Chai Pilgrimage

GINGER

Ginger has been used as a medicinal plant around the world since antiquity. Called the “universal medicine,” it is used in Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Western herbalism for a broad range of conditions. Ginger’s warming quality counteracts many cold-induced illnesses brought on during the winter. It is a common home remedy that is safely used with children for colds, flu, sore throat and sinus congestion. It can calm stomach nausea, vomiting and motion sickness and help relieve intestinal gas and abdominal cramping, including menstrual cramps. We found it indispensable for these conditions while traveling in India and always carried it in our daypack, eating it raw as a first aid treatment.

Ginger burns up mucus and congestion and acts as an expectorant for the lungs. It cleanses the body by burning up toxins or eliminating them through the skin by promoting perspiration. Although it is heating, it can actually cool you down on a hot day by making you sweat. By neutralizing toxins and promoting circulation, it helps treat rheumatic conditions and osteo-arthritis.

Ginger is a powerful digestive because it stimulates saliva flow, ignites the digestive fire and tones the stomach. Dr. Vasant Lad suggests eating a slice of ginger with a few drops of lemon juice and a pinch of mineral salt before eating to promote digestion. As an entire medicine chest in one plant, it is a good idea to always have some on hand in your home.

Ginger is the primary spice in masala chai. The fresh root (actually a rhizome) is available at most supermarkets. To use it, grate, smash or thinly slice the fresh root and add it to the simmering masala. Using a cheese grater is the simplest method and there is no need to peel it. In a pinch, you can use dried ginger powder, but the whole, fresh ginger root will offer the best flavor.

CARDAMOM

Cardamom is equal in standing to ginger as a classic masala chai spice. In fact, even if you use only these two spices in your chai, you can create a tasty, well-balanced brew. Cardamom is traditionally used to improve one’s taste sensation. Added to chai, it can open your taste buds, allowing you to truly appreciate a yummy batch of chai. It also counteracts the mucus-forming properties of milk, making it a balancing addition to a milky chai. It has the added benefit of freshening the breath.

For the lungs, cardamom is useful for those suffering from asthma, breathlessness or bronchitis. It is also used to alleviate colds and cough and as an expectorant to expel phlegm. Cardamom is indicated as an herbal remedy for many symptoms of digestive upset including indigestion, nausea, vomiting, belching, flatulence, bloating, colic and acid reflux.

For the best tasting masala chai, use whole, plump, green cardamom pods. Thoroughly grind the pod, and the brownish seeds within, with a mortar and pestle or a spice/coffee grinder. If you cannot find the whole pods, the decorticated (pod removed) seeds can be used, but will lack the fresh flavor of the full pod. It is not worth buying the powder because it oxidizes quickly after being ground and has already lost its potency and flavor on the shelf. I have found it is best not to boil the cardamom, but to add it to the masala after turning off the heat and let it steep. The volatile oils, and with them the flavor and medicinal value, are diminished with boiling.

CINNAMON

Cinnamon is called tvak in Sanskrit, which literally means skin, because it is obtained by peeling off the sweet inner bark, or skin, of the tree. Like many other chai spices, cinnamon’s warming nature aids digestion and is traditionally used for a variety of stomach and intestinal imbalances such as indigestion, nausea, gas, vomiting and diarrhea. As a home remedy, it can be made into a tea or added to food to improve circulation, warming cold hands and feet and relieving a general feeling of coldness. It can also alleviate menstrual pain, abdominal cramping and muscle spasms. The oil is used for toothache and dental infections.

Cinnamon warms the internal body, and is used medicinally in Ayurveda as a tonic for the organs and to increase vitality. It warms the kidneys, strengthens the adrenals and the heart and purifies the blood. Acting as an expectorant on the lungs, it is useful for coughs, congestion and asthma. Cinnamon is considered an aphrodisiac and is used for male sexual debility.

When adding cinnamon to chai, it is better to use the stick rather than the powder. This will give your chai a richer taste as well as preventing your chai from becoming “muddy” from fine cinnamon powder that does not thoroughly strain out. The flavor of cinnamon can be overpowering and easily dominate a chai if too much is used. Using just a little as an accent adds a wonderfully sweet taste.

