I thought about entering a chai recipe, but then saw that a few had been posted already and was going to skip it. Then I read those recipes and felt that I needed to set the record straight and tell everyone how to make pukka (proper) chai. In India you’ll never get a pukka chai in a restaurant. It is widely held that the only place to get pukka chai is on the street, generally from a man sitting on the ground with a small white spirit stove and a saucepan. No water is involved, and the quality of tea is the cheapest of the cheap. The milk is generally a blend of cow and buffalo and so the fat content comes in at an artery clogging 6% or so. You’ll be forgiven for substituting ordinary whole milk, but bonus points to those of you who do the math and add a bit of cream to up the ante.

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