He preferred to know the power of herbs and their nature for curing purposes, and, heedless of glory, to excercise that quiet art.
— Virgil, Aeneid
Chai is a wonderfully palate-pleasing drink that is also good for you. Most people know that the base of this drink, tea, is healthful, but few know that spices, too, have beneficial properties. Ayurveda, the ancient Indian system of holistic health care, suggests that a balance of spices and nutritious food can do much to improve overall health.
In Sanskrit, ayur means “life” and veda means “knowledge,” so Ayurveda is the “knowledge of how to live.” The Ayurvedic system includes balance among the three doshas — the “humors” or waste products of digestion. These three humors are kapha (water or phlegm and earth), which controls body stability, lubrication, and potential energy; pitta (fire or bile and water), which controls the body’s balance of kinetic and potential energies and involves digestion of food or “thoughts”; and vata (air or wind), which is the principle of kinetic energy in the body and controls the nervous system and body movement.
The doshas bind the elements of earth, air, fire, water, and wind. All are believed to help the normal growth of children and easy aging of adults. To be in complete balance with all three doshas is to be tridoshic.
The Ayurvedic suggestions for a good diet also incorporate ways to balance the basic six tastes: sweet or madhura; sour or amla; salty or lavana; astringent or kasaya; bitter or tikta; and pungent or katur.
Of course this brief description cannot do justice to the rich and ancient art of Ayurveda. If you’d like to learn more, take a look at the books listed in Recommended Reading.
All the following spice names are given in English, then Latin, unless otherwise noted. Common Indian names are also included in the text where applicable.
Unless otherwise noted, all of these spices should be purchased whole. Keep them in tightly sealed jars in a cool dark place. (Next to the stove is handy, but the warmth depletes the spices of their flavors.) Grate or crush them as needed. If whole spices are not available, purchase ground ones, but in very small quantities, and preferably from bulk containers rather than commercially packaged jars. Bulk spice grocers, especially Indian specialty markets, tend to turn over their inventory much quicker, providing you with a choice of fresher spices.
Generally, the spices used in masala chais are healthful for everyone. A pregnant or lactating woman, however, should seek counsel before making any herbal infusion or using an excess of any spice that could overstimulate to her system.
The Ayurvedic benefits listed below are not to be considered absolutes in the treatment of any illness. Should you have concerns about any symptoms, please see your medical practitioner; do not attempt to treat yourself with any herbs or spices without professional supervision.
For best results in creating or cooking with chais, always buy whole spices in small quantities, and store in a cool, dark cupboard.
The exotic spices of India have played a vibrant role in the development of the Western world. They were one of the central reasons why Christopher Columbus set out from Spain to find India. He obviously, and ironically, never reached India but “discovered” the Americas instead, giving our native peoples the lasting misnomer “Indians.” Columbus did bring back spices from the Caribbean and other stops along his misguided way, so Queen Isabella got some of her money’s worth for the long voyage.
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries spices were the most sought-after items in the world, with the Dutch, Chinese, British, and, much later, Americans participating in this search for condiments. Perhaps the most important reason why Europeans coveted reliable sources for spices was that the refrigeration and freezing equipment so common today, as well as our sophisticated preservation methods, were not available. So it’s easy to understand how attractive spices were to both professional and amateur chefs. The bite of coriander or cloves, the vibrance of pepper, the fragrance of cinnamon and other such spices were not only desirable but in fact essential in keeping foods palatable longer. Today spices are used less to preserve foods than to enhance them, to add a piquance that excites the palate or aids the digestion.
(Carum copticuma)
A relative of caraway, it offers pungent and bitter seeds that can satisfy both vata and kapha.
How to Use. Crush the seeds and sprinkle them on top of your favorite milky chai recipe.
Ayurvedic Benefits. Ajwain is used primarily as a digestive or as a carminative and antiseptic. Seeds can be chewed and are excellent after dinner to alleviate indigestion, colic, or intestinal gas.
(Pimenta dioica)
A native of the Americas, allspice is aptly named, because it tastes like a combination of pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, yet has its own distinct flavor. The island of Jamaica still produces the bulk of these berries, which grow to the size of a pea on a large myrtle tree. The tree’s small white flowers have a delicate aroma that infuses the bark, leaves, and berries themselves. The berries are harvested while green and then sun-dried to a brown color.
