Chai
Preparation Time
2 minutes
Cooking Time
8 minutes
Difficulty Level
easy
Meal Type
Drinks
Serves 2
Key Ingredients
- Black CTC tea leaves (chai patti)
About This Recipe
Chai, the everyday Indian brew, is chai patti (black CTC tea leaves) boiled with water and milk and sweetened in the cup. This recipe keeps that method: a two-to-one water-to-milk brew, one level teaspoon of leaves a cup, and a full two-minute simmer that turns it kadak, which means strong. For the leaf itself, its names, nutrition and how it is made, the chai patti hub has the detail.
The leaves are Assam CTC, crushed, torn and curled into small uniform pellets that open quickly in boiling water and give the deep, strong brew the cup needs. The CTC tea guide explains how the leaves are made. One level teaspoon of chai patti a cup is enough here, because the two-minute simmer does the work that extra leaves would do.
Two cups of water to one cup of milk keeps the chai tea-forward; use equal parts when you want it creamier. The sugar goes into each cup at one and a half teaspoons, and jaggery powder swaps in spoon for spoon for a deeper sweetness. To make more, keep the cup counts: two teaspoons of leaves for two cups, three for three.
Ingredient List
Serving Size:
1x
2x
3x
Tea
- Water — 2 cups
- Black CTC tea leaves (chai patti) — 2 tsp
- Full-fat milk — 1 cup
To sweeten
- White sugar, 1.5 tsp a cup — 3 tsp
- Jaggery powder, 1.5 tsp a cup, in place of the sugar (optional) — 3 tsp
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Serving Suggestions
Serve the chai the moment it is strained, before the froth settles, with rusk, glucose biscuits, mathri or buttered toast. It travels in a flask for a couple of hours and stands beside pakoras on a rainy evening. For a spiced cup, the masala chai recipe builds on this base; the loose leaf tea recipes roundup has more.
Tips for Cooking Chai
Use a pan with headroom, because the chai climbs fast once the milk is in. Boil the water hard before the leaves go in, keep the milk at a gentle rise, and sweeten in the cups, never in the pan. For a lighter cup, halve the simmer.
Chef’s Note
Kadak is a matter of timing, not extra leaves: one level teaspoon of chai patti a cup, simmered a full two minutes, gives a stronger cup than two spoons boiled briefly. The sugar adds about 29 kcal and 7.5 g of carbohydrate to each cup; the milk adds more on top.
Per serving (approx.): 29 kcal, protein 0 g, carbs 7.5 g, fat 0 g, fibre 0 g. Computed from IFCT 2017 / USDA values for the listed quantities. Measures: 1 cup = 240 ml, 1 tbsp = 15 ml, 1 tsp = 5 ml.
Happy Cooking
!!
ByCOWBERRY
Sep 07, 2026
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