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Since this is the first post of the blog, I feel like writing about making a delicious cup of chai would be perfect. I don't want to talk about the history of chai and bore you, so I will dive straight into the recipe.

Serves: 2 cups

Ingredients:

1. Loose Black Tea
2. Full-cream Whole Milk
3. Heavy cream (optional)
4. Sugar (I prefer brown sugar)
5. Green Cardamoms

You will also need a metal sieve to filter out the loose tea. Learn from my mistakes and invest in a good sieve. They last longer and are way easier to clean.

Instructions:

1. If the milk and heavy cream are cold, heat them up in microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute. The reason is that I've noticed warmed up milk works better with metal pots than straight up cold milk.
2. Okay, now turn the stove on. Don't be shy to put the flame on high. So if your range goes from 1 to 8, it's okay to put it on 8.
3. Pour 1 cup of whole milk and 1 cup of heavy milk in the pot. If you aren't using heavy milk, just replace it with another 1 cup of whole milk.
4. Take couple of green cardamoms and make sure to crush them to expose the seeds. Put them in the pot.
5. Keep stirring the milk as it is heating up.
6. When you see bubbles forming around the edges, put two tablespoons (2 tblsp) of sugar into the mix. Keep stirring.
7. The milk will be boiling pretty fast now. So as soon as you see the milk bubbling (but not boiling over), put two tablespoons (2 tblsp) of tea in the mix. You can put a bit more tea if you want it stronger. Keep stirring!
8. The milk will come close to boiling over so quickly take the pot out of the heat and keep stirring. Now put it back onto the heat again and let it come to boiling again. Take it off the heat again. Do this on-and-off stuff for around 5-6 times. Your chai should be ready.
9. Now, to make your chai a bit foamy, you need to pour it from a height. This adds air bubbles as the tea is falling into your cup and gives that professional chai vibe. So take your sieve and pot together, close to each other. And from a height (the higher the better), pour the tea into the cup.

Your chai is now ready.

Advanced chaiwala:

1. Try heating up the green cardamom pods before crushing them. So, take a small pan, put the heat to around 6 (medium-high) and roast the cardamoms. Make sure to not overbrown them. A very slight golden-yellow color is nice.
2. If you can find it, try replacing the whole milk with full-fat buffalo milk. If you use something as thick as buffalo milk, don't use heavy cream.
3. If you have the time, let the tea simmer in low heat (3 to 2 in the range) for about 10 mins after you have done that on-and-off the stove part. It makes the tea stronger but also smoothes out the taste with the milk.