Prominent in Caribbean cuisine, allspice has been used by the Aztecs and Mayans. Allspice is also known as Jamaica pepper or myrtle pepper, and as Pimenta dioica or Eugenia pimenta, or the pimento tree. Other aromatic shrubs native to the West Indies bear similar names: Carolina allspice (Calycanthus floridus); wild allspice (Lindera benzoin), also known as spicebush or spice wood, fever bush, and allspice tree.
How to Use. Like most spices, allspice berries can be ground to a powder, but when used in chais allspice should always be freshly ground with a mortar and pestle or a pepper mill, to maintain its sharp taste and aroma.
Ayurvedic Benefits. Allspice is warming and therefore beneficial for blood circulation. It also aids digestion.
(Elettaria cardamomum)
This wonderfully fragrant spice comes in two varieties, green and black, but the shades of green range from white to very dark. Generally, the mellower black cardamom is added to savories, and the green to sweets. Because they are more pungent, green cardamom seeds work for all dishes.
Dark green indicates heavily dried pods, usually dried in an oven; light green pods are usually air-dried outside, and white is not at all a natural hue, but a result of bleaching with hydrogen peroxide. Ironically, white is the most expensive, and used by many bakers who like the fact that the whiteness blends in with flours to make a pretty dough that nonetheless takes on the exquisite scent of this spice. Avoid the powders or seeds for your chai drinks; instead, opt for lush green pods, which add the truest flavor without overwhelming the tea.
Black cardamom seeds, which are nearly 1 inch long (green seeds are about 1⁄4 inch), are a botanical cousin but not truly cardamom. They are grown in Africa and dried in a style that lends them a smoky taste, often referred to by connoisseurs as a peppery taste. It is this black cardamom that is common to food in Pakistan and northern India, particularly Indian garam masala (a warm blend of spices).
Although related to cardamom and with a similar aroma, the Melegueta pepper’s tiny grains have a hot peppery taste. This spice is sometimes referred to as grains of Paradise and tastes great in Indian cuisine; it would overwhelm most chai mixes, though.
Hand harvesting helps make cardamom the third most expensive spice in the world (after saffron and vanilla). A member of the ginger family, it grows on a shrub usually 8 to 15 feet high, with long pointed leaves and short flowering stems.
Cardamom is grown primarily in Africa, yet the Malabar Coast of India is actually the world’s largest producer. It also grows in Sri Lanka and recently has been cultivated in Mexico and throughout Central America. Guatemala, known for some of the finest cardamom in the world, has the Middle East as its biggest market, where the custom is to add cardamom to the acidic, thick Arab-style coffee that is so beloved.
Cardamom comes in pods, decorticated (whole seeds), or ground into a powder. Seeds and ground cardamom are considerably less expensive than the whole pods, which can cost upward of $70 per pound. Grinding pods and seeds lowers the price and also lowers the quality because the enemies of spices — air, humidity, heat — have a chance to rear their ugly heads. Starting from the whole pod guarantees a fresher, purer flavor and, ironically, may prove less expensive because there is less waste. Despite its high price, cardamom does offer a great deal of value, because a little goes a long way. Cardamom pods have a long shelf life when properly stored in tightly covered glass jars and placed in a cool, dry spot. Even a masala chai fiend can buy enough cardamom pods to last a year for under $10.
How to Use. Cardamom must be roasted to bring out its full flavor. To roast cardamom, remove the papery pods and then remove the seeds, which are brown-black and somewhat sticky. Heat a skillet (dry) and add the seeds, stirring them constantly with a wooden paddle until roasted, releasing their fragrance.
Ayurvedic Benefits. Cardamom has many digestive properties and acts as a breath freshener when chewed. It is frequently added to mulled wines and punches for an extra feeling of warmth. It has many benefits: It acts as a diuretic, an antigas or antinausea aid, an expectorant, and even, some say, an aphrodisiac. When added to chai, cardamom helps inhibits the mucus-forming properties of milk.
(Cinnamomum zeylanicum)
Native to Sri Lanka, cinnamon actually comes in two varieties: Sri Lankan or Ceylon cinnamon (C. zeylanicum), which grows from a small laurel evergreen tree, and cassia (C. cassia, known in Hindi as dalchini). Cinnamon was prominently mentioned in both Sanskrit manuscripts and the Bible; during the era of the great explorers in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, it became the most sought-after spice in the world.
