Speaking of milk tea, we may first think of these freshly made tea drinks on the street and in shopping malls, but milk tea has a long history, and different countries have their own characteristics of milk tea. English milk tea, Hong Kong milk tea, Taiwan milk tea, Mongolian milk tea, Thai milk tea, Indian milk tea and so on.
The deep and varied aroma of tea, paired with the smooth and full taste of dairy products, whether it is ice drinks, hot drinks, used to entertain guests, as a daily diet, and even become an entertaining pop culture, let people see the charm of milk tea.
We may be familiar with Taiwanese milk tea and Hong Kong-style milk tea, but we are not very familiar with milk tea from other countries. Today we're going to talk about Masala Chai.
Masala Chai means spice tea, which is a tea mixed with various spices. For Indians, tea is a product of british colonialism and is an indispensable daily drink for Indians today.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, although the British owned the Indian Tea Association, they were able to produce tea and export tea in India, and set off a tea drinking fever. However, it was still not widely available in India, so the Indian Tea Association began to promote Indian tea locally. However, black tea is still very expensive in the local area, so it is boiled with milk and spices to reduce costs and be closer to Indian tastes, and Masala Chai has become a national drink since then.
To this day, Indians are basically able to drink about five cups of Masala Chai a day, get up for a drink, have a lunch, have a drink for a meeting guest, drink another drink at work, and drink another drink before going to bed. The magic of Masala tea is therapeutic, spices and the taste of home. Indians do not taste all the time in addition to the day, nor do they divide into winter and summer. Because drinking a cup of Masala Chai can warm the body and stomach, enhance physical strength and resistance.
Masala Chai is a must-have medicine for Indians at home, because it collects cardamom for healthy spleen, ginger for cold, cinnamon for blood, etc., combined with milk and sugar, and has a more sleepy and stress-relieving effect. Drink more elaborately, replacing refined sugar with stone honey to reduce chemical absorption while bringing natural sweetness and amber brown color. In some areas such as Kolkata, the spice tea evolved, such as Indian lemon tea, there are salt, black pepper, lemon and ginger, which helps relieve cough, sore throat and other respiratory discomfort, so the locals get sick, first treat with a cup of tea, is tea and medicine.
In addition to dietary therapy, it is also the taste of Indian families, each family has its own recipe, even if it is far away from home, as long as Indians drink it, they feel homesick. Some families add fennel to their tea to make the spices more flavorful. Outside the mosque door, the tea found will be added to cumin. There are also people who boil tea without water, only use milk pot, and the taste is very thick. So Masala Chai is not a single tea, but a comprehensive spice tea full of variations and characteristics.
India's good tea is exported, and those big brands have bought one mountain after another, and bought high-quality Darjeeling black tea in large quantities. Indians, from the past to the present, have only used tea crumbs. Perhaps, it is because the local tea is expensive, or perhaps because the Indians have come into contact with tea from the Hands of the British, they can play the creativity of the spice country and create a healthy tea with Indian characteristics.