Irani Chai Recipe (Hyderabadi Irani Tea)

Irani Chai is a popular tea drink from Irani cafes in India. A strong black tea concoction is mixed with flavored sweetened thick creamy milk for a delicious & robust Irani Chai. Learn to make a perfect cup of Hyderabadi Irani Chai at home with this simple recipe.

Irani Chai has a long history that connects people from different races, cultures & religions.

If you go around some Indian cities like Mumbai & Hyderabad at any time of the day, you’ll spot people from different backgrounds crowded around Irani Cafes while chatting about everything possible.

One of the many exciting & unique experiences in India could be trying a meal at an Irani cafe. Many of the cafes are nearly a hundred years old at least, with wood-crafted interiors and architecture slightly reminiscent of British colonial.

Even as you enter there are often displays of various breads, cookies, cakes, and other sweets and dainty nibbles available.

Alongside traditional recipes like pulao with barberries, keema pao (bread stuffed spiced ground meat), mawa cake, and akuri (Parsi scrambled eggs), you’re likely to drink a special tea called Irani Chai to chase it all down.

But what about the history of these Irani cafes that makes them so special? How is Irani chai different from the eponymous and popular Masala Chai or the Adrak Chai? And what exactly makes a famous chai Irani style anyway?

Origins of Irani Cafes

Irani cafes, also sometimes known as Parsi cafes, began to show up in various parts of India after an influx of Iranian immigrants during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Iranians and the already-existing Parsi community began opening cafes serving their tea and other dishes to feed hungry workers from the textile mill and busy port of Mumbai.

One of the reasons these cafes were so popular besides the food, was that they were a neutral space where cultural and religious taboos were put aside and everyone could eat together.

At their most popular, 400 Irani cafes were open across Mumbai. By 2019, there were less than 40.

If there’s one thing many folks still remember about those disappearing Irani cafes, it’s the unique Chai they served.

About Hyderabadi Irani Chai

Hyderabadi Irani Chai is one of the special foods you can order at an Irani Cafe. In fact, one legend for the start of the cafes says that the idea came from get-togethers where Irani immigrants and Parsi inhabitants reminisced about their homeland and ate their favorite dishes including their black tea (chai without milk).

Later they started to serve Milk Chai suitable to the local palate and over the years the much richer & creamy Irani Chai came into existence.

The standard ingredients used to make a Irani Chai are loose leaf tea/ dust, a milk product, cardamoms, and sugar. Some versions also use a special Chai Spice blend.

There are not many ways to make Irani Chai, but the milk product used varies from region to region. While fresh raw milk is most common dairy product used, ingredients like Mawa/ khoya, condensed milk, evaporated milk and milk powder are also used in some places.

What makes an Hyderabadi Irani Chai special is the use of fresh raw water buffalo milk that is simmered for a reasonably longer time to give the drink a thicker and creamy mouth feel.

Since this kind of milk is higher in fats and thicker than the cow’s milk, it makes the best Irani Chai. In the absence of raw water buffalo milk, the other ingredients like mawa and milk powder are used along with regular cows’ milk.

Khoya, or mawa, is made by simmering full-fat milk until the liquid is gone and only the solids are left. This makes for a great substitute to the water buffalo milk.

Water buffalo milk makes the best khoya due to its high fattiness and natural sweetness. It will also give you an incredibly rich and delicious Irani chai. Cow’s milk mawa will also work and might be easier to find if you live outside India.

My Recipe

This recipe shows you how to make Irani Chai using cow’s milk. If you find buffalo milk or goat milk, you can use that as well. Though raw milk is the best I make this often with non-homogenized (pasteurized) milk.

The most popular Hyderabadi Irani Chai has a thick layer of cream served with it. A lot of places serve as is with clotted cream and some places break down the cream by pulling the milk as it boils.

I know a lot of us have a love-hate relationship with the layers of cream in our milk and chai drinks. But this cream tastes different and is not bland like the plain clotted cream. However if you do not like it, simply aerate/pull the milk with a ladle as you boil or whisk it well.

Differences between Masala Chai and Irani Chai

On the surface, Masala Chai and Irani Chai seem quite similar but taste very different because the preparation techniques are different.

Both use black tea as a base, add sugar to sweeten, include spices to round out the flavor, and mix in some kind of dairy product to add a mellow creaminess to the tea.

Here are the key differences:

• The ratio of water : milk is different in both these tea. Irani Chai consists of more milk that is simmered down longer for a creamy and thicker mouth feel. It also requires higher amount of tea compared to the Masala Chai because evaporated milk requires stronger black tea.
• To make Irani Chai, tea decoction and milk are simmered separately in different pots & this helps them develop more substantial and deeper flavors. They both get mixed only at the time of serving. Where as to make Masala Chai, we simmer the tea decoction first and then add the milk and continue to simmer a little longer until the milk losses its flavor.

How to Make Irani Chai (Stepwise Photos)

1. Pour 1½ cups milk to a pot and add 1 to 1½ tablespoons sugar. Bring it to a boil & reduce the heat. Let simmer until it reduces to ½ the quantity.

2. You can leave a spoon in the pot to avoid overflowing.

3. Meanwhile crush 4 green cardamoms and keep aside.

4. Add the cardamoms, 2 tablespoons black tea (loose tea leaves or dust) and 1½ cups water to a pot.

5. Cover the pot and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 7 to 8 minutes, until the decoction reduces to 1 cup. This decoction is actually made in a special closed pot which traps the steam and retains the flavors of chai. Since we don’t have that kind of pots at home, it can be made in sauce pan. You can place an heavy object so the lid sits tightly on the pot and does not let the steam escape. This is a optional step.

6. This is how it looks when it is done.

7. Strain the chai to a kettle. It should be around a cup.

8. Once the milk has reduced to half the quantity, you will see layers of cream on top. If you don’t like the cream, take a ladle full of milk and pour it back to the pot. Repeat this a few times until the cream breaks down & the milk turns frothy & is aerated. Keep doing this a few times.

9. Divide the milk among 2 to 3 serving cups.

10. Top with the decoction. You can play with the quantity of decoction and milk to suit your taste.

Serve Irani Chai hot or warm with your favorite tea-biscuits.

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