Issue #4 of the Chai Bhai newsletter. One cup, once a month. Pour before reading.
Why Winter Chai Hits Differently
There is a physiological reason that the same cup of chai tastes better in cold weather than in heat. The contrast between the external temperature and the warmth of the liquid is greater — your body registers the relief more acutely. But there is also a culinary reason: winter chai is made differently.
Across India, the spice ratios shift with the season. Ginger (adrak) gets heavier — often doubled. Black pepper appears, a warming spice rarely used in summer blends. In Rajasthan and Punjab, dry ginger powder (soonth) replaces or supplements fresh ginger in winter, producing a sharper, more penetrating warmth that is entirely the point.
The Ayurvedic reasoning is straightforward: these spices are thermogenic — they generate internal heat by stimulating circulation and increasing metabolic rate. Your grandmother's insistence on extra ginger in December was not superstition. It was applied science.
The Winter Chai Blend
This is the blend we make at Chai Bhai HQ through the coldest months:
Per 2 cups:
- 250ml whole milk + 100ml water
- 2 tsp Assam CTC
- 4 slices fresh ginger (thumb-thick coins, bruised)
- 4 green cardamom pods, cracked
- 6 black peppercorns, cracked
- 1 small cinnamon stick
- 2 cloves
- Jaggery or raw sugar to taste
Bring the water and spices to a boil first. Simmer 3 minutes. Add milk, bring back to a simmer. Add tea. Steep 2 minutes. Strain. The pepper is not optional.
“The winter chai is not decorative. It is functional. Its job is to warm you from the sternum outward — and it does.
From the Archive: Kangri Chai
In Kashmir and the high Himalayas, winter chai takes on a completely different character. Noon chai (salt tea, also called pink chai or Kashmiri chai) is made with green tea, milk, bicarbonate of soda, and salt — no sugar, no masala. The bicarbonate reacts with the tea to produce the distinctive rose-pink colour.
It is served in small cups, sometimes multiple times a day, alongside baqerkhani (a flaky, enriched Kashmiri bread) or tschot (a ring-shaped sesame bread). In the mountains, where winter temperatures drop to -15°C, noon chai is consumed through the day from a kangri — a small clay fire pot carried under a woollen cloak.
It is one of the most beautiful chai traditions in India and one of the least known outside the valley.
Next month: New Year chai rituals — how India's different communities welcome the year with tea.
Chai piyo, zindagi jiyo.
— Chai Bhai