Where does Chai tea come from?

Chai Tea has been around for thousands of years…that’s a long time, right!

Chai was supposedly created when the King of the country that is now India ordered a spiced beverage to be concocted for healing purposes. The spices used in this initial recipe, were all loosely proven to have healing properties; cloves having antiseptic qualities, cinnamon supposedly improving circulation and so on. To date, there is no right or wrong way of creating a Chai recipe – variation of spices used and quantities of each vary between countries.

Funnily enough, the word ‘chai’ actually means ‘tea’ in Hindi – so, when we feel all sophisticated asking for a fancy Chai tea, we are in fact asking for ‘tea tea’. Chai is a wonderful black tea, packed full of complimenting spice flavours, instantly warming your insides – a perfect winter drink!

Rewind back to 5000 or so years ago, Chai tea didn’t actually contain any tea leaves and were only added to recipes in around the 1800’s. As tea was an export, it was actually extremely expensive and therefore popularity of Chai as we know it today, using tea didn’t surge until the mid-1900’s.

Fast forward to today and Chai tea is one of the most popular beverages around – people still believe that the spices in this form can aid a number of health issues and it’s taste admiration is prevalent on a worldwide scale! Why not check out our BRUU Chai tea blends!