Irani Chai

Typical dialogues in a Irani Café.

Arey bhai ek chai daalna. Ek dam strong !

Aur ek plate samosa… oh chote wale le aana.

Hyderabad is famous for its Iraani chai and here is its recipe.

It takes 5 litres of boiled milk, 6 litres of water, 300-400 grams of tea dust and 1.3 kgs of sugar to make 100 cups of 90 ml each. Tea dust and sugar are added to the water, and boiled for twenty minutes, forming a decoction

This decoction is filtered into another container to remove traces of the tea dust

Milk is boiled separately for 45 minutes in a samovar — a copper container with a spigot at the bottom. After it reaches boiling point, the milk is left to simmer further for 2 hours, till it condenses and is rid of its water content for the most part

A cup of Irani chai is made of equal parts of the condensed milk and the decoction

Sugar is not added to the milk while condensing as it caramelises, changing both texture and taste.