Cinnamon comes from the tree’s bark, which is pungent and sweet, yet very hot. The outer bark is peeled away from the branch and the inner bark is rolled up into a quill (or quillings) about 1 inch in diameter; this is the familiar rolled cinnamon stick. Cinnamon is available to use as sticks and as pieces of the bark itself. The twigs, pungent and sweet, are not as hot as the bark.
Most of the cinnamon available in the United States is the lower-priced cassia, which originated in Burma and is now cultivated extensively in southern China and Indonesia. Its quills are larger and coarser than cinnamon quills, and much less expensive than true cinnamon. However, cassia has less of the pungency and fire of Sri Lankan cinnamon.
How to Use. If you are using sticks, crush them prior to putting them into tea; ground cinnamon can be brewed with the tea itself but will not give as strong a flavor.
Ayurvedic Benefits. Cinnamon, which can lower blood sugar, may be useful for diabetics; it is also good for chills, the common cold, arthritis, and rheumatism. As an infusion, it is excellent for menstrual cramps and as a general bone tonic because of its warming properties.
(Syzygium aromaticum)
These natives of the Spice Islands (Moluccas) in Southeast Asia look like rusty nails in their dried, unopened flower-bud state. Now grown in Indonesia, Madagascar, Tanzania, Sri Lanka, Grenada, and Malaysia, they are pungent, warm, and strong yet slightly bitter. They’re known in Hindi as laung or as clavus (which means “nail”).
How to Use. Cooking tempers cloves’ bitterness. Only one or two cloves are necessary to infuse a large pot of chai. Simply drop them in whole.
Ayurvedic Benefits. This pungent or katu spice increases vata and pitta and reduces kapha. It’s excellent for chills, lethargy, or depression and for those who are overweight. It is a mild, warming digestive and used to treat neuromuscular degenerative disorders. Use sparingly.
(Coriandrum sativum)
A member of the carrot family, this herb (called dhania in Hindi) has pungent aromatic leaves, which are called Chinese parsley or cilantro, and is used extensively in the cuisines of China and Mexico. To flavor Indian chais use only coriander seeds, not the leaves. An ancient herb (mentioned in the Bible and even found in the tombs of the Egyptian pharaohs), coriander is very popular in northern Europe and in India’s famous curries. Indian coriander seeds are very pungent yet sweet, not unlike the sweet/tart taste of a citrus peel.
How to Use. Coriander seeds taste best freshly roasted and ground.
Ayurvedic Benefits. A digestive, this herb has been noted to have cardiovascular benefits.
Cardamom, which comes in a pod that covers the seed, can actually be used whole for an incredibly delicate yet intoxicatingly perfumed tea. Try it in your finest Darjeeling. Cinnamon most often comes in powder form and adds fire to chai, but if you just want a hint of this spice serve the chai with the cinnamon stick on the side. The stick is stirred in the tea just a few times and produces a mild fiery taste. Fresh ginger is infinitely more pungent than powdered or crystallized ginger, and adds “wow” to your chai. Simply cut off one or two slices from a ginger root and pop it into the tea and spice mixture. Remove the ginger slices with a slotted spoon prior to serving.
(Foeniculum vulgare; F. officinale)
Candy-coated fennel seeds are a colorful digestive and breath freshener served after meals in Indian restaurants and private homes. Dried fennel seeds add a lively touch to chai recipes, particularly herbal ones. However, fennel chais do not have the exceptional warmth and fire that cinnamon or cloves contribute to the brew. The ancient Greeks thought that fennel would help reduce weight and referred to it as marathron, a verb meaning “to grow thin.” It’s known in Hindi as saunf.
How to Use. Crush fennel seeds or use them whole; add them to your chais at the last minute to get the most of the flavor.
Ayurvedic Benefits. Pungent and sweet, fennel helps the circulation, is an anti-inflammatory, and, especially for pregnant women, acts as a uterine stimulant. It also promotes milk flow in lactating women, which helps colicky babies.
