Why is masala chai simmered, not steeped? How milk tames strong tea, with a chai builder

Why chai is simmered, not steeped

Masala chai looks like a cup of milky tea with spices in it, but it is cooked more like a small soup. The tea, the spices and the milk all go into one pan and spend a few minutes at the boil. That is not how you would treat a delicate green tea, and it is not carelessness. It is what makes the drink work.

Chai is traditionally made with a strong, malty black tea, often Assam, and often the small broken-leaf kind sold as CTC (crush, tear, curl). Broken leaf gives up its flavour fast, so it can take a hard simmer and still taste rich rather than harsh, provided it has milk to soften it. Whole spices are different again: cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and black pepper hold their aroma in oils and fibres that only open up with sustained heat, which a quick steep never gives them.

The method, in order

Recipes differ on detail, but most follow the same order, and the order matters more than the exact amounts.

1. Spices and water first. Lightly crush the cardamom pods and slice the ginger so more surface is exposed. Bring them to a boil with the water, then simmer for about 5 to 7 minutes. Hard spices such as cinnamon and cloves need this head start.
2. Tea next. Add the black tea and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes, until the liquid is dark and deeply coloured.
3. Milk and sweetener last. Pour in the milk and bring it back up to a boil, stirring, and let it simmer for a couple of minutes. Watch the pan: milk rises quickly and boils over.
4. Strain and serve. Pour through a fine strainer into warm cups.

Some traditions skip the head start and boil everything together for longer, and some brew the tea in water and add milk at the end. Both work. What they share is that the tea gets real heat and real time, unlike the careful 70 to 80°C steeps that suit green tea.

Why it works

Strong black tea is bitter and drying on the tongue because of tannins, a family of plant compounds that grab onto proteins, including the ones in your saliva. That grabbing is the dry, puckering feeling called astringency. Milk is full of protein, mainly casein, and the tannins bind to it instead, which is why milky tea tastes smoother and rounder than the same tea without milk.

This is what lets chai be so strong. You can use a lot of tea, simmer it hard, and the milk keeps it from turning harsh. Fat in whole milk carries the spice aroma as well, so a drink made with it tastes fuller than one made with a thin milk. Oat milk and other plant milks work, but they behave differently under heat, so watch for splitting and a flatter taste.

The milk is not a garnish. It is the part that makes a strong simmer drinkable.

Common problems

• Bitter or drying: too much tea for the milk, or the tea simmered too long. Drop to the mild setting or shorten the tea step.
• Tastes of milky water: the tea was too weak for the milk share. Go to strong, or lower the milk to around 40 per cent.
• Spices taste dusty or sharp: too many cloves or pepper. These are loud; a little goes a long way.
• Skin on top and boil-over: normal. Stir, keep the heat at a steady simmer rather than a rolling boil, and strain.

Variations

For a lighter version, shift the milk share down and use fewer spices. For a caffeine-free version, swap the black tea for rooibos, a herbal infusion that takes a long simmer well, and keep the spices and milk as they are. For a plant-based one, choose a milk made for hot drinks and add it at the end so it has less time to split.

A word on caffeine: chai made with black tea contains caffeine, usually less than a similar-sized cup of coffee but not nothing, so go easy late in the day if you are sensitive to it. A cup of milk tea is also a good reason to pay attention to how much sugar you add.

What to look for

Chai needs very little kit. A small, heavy-bottomed saucepan with a spout, a fine strainer and a spoon are enough. A wider pan is useful because milk foams up as it heats and a narrow one boils over sooner. Use whole spices where you can, crushed just before they go in, since ground ones turn muddy and lose aroma. If you do not have loose Assam or CTC, strong English breakfast teabags are a fair stand-in.