FENNEL

Fennel is a gentle home remedy useful for many stomach and intestinal discomforts.  It can be used safely by children and the elderly for indigestion, gas, cramps, abdominal pains and gastrointestinal spasms.  It is an indispensable herb for nursing mothers and babies because it promotes lactation and can soothe colic.  At Indian restaurants, one usually encounters a bowl of roasted fennel seeds at the exit, so that after indulging, a spoonful can be chewed to aid digestion and prevent gas formation.  You can easily roast your own at home and keep them out to munch any time to gently kindle your digestive fire.  Simply dry roast the seeds in a skillet until they are slightly browned and you get a waft of the aromatic medicine.  It makes a delicious after dinner tea on its own, or with a little fresh ginger.

Fennel is an amiable component to add to just about any masala chai recipe because it offers a delicate hint of licorice flavor that will never overpower.  And because fennel is not hot, like many other chai spices, it is the perfect flavorful addition to a summer chai or a children’s masala.  It has become a mainstay in our home chai since the birth of our daughter to help keep the mother’s milk flowing. The seeds are soft, so you can either throw them into your simmering masala whole, or crush them a little in your mortar and pestle to unlock the flavor.

CLOVE

Clove is a dried flower bud picked from a tropical evergreen tree.  Traditionally, it is chewed whole after a meal to freshen the breath and stimulate digestion.  It can also be taken as a tea for nausea, indigestion or gas.  Mixed with honey it is used to alleviate colds and cough.  Clove is commonly added to aphrodisiac concoctions.

Clove has a very strong, somewhat bitter flavor that can easily override the other spices in a batch of chai.  For a balanced masala chai, start with a couple of cloves at first, and then add more if you like, to taste.  Clove is an energetically very hot spice, so leave it out during the summer months or if you have excess heat in your system.

PEPPER

Black Pepper is native to the Malabar region of South India.  For thousands of years, it has been the world’s most popular and widely traded spice.  In fact, America was accidentally “discovered” by Europeans while they were looking for a more direct route to secure their beloved pepper.

In Sanskrit it is called Marich, a name for the Sun, because of the tiny fruit’s ability to store such immense heat.  This fire is pepper’s gift to the human body.  It stimulates metabolism, burns up congestion and toxins and destroys parasites and worms.  It also dries up mucus in the sinuses and throat and helps to dry and expectorate mucus in the lungs.

It is a component of the traditional Ayurvedic formula Trikatu, meaning “three pungents,” consisting of black pepper, ginger and pippali long pepper.  It is used to improve digestive strength, burn toxins and improve the body’s capacity to assimilate nutrients.  This remedy can be taken as a powder or mixed with honey as a “lickable” for coughs, colds and congestion.  It is specifically beneficial for the respiratory system.

Black peppercorns are harvested before they ripen, then sun dried until they turn black.  White peppercorns are allowed to ripen on the plant, then have the skin removed.  Black pepper is hotter than white and has a slightly stronger taste.

Black Pepper can seriously pep up your chai.  If you are running low on ginger, a few peppercorns can easily bring up the heat level.  Be careful, however, not to create a masala chai that is too hot to drink!  As with all spices, for the freshest flavor, grind the whole peppercorns just before adding them to your masala.

NUTMEG

Nutmeg is actually a seed, not a nut, but offers a slightly sweet, nutty flavor.  It contains sedative properties that can relax the mind, making it ideal to add to your hot milk at bedtime.  It also serves to increase appetite and improve digestion.  It is yet another aphrodisiac chai spice that works in two ways. According to Ayurveda, Nutmeg acts as a sexual stimulant as well preventing premature ejaculation.  Again, perfect for a nighttime tea.

Just a little bit of freshly grated powder in your masala chai brings out an aromatic freshness and grounding nut flavor.  You can either simmer it with the masala, or place a small pinch of powder on the bottom of each cup and pour the chai over it.

ALLSPICE

Allspice, also called pimento, is native to Central and South America and the Caribbean.  In recent years it has begun to be cultivated in India, but it is not a traditional Indian masala chai spice.  But allspice, like its name signifies, possesses the flavors of an entire chai masala in one extraordinary dried evergreen berry.  Notes of ginger, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and pepper are discernable in the aroma and on the palate, but nutmeg offers its own distinct flavor that is a synergetic combination of all of these.  As a pungent spice, it is warming to the body and aids circulation and digestion.