(Zingiber officinale)
Known as green or root ginger (adrak in Hindi), this knobby root is a rhizome cultivated in Asia for more than three thousand years. Its clean, spicy flavor has been used for centuries in cooking throughout Asia. As early as the second century the Phoenicians recognized its medical properties and used ginger to calm stomach ills. Ginger was a popular commodity in ancient times, when the Chinese traded this root spice (and their prized silks) to the Romans.
Today ginger is grown throughout the world, including the United States, particularly in Wisconsin, which has similar weather and soil to Korea and northern China and has produced successful crops for a number of years.
How to Use. Peel the fresh ginger and grate into your chai. Although it is available ground as a powder, crystallized, fresh, and dried, as with all spices, fresh provides the best flavor. Buy fresh ginger in small quantities, perhaps one “leg” at a time. To store, wrap it in a paper towel, place in a plastic bag, and refrigerate for best results. Even leaving the roots in a cool dark place, rather than in the refrigerator, tends to age ginger quickly, making it quite fibrous.
Ayurvedic Benefits. Ginger helps stimulate the circulation, promotes sweating, relaxes blood vessels, and is an antiseptic; it’s also used as an expectorant and prevents vomiting. A tisane of ginger and boiling water is excellent for the digestion and for anyone suffering from abdominal bloating, flatulence, or car sickness. A warming herb, it helps sufferers during the onset of migraine; a relative of turmeric, it is often mixed with that spice to help in osteoarthritis. It has excellent toxin-digesting qualities for victims of rheumatism and rheumatoid arthritis. It’s good for colds, flus, cramps, and laryngitis as well.
The Indian cure-all for a cold is often a combination of ginger, turmeric, and jaggery (dark sugar), boiled in water as a tisane. Other homebrews for colds include cinnamon and ginger mixed in boiled milk and water, commonly called ubalo, Hindi for “boiling.”
(Glycyrrhiza glabra)
Licorice gives a decidedly sweet bite to chai blends that’s infinitely more interesting than sugars. It can, however, mask the tastes of other herbs or spices, so add it with a light touch.
How to Use. The licorice herb is cut up and is usually sold in tea bags, which can easily be placed into the brewing water for your tea and removed before drinking. (The candy is processed from the root, plant, and stems with sugar.)
Ayurvedic Benefits. This spice acts as a mild laxative and is excellent for irritated dyspepsia in asthma. As a tonic it is excellent for glandular and adrenal disorders; it has been recommended for coughs, laryngitis, bronchitis, hiccups, and rejuvenating the reproductive system, especially in men. It pacifies vata and pitta, but overuse will increase kapha and cause water retention. It’s also known to improve the voice, eyesight, strength, and hair.
(Myristica fragrans)
First brought to Europe from the Banda Islands in 1512 by the Portuguese, nutmeg has a long and colorful history in other parts of the world. Quite likely it was nutmeg that the first-century Roman writer Pliny described as “a tree that produced a nut with two separate flavors.” The oval-shaped nutmeg is the hard kernel of an evergreen tree native to the Spice Islands (Moluccas) in Southeast Asia. It is wrapped in a bright red lacy covering called mace or aril; both nutmeg and mace are used extensively in Indian cuisine.
For many years Europeans carried nutmeg in graters with a lidded container to hold the kernel so that it could be grated whenever desired. Modern nutmeg graters are still available in a style that holds a kernel or two for convenience. Nutmeg is known as javitri in Hindi and as rou dou kou in Chinese.
Mace, which seems to combine the spice of pepper with the heat of cinnamon, is actually more subtle than nutmeg itself. A coffee grinder or professional nut grinder is best to grate mace blades.
How to Use. Add nutmeg or mace to your chai only at the last minute rather than cooking it with other spices. Both lose flavor very quickly when heated.
Ayurvedic Benefits. Nutmeg helps stave off nausea, vomiting, and the diarrhea that comes from food poisoning. It can be used as a digestive and to help relax, especially when insomnia is present.
(Piper nigrum)
This widely popular spice (the United States is the largest single importer) is the berry of a plant native to the equatorial forests of India. This perennial vine takes eight years to reach maturity, but it bears fruit for up to twenty years afterward. Today it grows in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, and Brazil, although berries from the Malabar Coast of India are considered among the finest. Black, white, and green peppercorns are available from the same berry. The black peppercorn is unripe when picked; it’s then dried, and is the most pungent. When left to ripen and its skin removed, it becomes the white peppercorn.
