
Chai Wallahs of India - omilu
http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/06/14/481878368/tea-tuesday-meet-the-chai-wallahs-of-india
======
mc32
I don't care to know about the gossip or the preferences and peccadilloes of
their clients --what interests me about these people (or the "flower vendors"
and recyclers in a different way, etc.) of large Asian cities is the
perseverance and tenacity of the people to make their own living as meager as
it might be.

I was taking a $10 equivalent taxi ride late at night the other day, the
driver opened his window at a traffic light and bought some fragrant flowers
from a woman selling them in the median at the equivalent of $2. I asked why
he would buy those flowers, he said essentially, "I made some money, she needs
to make her money and I get a fresh car in return".

There are poor people for sure, but you will not see too many outright begging
--they still offer the dignity of exchange of money for something tangible
--even if it's tea-eggs on the corner (or in Mexico people peddling junkfood
at major bus stops). We seem to have lost some of that dignity, I think. The
only think that comes close are the people who try to push you to buy some
panhandler advocacy newsletter --I have not seen them in years and that pub
was utterly useless.

~~~
rocky1138
A friend from Taiwan once said "If you have a blanket, you have a shop." In
some ways I wish it was the same way here in Canada. In many respects we are
overregulated. That said, I wouldn't want to eat a meal cooked from gutter
oil.

Is there a healthy balance?

~~~
Mikeb85
Overregulated is an understatement. Good luck starting a food business with
less than $100K in cash...

~~~
rocky1138
/agree. I can't imagine wanting to start a restaurant here. It might be easier
to rent a wood chipper to throw your savings into.

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syntr0pic
Generally I make it for 2-3 people. The following is for one cup.

Ingredients:

1 cup Whole Milk 2-3 Cardamom Seeds 1 Cinnamon (Add a small bark, nail length)
Raw sugar Breakfast Black Tea (Preferably loose)

Suggested Brands: Mumtaz Tea (Loose Black Tea) - Available at Amazon

1\. Crush cardamom seeds and cinnamon, preferably with coffee/spice grinder,
do not use the powder form, lightly break apart the seeds and bark, a few taps
should suffice.

2\. Place 1 cup of whole milk and spices into a small pot, simmer milk.

3\. Add 1 tablespoon of tea. Note that this measurement may be different
depending on brand. If you added too much, you can balance it out by adding
more milk.

4\. Add raw sugar, start with single teaspoon, add more as necessary

5\. Simmer for 10-15 minutes, milk will slow turn khaki, once you start seeing
microbubbles, tea is almost ready.

6\. Use a tea strainer or sieve

Minor note: Many South Asians will add a thin slice of ginger while the milk
is simmering. Traditionally served with rusk.

~~~
zzalpha
For folks who want to try this out, other suggestions for things to try in
your chai masala include black pepper, clove, and/or star anise

~~~
eponeponepon
I'd say black pepper is essential - it gives a little bite at the back of the
mouth that complements the ginger (also essential! :) ) perfectly. You only
want two or three peppercorns though. Star anise is a great occasional
addition, but I wouldn't want it every time.

~~~
nerdy
Wholeheartedly agree. Black pepper is a seemingly strange, but necessary
addition. It fills a small gap in the flavor profile between the tea and the
spices. My preferred ingredients are cardamom, cinnamon, black peppercorns,
cloves, and a very small amount of nutmeg. I like to add 1 part honey for
every 2 parts sugar.

It's tough to get the perfect ingredient ratio without making large batches or
using a scale.

 _Whole_ milk (or cream) is important for the fat content.

In general my chai does not come out as dark as the chai I had in the Pune
region, but does have a remarkably similar taste. As I understand it they
sometimes make the base the day before. The color difference could be because
of my preparation haste, shorter brew time, different ingredients, or adding
too much milk/cream.

The chai in India also has a different mouthfeel. I'm not sure if it's loose
spices in the brew or if they add something but it feels almost like
pulverized rice in the tea.

------
neebz
The chai wallahs exist in Pakistan as well and I can relate to many
experiences shared in the article. The chai wallah next to our university was
a frequent hangout spot.

