Chai is the word for tea. Not a flavour of tea or a style of it: in Hindi, and across a good part of the world, chai is simply what you call the drink. So a chai latte is, read literally, a tea latte, and the thing English speakers usually mean by the word is masala chai, which is tea with spices. Ours comes hot or iced, and it is made from tea leaves rather than a bottle.
What is actually in the cup
Chai is often poured from a concentrate or built from a powder, which is why it so often tastes of sugar with a suggestion of cinnamon behind it. Our hot chai latte uses no artificial syrups and no premixed powders. It is real tea leaves and organic spices, with a touch of natural citric acid to stop the spice sitting flat. The iced chai is the same blend, chilled. What you notice first is that the tea is still present underneath the spice, rather than buried by it.
Why we make it the long way
Dhi decided early that we would not use pre-mixed ingredients anywhere, and the drinks list was not exempted. It also means choosing suppliers for taste rather than cost, which is how Chai Guy came to sit on our premium suppliers list alongside C4 Coffee Co, Zealong, Barry Callebaut and Heilala Vanilla. If you want the spiced blend at home rather than in the shop, the masala chai concentrate is on our shelf.
If you would rather have the leaf on its own
Chai is not the only way to drink tea here. New Zealand has one tea plantation, Zealong in the Waikato, certified organic and traceable from soil to first sip, and we serve it as a teapot for one. Zealong's Own Chai is among the ten varieties, so you can have the spiced version as a pot of leaf tea rather than a milk drink. If you like tea with milk but want something other than spice, the hot Zealong tea latte and the iced one are made from certified organic tea powder with no sweeteners, additives or preservatives, in Jade, Velvet and Noir.
Most hot and cold drinks on the drinks list can be made with no added dairy, and this is the one part of the menu where that is a standing everyday option rather than a request. On food it stays a request, and our kitchen is small and without exclusive production areas for all of our different recipes, so traces may occur, and nothing is guaranteed safe for severe coeliac disease. One more piece of drinks vocabulary while we are here: "dirty" means a shot of espresso added to a drink that would not otherwise have one.
Two cups and no hurry
A chai is a slow drink, and slow drinks are wasted on someone eating at a counter. The reason to bring another person is straightforward: two cups and something small apiece buys an unhurried hour, and an hour facing someone is the whole point of the outing. Order one hot and one iced and taste both: it is the same blend behaving differently at two temperatures. The room is built for staying: an 1880s building, a plant-filled space with an open kitchen you can watch, tables that move to seat four to eight, two low tables and high chairs for children, and a water bowl for the dog. To eat alongside, the mini desserts are each a single serving, or a Brazilian cheese scone arrives warm with hand-whipped butter and guava jam.
The longer version
When an hour is not enough, the high tea experience is $65 per person for 90 to 120 minutes with bottomless organic Zealong tea, bookable online for up to ten people, with a vegetarian menu and a no-added-gluten option selectable when you book. It needs 48 hours' notice, and one to two weeks for a weekend table, and our account of how a sitting runs covers the rest. To take the same idea home, a petit four tray holds fifteen pieces and suits a tea table.
Ordering and visiting
Every drink is a walk-in. Chai, tea, coffee and anything in the cabinet need no notice, so there is nothing to book. Made-to-order items need two days, some larger desserts three and petit four trays seven, and anything ordered online is collected in person from our patisserie inside The Welder on Welles Street in the central city, since we do not deliver. We are open 10am to 6pm Tuesday to Friday and 10am to 3pm Saturday.
