masala

your own mix, ½ tsp

The secret

bringing it to the boil

The tea

The old-fashioned Indian way: get Red Label tea (available from Indian shops, incredibly cheap) or any other black tea to your liking. There is one brand in a yellow and green bag that begins with a D that is the cheapest of all, and my favorite by taste. (Really, old India.) Also, I understand that rooibos (a healthier red, noncaffeinated tea) is good.

The masala

Mix your own chai masala. It can include:

• Ground cardamom seeds
• Green cardamom pods
• Nutmeg
• Cloves
• Black pepper
• Ginger, fresh if possible
• Cinnamon
• Anise
• Fennel
• Red pepper
• Lemongrass

Be creative here. The right balance depends on your dosha, the season, your vikṛti, and many other things, so just try a balance. You can always adjust it later. Fresher spices are better. You don’t need much. (Some notes on leaning the mix toward a dosha are below.)

Method

1. 1 Boil the tea and masala

   Boil 2 cups of water, 1 tbsp of tea, and ½ tsp of chai mix for 4 minutes.

2. 2 Add the milk and sugar, and boil again

   Add 1 cup of milk and 2 tbsp of sugar. Bring to a boil (watch carefully so that it doesn’t spill over), then reduce the heat and allow to simmer until ready to serve.

   But really, the boiling points are essential here to give a full body.

3. 3 Pour

   A bonus is that with boiling, the tea leaves get saturated and heavy and hence sink to the bottom of the pot.

“Avoid tea bags. To my senses, they just color the water with a dusty pretaste of the potential power of the spices.”

Don’t get me started on the mixes used in coffee shops. Yech.

The Āyurveda of the cup

What the classical texts say about what goes into the pot, quoted from my translation of Vāgbhaṭa’s Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayam.¹

Why the boils matter

Uncooked milk (payo) is abhiṣyandi (obstructive) and guru (heavy), but when properly boiled (yuktyā śṛtam), it is otherwise (not obstructive and light).

Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayam, Sū. 5.28

That is a classical reason behind “the boiling points are essential.” Vāgbhaṭa adds the other half in the next verse: “Milk that is excessively boiled (atiśṛtaṃ) becomes heavier” (Sū. 5.29). Bring it to the boil, then let it simmer only until you pour.

Milk

Among these, cow’s milk is indeed life-sustaining (jīvanīya) and a rejuvenator (rasāyana). It is beneficial for those with chest injuries (kṣatakṣīṇa), promotes intellect (medhya), provides strength (balya), increases breast milk (stanyakara), and is laxative (sara). It alleviates fatigue (śrama), dizziness (bhrama) …

Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayam, Sū. 5.21–22

The spices

Two of the masala spices, cinnamon and cardamom, belong to Vāgbhaṭa’s “three aromatics”; the third is the cinnamon leaf:

Tvak, patra, and elā form trijātaka (the three aromatics); with kesara (saffron), it is caturjātaka (the four aromatics). It aggravates pitta (one of the three doṣas), is sharp, hot, dry, appetizing, and digestive stimulant.

Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayam, Sū. 6.160

Tvak is cinnamon bark, elā cardamom, and patra the cinnamon leaf. Ginger is the other pillar: dry ginger (nāgara) “is a digestive stimulant (dīpana), an aphrodisiac (vṛṣya), an absorbent (grāhi), beneficial for the heart (hṛdya) … unctuous (snigdha), hot (uṣṇa), and conquers kapha and vāta,” and “similarly, fresh ginger (ārdraka) also possesses these qualities” (Sū. 6.163–164). Black pepper “is pungent in rasa (taste) and pāka (post-digestive taste), alleviates kapha, and is light” (Sū. 6.161).

Two later notes from P. V. Sharma’s modern materia medica round out the pot. Cardamom is cooling in potency (śīta), balancing to all three doṣas, and good for the heart;² nutmeg is bitter and pungent, hot, and used for sleeplessness.² The red pepper on my list is chili, a sixteenth-century arrival from the Americas (more on that in my poha recipe).

Leaning the masala

	Lean toward	Go lighter on
Vāta	ginger, which is unctuous and hot and “conquers kapha and vāta” (Sū. 6.164)	nothing in particular; refined sugar helps, since Vāgbhaṭa’s refined sugars “alleviate raktapitta and anila” (Sū. 5.49)
Pitta	cardamom: in the trio above it counts as hot, but Vāgbhaṭa also places elā in a group that “alleviates poison, internal burning sensation, and pitta” (Sū. 15.14), and Sharma calls it cooling	cinnamon and the other aromatics, which “aggravate pitta” (Sū. 6.160); pepper and red pepper
Kapha	black pepper, which “alleviates kapha” (Sū. 6.161), and ginger	the sweetening: whole-cane sugar, like unwashed jaggery, “greatly increases … kapha” (Sū. 5.48)

Sugar

Matsyaṇḍikā, khaṇḍa, and sitā are aphrodisiacs, beneficial for those emaciated and injured, and alleviate raktapitta and anila. … All sugars alleviate burning sensation (dāha), thirst (tṛṭ), vomiting (cchardi), fainting (mūrcchā), and asṛkpitta (a bleeding disorder).

Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayam, Sū. 5.49–50

The raisin juice I once used has the best pedigree of all: “grapes (drākṣā) are the best among fruits” (Sū. 6.115).

And the tea?

Tea itself is the newcomer. Black tea was little drunk in India until the Indian Tea Association’s promotional campaigns of the early twentieth century, which presented it in the “English mode, with small added amounts of milk and sugar.” The spiced, milky, sweet chai came from independent vendors, whose way of stretching the tea leaves the Association at first disapproved of.³ The old-fashioned Indian way is about a century old. The spice cabinet behind it is far older.

Curious about another spice? Ask Vāgbhaṭa answers from the same translation, with the verses quoted.

Sources

1. Vāgbhaṭa, Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayam, in Vāgbhaṭa’s Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayam: A Full English Translation, tr. Renay Oshop (2026). Loci quoted: Sūtrasthāna 5.21–22, 5.28–29, 5.48–50; 6.115, 6.160–161, 6.163–164; 15.14. Paperback pp. 12–14, 23, 26, 59 (root text). In short quotations the translation’s parenthetical glosses are sometimes omitted.
2. P. V. Sharma, Dravyaguṇa-Vijñāna, vol. II (Varanasi: Chaukhambha Bharati Academy, 2005 reprint), elā, pp. 719–721; jātīphala, pp. 458–461.
3. “Masala chai,” New World Encyclopedia, accessed 30 October 2026.

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