How to Make Chai: A Simple, Authentic Recipe Anyone Can Brew

Most people who love chai have never actually made it at home. Not because it's difficult — it isn't — but because nobody ever showed them how. What arrives at coffee shops is usually made from a powder or a syrup concentrate, which is convenient but tastes nothing like the real thing.

Real masala chai is brewed on the stovetop in about ten minutes. The method matters: spices go in first to extract their essential oils, tea goes in second, milk comes last. Each step builds on the one before it. Once you've made it this way, the coffee shop version doesn't quite satisfy anymore.

Here's exactly how to do it.

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What you'll need

A small pot, a stove, and two things from your kit. That's it — no grinder, no strainer, no measuring spoons.

Ingredients (makes one 9oz cup)

• 1.5 cups water
• 1 Malwa Chai Masala Spice Blend sachet (cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, black peppercorn)
• 1 Malwa Chai Assam Black Tea sachet
• 0.5 cups whole milk (or your preferred dairy alternative)
• Sweetener to taste — 1 teaspoon of sugar is a good starting point

Whole milk gives you the creamiest, most traditional cup. Oat milk is the best plant-based alternative for body and texture. Avoid thin milks like almond or rice — they won't give you the richness that makes chai satisfying.

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How to brew it

1. Boil the water. Pour 1.5 cups of water into a small pot and bring to a full boil over medium-high heat.
2. Add the spice sachet and boil for 3 minutes. Drop in the Masala Spice Blend sachet. Let it boil for 3 minutes — the water will turn golden and the kitchen will start to smell like exactly what's coming. This step extracts the essential oils from the whole spices, which is what gives the chai its depth.
3. Add the tea sachet and boil for another 3 minutes. Drop in the Assam Black Tea sachet alongside the spice sachet. Boil together for 3 more minutes. The liquid will deepen to a rich, dark color. For a stronger cup, let it go an extra minute or two.
4. Add the milk and bring to a boil. Pour in 0.5 cups of milk and increase the heat slightly. Let the mixture come to a full rolling boil — about 1 minute. You'll see it rise in the pot. Watch it closely here so it doesn't boil over.
5. Remove, sweeten, and serve. Take the pot off the heat. Remove both sachets and add sweetener to taste. Pour into your cup and drink while it's hot.

Total brewing time: about 10 minutes.

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Why the sequence matters

The order of spices, tea, then milk isn't arbitrary — it's the method that's been used in Indian households for generations, and there's a reason it stuck.

Spices simmered in water release their essential oils and aromatic compounds differently than they would in milk. Boiling them in water first gives you a cleaner, more intense spice flavor. Tea added after the spices extracts its color and tannins without being muted by milk too early. Milk added last integrates everything, softens the bitterness of the tea, and creates that creamy, unified cup that's the whole point.

Steeping a teabag in hot water and splashing in cold milk produces something that tastes like tea with spices in it. Following the sequence produces something that tastes like chai.

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How to adjust it to your taste

One of the things we love about brewing chai at home is how much control you have. A few small adjustments change the cup significantly.

For a stronger, spicier chai, let the spice sachet boil for 4–5 minutes before adding the tea. For a stronger tea flavor, let the tea sachet go an extra minute or two. For a creamier cup, increase the milk slightly and reduce the water by the same amount. For a lighter cup, flip the ratio the other way.

Sweetener is entirely personal. White sugar is the classic choice and dissolves cleanly. Jaggery — traditional unrefined palm sugar — adds a subtle caramel depth if you can find it. Our Chai Spice Syrup is designed specifically to complement the spices rather than just adding sweetness — one or two pumps in a finished cup is all it takes.

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Making it iced

The same method works beautifully for iced chai. Brew the concentrate using both sachets in 12oz of water rather than the full recipe — skip the milk entirely at this stage. Let it cool, then refrigerate. It keeps for 3–5 days. When you're ready to drink, pour the chilled concentrate over ice and add 2oz of cold milk. A half tablespoon of Chai Spice Syrup ties it together.

Making it as a concentrate means a perfect iced chai takes about thirty seconds once the batch is made. It's the kind of thing that makes a hot afternoon considerably better.