How to Make a Masala Chai with Green Tea

The Masala Chai with Green Tea is a riff on a classic Masala Chai, a traditional Indian spiced tea drink. In addition to the grassy green tea, this warming drink gets is flavored with black tea, ground cardamom, whole cloves, star anise, and ginger. Granulated sugar and whole milk create a silky-textured drink with gentle sweetness.

This version was developed by cookbook author and content creator Hetal Vasavada. For this recipe, Vasavada makes clear that not all teas are created equal. For the best results, she recommends CTC (crush, tear, curl) loose-leaf tea for the black tea used here.

This method of black tea processing turns the tea leaves into small hard pellets and yields brewed tea with a rich red color. Vasavada suggests looking for brands like Wagh Bakri CTC Leaf Tea or Typhoo Tea.

To amplify and concentrate the tea flavor, Vasavada brews the green and black teas in a small amount of water (only 1/3 cup) that almost entirely evaporates during the cook. The spices and aromatics are stirred in along with whole milk and the mixture gets boiled multiple times (a technique called scalding) which yields subtle nutty notes are the milk solids caramelize.