How to Brew Elaichi CTC Chai and Kadak Masala Chai at Home
By Udyan Tea - Online Tea Shop | Finest Tea from the Origin | Published: 2026-10-13
Category: How-to Guides
A step-by-step method for brewing Elaichi CTC Chai and Kadak Masala Chai on the stovetop, with strength checkpoints and the mistakes that make chai taste thin or bitter.
Quick answer
Boil water first, then add CTC tea and boil it hard for 2 to 3 minutes before pouring in milk. Elaichi CTC Chai needs about 1 teaspoon of leaves per 150 ml of liquid for a balanced cardamom cup, while Kadak Masala Chai can take a slightly heaped spoon because its spice blend is built to stand up to a long, strong boil. Add milk after the tea has already colored the water, and simmer until the surface turns a deep tan.
Why CTC chai behaves differently from leaf tea
CTC stands for crush, tear, curl: the leaves are processed into small, dense grains rather than kept whole. That means the surface area is large, so color, body, and tannin come out fast. A CTC chai brewing method is therefore short and hot, not long and gentle. If you treat CTC like a delicate whole-leaf tea and steep it at a low temperature, you get a pale, flat cup; if you boil it too long with too little liquid, you get a bitter, drying one.
Both Elaichi CTC Chai and Kadak Masala Chai are built on this kind of bold, malty base. Elaichi CTC Chai pairs the CTC black tea with cardamom, so the aroma is lifted and slightly sweet. Kadak Masala Chai blends CTC grains with spices such as cardamom and ginger, giving a heavier, warming cup that is meant to be boiled with milk rather than sipped clear.
Ratios that keep chai strong without turning it bitter
The most common failure is guessing the tea-to-water ratio. A reliable starting point is 1 teaspoon of CTC leaves per 150 ml of water, then an equal volume of milk. For a kadak masala chai recipe, where the goal is a thicker, spicier cup, use a slightly heaped teaspoon per 150 ml and reduce the milk to about two-thirds of the water volume. That keeps the spice forward instead of drowning it in dairy.
If you are brewing for a crowd, scale the water and tea together and add the milk at the end rather than scaling everything at once. Milk does not reduce at the same rate as water, so a large batch made with a fixed ratio can turn out thinner than a single cup.
What to change if your chai tastes wrong
If the cup is bitter, the tea was boiled too long after the milk went in, or the leaf quantity was too high for the water volume. Pull it off the heat sooner next time and keep the hard boil to the water-only stage. If the cup is watery, you either used too much milk or stopped the boil before the color developed. If the cardamom or spice disappears, the issue is usually milk temperature: cold milk added to a rolling boil drops the temperature and stalls extraction, so let the milk come to room temperature or add it slowly while stirring.
A small detail that matters: do not stir continuously. Agitation releases more tannin. A slow stir every 30 seconds is enough to keep the leaves moving and the milk from catching on the pan.
Stovetop steps for a strong cup
- Measure water and bring it to a rolling boil: Use about 150 ml of water per serving and let it reach a full boil before anything else goes in. Adding tea to lukewarm water is the most common reason chai tastes flat. Checkpoint: the water should be bubbling across the whole surface, not just at the edges.
- Add the CTC leaves and boil hard for 2 to 3 minutes: For Elaichi CTC Chai use about 1 teaspoon per 150 ml; for Kadak Masala Chai use a slightly heaped teaspoon. The water should turn dark amber before you move on. Mistake to avoid: walking away. CTC releases tannin quickly, and an extra minute past three starts to taste harsh.
- Pour in the milk and return to a simmer: Add an equal volume of milk for elaichi chai, or about two-thirds of the water volume for a kadak cup. Stir once, then let it come back up without a hard rolling boil. Checkpoint: the surface should turn a deep tan and the aroma should shift from sharp to rounded.
- Simmer for 2 to 4 minutes, then cut the heat: Longer simmering means a thicker, stronger cup; shorter means a lighter one. Stir every 30 seconds or so rather than constantly. If it looks about to climb the pan, lift it off the heat for a few seconds instead of adding cold water.
- Strain immediately into warmed cups: Leaving the leaves in the hot liquid keeps extracting tannin even after the heat is off. Strain straight into cups you have rinsed with hot water. Taste before adding sugar. If the cup is already balanced, sweetening too early hides the cardamom or spice.
The chai blends used in this method
- Elaichi CTC Chai: Elaichi CTC Chai combines bold CTC black tea with fragrant cardamom on a strong, malty base. The malty base is what gives the cup body, so it can take a hard boil without tasting hollow, while the cardamom stays readable if you do not overboil the milk stage.
- Kadak Masala Chai: Kadak Masala Chai blends fine CTC tea grains with spices including cardamom and ginger. Because the spices are already in the blend, you do not need to add your own masala; adjust strength with leaf quantity and boil time instead.
- Turmeric Chai: Turmeric Chai is a soothing blend of turmeric with an assortment of exotic spices that brews to a greenish-yellow liquor with a warm turmeric and ginger aroma. It suits a gentler simmer than a hard-boiled CTC cup, so keep it as a separate option rather than treating it like a masala chai substitute.
