Last fall when Jen, Bobby and I visited our friends from JOYN in India (see here and here to read more), I noticed they took a break every day to drink chai tea together.
I love how my friend Rikki from JOYN explains this Indian tradition:
“Chai time” (that’s what the locals call it) is about coming together in community. Everywhere we go people take a break for chai time and if you are in the vicinity, you are invited to take part. We have had chai with our fabric “wallas” (fabric guys), our local shopkeepers, and even strangers! Chai helps to build a bridge between classes, families, cultures and strangers. When two people sit down to drink chai, for a moment they become equal in a world that doesn’t always promote that.
At our JOYN offices we always take a break at around 3:00 to drink a cup of chai together. It is personally one of my favorite parts of the day! JOYN’s residential cook, Jenchup, goes through the office yelling: “Betche Logue” (all my children), chai chai chai!” This is her loving way to call us all into community for a bit of chai and friendship.
A bit of chai and friendship. Love that. And it’s so true. On our trip, we got to experience drinking chai with the locals firsthand. Mel and Rikki took us on a walking tour of their town when we first arrived in Rajpur.
We visited Parlahad Singh’s new home that was just built using money from a JoyCorps micro loan. Parhalad and his wife, Rekka are JOYN block printers. They have four children and were one of the first families to come to JOYN. Their family of six previously lived in a house with one small room and one bed, and they shared the house with their father. They even had to cook outside. Now they have the joy of owning their own home and making it their own!
Even though we were strangers and had popped over unannounced, they invited us to stay for a cup of chai. We might not have been able to speak the same language, but we knew and understood the honor of their hospitality.
You can see a bit of their new home in the back there.
Now, I am not a huge fan of coffee, and I only recently started drinking hot tea (Irish Breakfast with a splash of milk – yum!). But give me a good cup of spicy sweet chai, and it is a good day!
Lucky for me there’s a little thing called Pinterest because I’ve found a chai tea mix recipe that is so good and super easy! You can find the original recipe here (and a cute printable with my revised version here!).
Ingredients:
1 cup nonfat dry milk powder
1 cup powdered non-dairy powder creamer
1 cup French vanilla flavored non-dairy powder creamer
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups unsweetened instant tea
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ground cardamomIn a large bowl, whisk together all the ingredients. In a food processor, blend one cup at a time until mix becomes a fine powder. (Don’t skip this step or the spices will clump in the hot water and not dissolve well!)
I added about three spoonfuls to a mug of hot water. My verdict: Yum! I sure am glad, too, because this recipe makes more than six cups of chai tea mix! And I think I like it better than my local coffee shop’s version. And that, my friends, is saying something.
It’s not quite as authentic as what we drank in India, but it is GOOD. (I think it’s probably all that sugar. Or the second teaspoon of allspice that wasn’t in the original recipe!)
Chai time may just become an afternoon tradition for me (and whichever of my co-workers I can convince to take a break !). A real-life tea party would also be a great excuse to get together with your (in)RL meet-up gals!
What about you? Do you normally take an afternoon break? What does that look like? Do you invite others to take a break with you?
For a pretty printable recipe, click here.
Marcy says
Perfectionism often keeps me from community. Well, that and a deep fear of people. On the outside I think I appear loaded with community and sometimes I feel that way too, but mostly I just feel lonely. I often don’t ask people to join me for fear that they’ll either say ‘no’ or even worse that they might say ‘yes’. I adore chai though and think I’ll whip up this recipe and look for opportunities to be with peeps this summer. Thank you!!
Katie Matzenbacher says
Marcy,
Praying you can find time to take breaks with people you care about this summer without anxiety. Hang in there. And let us know what you think when you make the recipe! Just know that it makes A LOT. You may want to halve it to start. 🙂
All the best,
Katie
Sharon says
I could have written this. I am deeply afraid of social interaction. I long for community but am so scared to make plans with people and follow through.
Susan Shipe says
It is only 11:50 a.m. here but coincidentally I am sitting here enjoying a mug of Rooibos Chai tea! Printing the recipe and making it SOON!
Katie Matzenbacher says
Haha that’s awesome!
Joanne Peterson says
I love chai. A friend who was a missionary to Pakistan gave me a recipe, and it is delicious! There is something soothing about a fragrant cup of tea sipped leisurely, either alone or in the company of other people.
I appreciate the pictures and think the women of India are so beautiful in their salwar kameez or saris. I know they under go so much oppression and are so often mistreated and abused, but they are never the less beautiful.
Katie Matzenbacher says
I agree – they are a beautiful people. And that’s why I love the work JOYN is doing so much. They provide employment and dignity for both men AND women that may otherwise not be able to find work. You can see the joy and hope in their faces.
Amy Ward says
I love taking breaks and sipping on Chai (iced in the summer here in Georgia, hot in winter) while working at home. My break is usually time to shift focus from busyness to rest, preferably alone. I enjoy sitting on the front porch during this time of day.
Thanks for the recipe, too!
Katie Matzenbacher says
Yum! How do you make your iced chai? I’ve never made it iced before.
Julie says
Katie,
Thank you so much for this timely post. I recently watched a Globe Trekker episode on PBS about tea around the world. It was so fascinating. People take their tea seriously!
What stood out to me was the community and the time taken every day to slow down and visit. As I watched I thought to myself, I wish we could have that here! Everything is rush, rush, rush. Even when we do stop for tea or coffee, often it’s rushing through the drive-through.
Your post encourages me to make the effort to invite a neighbor over for tea or coffee time. It doesn’t have to be fancy, but it does have to be intentional. Maybe one person at a time and one tea cup at a time, we can begin to slow down and learn from other cultures the beauty of community.
Katie Matzenbacher says
Julie,
I love your idea to use tea to intentionally slow down! And I love learning from other cultures. We can learn so much from how others do things differently than us.
Beth WIlliams says
I should have been born in England or India. I am a “tea fanatic”. I love all kinds of tea from Earl Grey, Lady Grey, Irish and English Breakfast, Etc. I will drink tea for breakfast, lunch and even with dinner.
I don’t usually take an afternoon break. Work is usually busy and trying to finish up before leaving. I wish more companies in US would give afternoon breaks to their employees. A break in the afternoon would allow for rest & make employees more productive. We tend to have people just work a lot of hours and not even think about their health or friendships.
We should be more like the Mexicans, Indians (India), and other countries that use the afternoon break. They tend to have fewer health issues and more friendships,