Chai is the word for tea. Not a flavour of tea, not a style of it. In Hindi, and across a good part of the world, chai is simply what you call the drink. Read literally, then, a chai latte is a tea latte. What English speakers usually mean by the word is masala chai: tea with spices. Ours comes hot or iced. Tea leaves, not a bottle.
What is actually in the cup
Most chai gets poured from a concentrate or shaken out of a powder. You can taste the shortcut going in. Sugar first, a suggestion of cinnamon somewhere behind it, and very little tea. Our hot chai latte is $7, and it carries no artificial syrups and no premixed powders. Real tea leaves, organic spices, and a touch of natural citric acid to stop the spice sitting flat on the tongue. What you notice first is the tea, still there underneath the spice and not buried by it, leaving a dry warmth at the back of the throat. The iced chai is the same blend, chilled, and it costs the same $7.
Why we make it the long way
Dhi decided early that we would not use pre-mixed ingredients anywhere, and the drinks list got no exemption. Choose suppliers for taste and not for cost, and the same decision follows you onto the drinks menu. Chai Guy earned a place on our premium suppliers list that way, alongside C4 Coffee Co, Zealong, Barry Callebaut and Heilala Vanilla. Want the spiced blend at home? The masala chai concentrate is on our shelf. Nineteen dollars.
If you would rather have the leaf on its own
Chai is not the only way to drink tea here. New Zealand has exactly 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 at $7. Zealong's Own Chai sits among the ten varieties. So you can take the spiced version as a pot of leaf tea instead of a milk drink. Like tea with milk but not with spice? The hot Zealong tea latte and the iced one are $8. Certified organic tea powder, 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 and not a request. On food it stays a request. 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. Slow drinks are wasted on someone eating standing at a counter. So bring another person. Two cups and something small apiece buys an unhurried hour. An hour facing someone is the whole point of the outing. Order one hot and one iced, and put them side by side. Same blend, two temperatures, two different drinks: the hot one opens out and coats the mouth, the cold one lands sharper and thinner. The room is built for staying. An 1880s building, plants everywhere, an open kitchen you can watch, tables that move to seat four to eight, two low tables and high chairs for children, a water bowl for the dog. To eat alongside, the mini desserts are each a single serving, or a Brazilian cheese scone arrives warm and faintly chewy, pulling apart in the hand, with hand-whipped butter and guava jam.
The longer version
When an hour is not enough, the high tea experience runs $65 per person for 90 to 120 minutes, with bottomless organic Zealong tea. Book online for up to ten people. A vegetarian menu and a no-added-gluten option are selectable as you go. Allow 48 hours' notice, and one to two weeks for a weekend table. Our Christchurch high tea page covers the rest. To take the same idea home, a petit four tray holds fifteen pieces and suits a tea table.
Walking in for a cup
Every drink is a walk-in. Chai, tea, coffee and anything sitting in the cabinet need no notice, so there is nothing at all to book. Made-to-order items need two days, some larger desserts three and petit four trays seven. Anything ordered online is collected in person from our patisserie inside The Welder on Welles Street in the central city, because we do not deliver. Open 10am to 9pm Tuesday to Saturday.