How to Use. Grind peppercorns for each use for freshness and pungency to flavor chais.
Ayurvedic Benefits. Pepper’s primary benefit is its warming property.
Unpasting herself
from the deep
blue of the sky,
she rises
and walks gently
towards me,
bearing
on her head
an earthen jar
containing
the mysteries
of fresh amphora.
Her shadow
stretches
disappearing
into the blue,
then appears
long and elegant,
dreaming
of Giacometti.
Just as she comes
into focus,
she freezes
within
her tall frame
holding the thaw
of her contents,
the perfume
escaping
just enough
to make me
want more.
— Sudeep Sen
(Crocus sativus)
Because the red stigmas of the crocus flower are handpicked, saffron is the world’s most expensive spice per ounce, although barely a pinch of powder or just one thread is all that is necessary infuse an entire dish or cup of chai with a wonderful fragrance and taste. Saffron is also used to color tea or food in red-to-yellow shades. Desserts made with saffron, from scones to cakes and cookies, offer a delicate balance to any chai drink. It’s grown in Kashmir, India, Greece, and Spain. Check your ethnic markets for lower priced sources.
How to Use. For best flavor use saffron threads rather than the cheaper powders; only one or two are necessary to give a dish color and fragrance. Crush the threads and stir into your dish.
Ayurvedic Benefits. Unknown. Excellent as a flavoring.
(Illicium verum)
Named for its shape, this spice looks like a star or flower with six to nine “points.” (It’s also known as Chinese anise or, in Farsi, badayan.) The fruit of a native Chinese evergreen tree, it is a slow starter that does not bear fruit until it is six years old, although some trees have been known to proffer fruit for one hundred years. After its yellow flowers bloom, the brown fruit opens into star shapes, with each point containing a shiny brown seed. The essential oil of star anise (anethole) is slightly stronger than but quite similar to anise.
How to Use. Place one star anise pod in a cup and pour in your chai; lovely! Star anise can be used whole (the pods are pretty and really do look like stars), or can be either crushed or ground for a milder taste. The Iranians use star anise in a spice blend known as dhnajeera, and Middle Eastern markets are good sources for this special spice. It has a delicate, sweet taste similar to that of anise, the tiny oval seed of the fennel plant (Foeniculum vulgare). For more information on fennel, see here.
Ayurvedic Benefits. A diuretic and stimulant, star anise is quite beneficial for sore throats when made into a tisane.
To make, simply pour boiling water over two or three pods in a cup, allow to steep for 3 to 5 minutes, and add sweetener, if desired. Sip slowly.
(Vanilla planifolia)
Originally from Mexico, the vanilla bean was used as far back as the time of the Aztecs for flavoring hot chocolate. It was the Aztecs who learned how to cure the beans of this climbing orchid by repeatedly sweating and drying them to develop the white crystalline vanillin. Tahiti and Mexico, particularly the state of Veracruz, produce excellent vanilla, and it is also grown in Madagascar, Puerto Rico, Réunion, and throughout Central America.
How to Use. It’s best to use vanilla in its supple dark brown bean state, and though they are expensive, the beans can be used more than once: Split them, scrape out the seeds, and leave the beans to dry for several days. Keeping dried beans in a sealed container of sugar adds the intoxicating aroma of vanilla to the sugar. If you must use vanilla extract, use pure extract; the synthetic has an unpleasant aftertaste that can spoil your chai.
Ayurvedic Benefits. Unknown. Excellent as a flavoring.
The spice grinder’s best tool remains the mortar and pestle. This stone cup and oblong tool, shaped like a thick baseball bat, requires “elbow grease” but provides the chai lover with coarsely ground spices that really amp up the beverage and add the sparkle of spice to your drink.
A battery-powered or motorized spice grinder is also a great tool, but it’s easy to overgrind and the results are powdered spices, which have diffused flavors. Ground spices are best used in baking. A pepper grinder is a perfect way to add whole peppercorns to chais. Avoid grinding spices in a coffee grinder or nut grinder, unless you will be able to clean it thoroughly. Spices are often so strong they will infuse your next grinding of coffee or nuts.
If you have neither mortar and pestle nor spice grinder, do not despair. A large-blade knife like a Chinese cleaver can be used to smash spices into pieces small enough for your chai.