Allspice is an enigmatic accent to the traditional Eastern spices used to make chai.  It can also be used as a substitute spice for the many spice flavors it encapsulates.  Use the whole dried berry and grind in to a powder in a mortar and pestle.  Jamaican allspice is renown as the best.

TULSI

Tulsi, also know as holy basil, is a sacred medicinal herb revered as a Goddess throughout India.  Her healing powers extend beyond her use in tea, as her very presence is believed to bestow protection and wellbeing.  In the courtyards of Hindu homes we visited, there was always a Tulsi plant in a prominent location enthroned on a decorated clay pedestal.  Each morning and evening, the families made offerings to her with a ghee lamp, incense and flowers and prayed for her blessings. Tulsi’s woody stems are made into japa malas, or prayer beads, which are said to purify the body and mind of the wearer and fill him with bhakti, or devout love for the Divine.  Her leaves or sweet-scented flowers accompany all ritual offerings made to Lord Vishnu and his incarnation, Krishna.  In fact, each year the festival of Tulsi Vivah celebrates the wedding of Tulsi with Vishnu and starts off the marriage season in India.

Tulsi is a curative cornucopia of the plant world.  In India, Tulsi is commonly taken for colds, coughs, flu and fever. Tulsi acts as a powerful adatpogen, assisting the body in maintaining homeostasis when faced with stressful influences, whether physical, psychological or environmental, like pollution or exposure to pathogens.  By keeping the body in a balanced state of health, Tulsi offers protection from the many diseases caused by these stressors.  Tulsi empowers the body with physical stamina, strengthens immune function and offers a generous supply of antioxidants.  She enhances digestion and assists in the absorption of nutrients from food or other herbs.  Tulsi also supports the function of the heart, lungs and liver.

Whether she obtained her status as Goddess because of her profound healing abilities, or healing indwells Tulsi because she is the Goddess, is inconsequential.   The meaning of her name accurately describes her transcendental nature: “One who has no comparison.”

If you live in a warm region or have ample sunlight in your home, it is simple to propagate Tulsi for both her sacred ambience, and to pluck a few leaves each day to steep in your masala chai.  A leaf can also be placed on top of a fresh cup of chai as a Goddess garnish suitable for the Supreme Being.  If you do not have fresh Tulsi, you can still consummate your chai by infusing the dried leaves or powder in your masala.  These are available at Indian grocers and from Ayurvedic herb suppliers.

Because Tulsi energizes the body while at the same time calming the mind, she is the perfect addition to a wholesome, caffeine-free masala tea.

SAFFRON

Saffron is the dried golden-red stigma of the purple saffron crocus.  Each flower contains only three stigmas and must be individually hand-harvested when it first blooms in autumn.  This small yield and labor-intensive collecting process makes saffron the most expensive spice in the world.

Ayurveda considers saffron to be a sattvic herb, meaning its energy is pure and it can promote clarity in the mind and heart of one who ingests it.  As an herbal medicine, saffron cools the blood, making it useful for soothing inflammatory conditions and rejuvenating the blood.  Being a sexual organ itself, its medicine acts to balance the reproductive system.  Traditionally it is used to treat infertility, impotence and to regulate menstruation.  Pregnant women should avoid it.

Saffron has the aroma of hay dipped in honey.  Its flavor is subtle, but quite potent, so a little goes a long way.  Only a few strands are needed to enliven a batch of chai with the fresh taste that can only come from such a delicate, floral substance.  It can offer a high octave bouquet of ethereal essence that can balance out the harsher bitter tones of black tea, giving you a full spectrum chai.  Using too much can make your chai bitter and dangerously toxic.

I find the best way to use saffron in chai is to steep it separately in the milk, after it has boiled, while the other spices are simmering in the water.  Its color will suffuse into the milk, imparting a royal yellow color.  You can also place a strand on the bottom of the cup and pour the chai over the saffron, or simply garnish with a thread on top.