On a related note few months ago a chai wallah from Islamabad got really
famous because of his good looks:
[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/19/blue-eyed-
tea-...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/19/blue-eyed-tea-seller-
arshad-khan-becomes-social-media-sensation-in-india-and-pakistan)

~~~
somedangedname
Similar to the discovery and subsequent popularity of "Salt Bae":
[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/salt-
bae?full=1](http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/salt-bae?full=1)

Maybe the Internet is ready for "Chai Bae"?

------
omilu
Some great videos of Chai wallahs in action. These guys make my Startbucks
barista look like a preschooler.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcTjA6Vchq8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcTjA6Vchq8)

~~~
twic
There's a very similar procedure, with a different recipe, in Singapore:

[https://youtu.be/hodOAEzsNWs](https://youtu.be/hodOAEzsNWs)

------
seshagiric
Yes, as an Indian living in the US chai is one of the things I miss dearly.
Also the chai latte etc. one gets at Starbucks & co are a misnomer, they are
no where same as Chai.

~~~
zzalpha
So as a someone who's only experienced chai in North American Indian
restaurants or with my best friend's family (who immigrated from Punjab), I'd
love to hear what makes the real thing unique and different!

Is it richer? Sweeter? Less sweet? More bitter? More spiced?

I have no doubt this is a tough question to answer... my understanding is
every wallah may have their own masala and so forth.

But I'd love to hear your answer!

~~~
hesarenu
It would be different from place to place. In Bangalore you get a milky thick
tea while in my coastal town its more watery liquid. Not a liker of masala
tea, don't think its too common down south.

~~~
zzalpha
Interesting! So down south it'd more commonly be just milky, black tea with
sugar?

~~~
vram22
No, you can get tea flavored with spices (added while making the tea, not
during production of the tea leaf), in the south too. Ginger and cardamom are
more common though, IME. See my other reply.

------
bogomipz
What lovely pictures, such a colorful and unique country.

In Kolkata the Chai often comes in little clay plots almost like mini flower
pots called 'bhar.' They are meant to be disposable. And I saw many people
break them on the ground when they were finished with their tea.

Here's a nice short read about the tradition if anyone is curious:

[http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/2016/10/kolkata-...](http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/2016/10/kolkata-
age-tradition-bhar-clay-cups-tea-161004053736038.html)

~~~
selimthegrim
In Hindi these are called "kulhaR", and used to be found in railway stations
all across British India before 1947.

~~~
bogomipz
Interesting, I wonder why the tradition is largely confined to West Bengal
now?

~~~
vram22
It's not only in West Bengal. Tea was still sold in kulhars (kulhads) in North
India (from say Madhya Pradesh and up north) some years ago when I used to
travel more in trains - this was decades after Independence in 1947. Apart
from the disposable factor, I guess another reason may be that the clay pot
keeps the tea warm for longer - and it can get pretty chilly in North India in
winter, though not quite comparable to more northern countries. It even gets
quite chilly in say Maharashtra (south of Madhya Pradesh), more in the
interior areas away from the coast, in winter.

------
jpatokal
Nice article, but they're missing one (the most?) quintessential Indian chai
experience: the chai wallahs on the trains. Waking up to the chant of "Chai,
chai, chai garam" (Tea, tea, hot tea) and having a clay cup of sweet, hot,
milky tea on board is about as Indian as it gets.

------
dctoedt
The first time I heard the term _chai wallah_ was in _Slum Dog Millionaire_ —
the game show host used it (somewhat disparagingly) to refer to Dev Patel's
character.

------
vram22
Another interesting take on tea (in India) is the rather strong tea you (used
to) get at Irani restaurants in India. They boiled it for a long time, is why
it was strong. There is a community of Iranians (not Parsis) who had come to
India several (maybe a hundred or more) years ago, and settled here. Some of
them started a typical (for them) kind of restaurant(s) - with bent rosewood
chairs, marble-topped tables, mirrors on the walls, etc. There are (mostly
were, now, sadly) a sort of institution in India. College kids, working people
- both blue- and white-collar, oldsters meeting to chat and gossip, all kinds
used to hang out at those places, have the famous / standard items (apart from
their unique take on tea) like bun + butter / brun + maska, omelettes,
samosas, khari (a dry baked wafer), etc. The younger generation of them
unfortunately didn't want to continue the businesses, plus the restaurants
were often situated in central areas in Indian cities, so had high real estate
value, so many of them have been closed and the spaces sold to Barista, Pizza
Hut and the like. A loss ...

Used to hang out regularly at such places in school and college days.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irani_caf%C3%A9](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irani_caf%C3%A9)

~~~
vram22
They were very correct in their dealings, and wouldn't tolerate any crap from
anyone - customer, supplier, etc. - would bawl them out immediately (including
with curses sometimes), which was part of the charm of going to such places.

