Guwahati is the gateway to India's Northeast — eight states, extraordinary biodiversity, and a chai culture rooted in Assam's tea-growing identity. The city where the Brahmaputra meets the plains.

Pondicherry is one of India's strangest and most charming cities — a former French colony where baguettes coexist with filter coffee and the Tamil town's chai culture runs parallel to the French Quarter's cafes.

Once the summer capital of the British Raj, Shimla retains a particular atmosphere — cool mountain air, Victorian architecture, and chai that warms you from the inside in ways that matter at altitude.

Manali sits at 2,050 metres in the Kullu Valley — the point where the Beas river begins its descent from the high passes. The chai here is made for altitude, made for cold, and made for the particular feeling of being very small in front of very large mountains.

Udaipur is considered India's most romantic city — its marble palaces rising from the lake shores, its sunsets impossible. The chai here matches its setting: saffron-tinged, unhurried, and deeply Rajasthani.

Ahmedabad — India's first UNESCO World Heritage City — has a chai culture as layered as its old town's carved havelis. The Gujarati chai-fafda breakfast is one of India's great culinary traditions.

Lucknow's Awadhi culture is one of India's most refined — and its chai reflects that. Cardamom-forward, fragrant, served with ceremony. This is the city where chai became an art form.

Pune's Irani café tradition is one of India's most endangered and most beloved culinary institutions. Marble tables, bentwood chairs, bun maska, and chai — a culture worth celebrating before it disappears.

The Nilgiri Hills produce a tea unlike anything else in India — bright, brisk, and fragrant. Ooty's colonial hill station charm and its surrounding tea estates make for one of South India's most rewarding chai journeys.

Where the Ganges descends from the mountains and the world comes to practise yoga, chai takes on a spiritual dimension. Rishikesh's chai culture blends Ayurvedic herbs, mountain coldness, and the river's particular energy.

Hyderabad's Irani chai tradition is unlike anything else in India — a separate brewing vessel, a different kind of milk, and an Osmania biscuit that was invented to dip into it.

Old Delhi's chai culture is ancient, dense, and utterly alive. From the Jama Masjid steps to the spice market of Khari Baoli, this is where chai and city are indistinguishable.

Munnar's high-altitude tea gardens produce some of India's most distinctive tea. Mist, mountain air, and a cup at a hillside estate is Kerala's quietest luxury.

In Jaipur's old walled city, chai wallahs occupy every corner near the bazaars and forts. Rajasthani chai is spiced hard and poured high — this is the full-bodied heart of North Indian tea culture.

The Brahmaputra valley produces more tea than almost anywhere on earth. Walking through Assam's tea gardens and drinking the freshest CTC at a garden bungalow is a journey to the source.

In Amritsar, chai is inseparable from devotion. The city that hosts one of the world's most visited sites runs on a unique blend of Punjabi warmth and thick, spiced tea.

Mumbai runs on chai from its thousands of tapris — tiny street stalls that serve as the city's unofficial meeting rooms, offices, and therapy couches.

High in the foothills of the Himalayas, the tea gardens of Darjeeling produce what is often called the Champagne of teas. A guide to visiting and drinking.

In Kolkata, chai and intellectual debate have been inseparable for over a century. The city's tea houses — especially around College Street — are institutions.

There is no better way to experience Varanasi than with a clay kulhad of chai at sunrise on the Ganges. This ancient city runs on chai and ritual.