------
vram22
Ha ha, interesting thread, will check out the article too.

Coincidentally, I was just reading about Masala Chai, recently, got
reminiscent, and and that prompted me to start making and drinking it again,
after being a coffee and herbal tea guy for a long time :)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masala_chai](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masala_chai)

Incidentally, US guys (some of you anyway), it's not called "chai tea", just
"chai". Both words mean the same (in Hindi and English respectively), so "chai
tea" is redundant. Had heard some American colleagues using the former term in
a company I worked at earlier.

------
chaiwala101
Here is one method to make Tea:

1 - Take cardamom or ginger or both, and put it in 2 cups of water. ( No need
to grind ginger )

2 - Warm the water till it boils, till 30 minutes.

3 - Add Chai to boiling content & basil leaves.

4 - Wait for 5 more minutes, take out the content, filter out the contents,
add honey+ lemon to the filtered content.

5 - Drink..

No milk and no sugar.

Do not grind the ginger, this is important, the tea will become too bitter if
you grind it.

~~~
captn3m0
30 minutes is a bit too much. Just wait till it boils.

------
ebcase
If you're in / near San Francisco and looking for great chai, definitely stop
by one of the Chai Cart spots; there are a few on Market:

[http://www.thechaicart.com/](http://www.thechaicart.com/)

(I have no affiliation with them, just a fan of their chai and want their
business to succeed!)

------
koolhead17
There are few startups as well in India banking over Chai with lots of VC's
money pouring in.

------
sujal99
Some health concern about Chai:- 1\. Lots of sugar. 2\. Use of Aluminium
utensils.

~~~
cholantesh
2) is not a valid concern. Unless you are planning to melt the cookware down,
trepan yourself and inject the melted aluminum into your brain, you should be
fine:

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11259180](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11259180)

------
factorialboy
Fun fact: Current Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (who incidentally meets
President Trump for the first time this week) was a "chai wallah" in his
younger days at some train station.

The term "chai wallah" was used as a jibe against Modi by senior Congress
politician Mani Shankar Iyer but the people of India chose the chai wallah
instead of the "crowned prince" of the Nehru-Gandhi family with a thumping
majority.

Despite being a democracy India has been ruled by the Nehru-Gandhi family (via
the Congress Party proxy) for more than 60 years since its independence in
1947.

~~~
v1n337
Factually incorrect.

This is not the first time that a non-Congress party has been elected to power
in India. The NDA government was in power during 1998–2004, a period including
the Kargil war.
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharatiya_Janata_Party#NDA_gov...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharatiya_Janata_Party#NDA_government_.281998.E2.80.932004.29))

Modi was not a chai-wallah. His father owned an unregistered tea-shop at a
railway station. ([http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/No-official-
record-...](http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/No-official-record-of-
Modi-being-tea-seller-RTI-reply/articleshow/46325234.cms))

~~~
chaiwala101
The activist who asked about tea selling asked a fake question.

The activist does it all the time.

Also, Modi never claimed he was registered to sell tea.

Had the Congress government been so proactive in 55 years by mandating
registration of tea sellers, India would be much safer, more cleaner, and less
corrupt.

Fun fact : That activist is from Congress party.

Another fun fact : Such activists do not disclose the exact wordings of the
RTI query, they intentionally post ambiguous queries and use the reply to
create sensational headline.

I can challenge any of the Modi haters to share their exact RTI queries before
they make sensational headline

~~~
markdown
> RTI query

What's that?

~~~
denzil_correa
Right to Information similar to Freedom of Information in the US

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_Information_Act,_2005](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_Information_Act,_2005)

~~~
markdown
Ahh thanks.

