My chai is harsh and drying rather than rich

In short

This is the opposite fault from thin chai and it has a different cause. What is wrong here is usually not bitterness from over-extraction but astringency from boiling the leaf hard for too long, and the two want opposite corrections — shortening the boil rather than adding leaf.

Likely causes, in order

Most likely first. Answer the question under each one before moving on — several of these look alike in the cup and are told apart only by what was done to the leaf.

1. 1. Boiled hard rather than simmered, for too long

   Agitation

   Check: Was it at a rolling boil, and for how long after the milk went in?

   Fix: Bring it up and then hold it at a bare simmer for three to five minutes. A rolling boil agitates the leaf continuously and extracts the drying compounds far beyond the point where they add anything.

2. 2. Too much leaf, over-compensating for a previous thin batch

   Leaf quantity

   Check: Did you increase the tea after a weak result last time?

   Fix: Go back to about two teaspoons per 300 ml and lengthen the simmer instead. Extra CTC in a hot pan reaches unpleasant astringency quickly.

3. 3. Reheating or holding the finished drink with the leaf still in

   Over-extraction

   Check: Did it sit in the pan, or get reheated, before it was strained?

   Fix: Strain immediately once it is ready, and reheat only the strained drink. Leaf sitting in hot milk continues extracting the whole time.

4. 4. Too much ginger or clove for the tea underneath

   TechniqueInferred by TeaHQ, not established

   Check: Is the drying sensation accompanied by heat at the back of the throat?

   Fix: Reduce the ginger and clove. Both contribute their own pungency and drying grip, and at high doses they read as a fault in the tea rather than as spice.

5. 5. A very tannic base tea

   Leaf qualityInferred by TeaHQ, not established

   Check: Is the same harshness there when you brew the leaf plain in water?

   Fix: Try a different CTC. Some assamica CTC is bred for colour and strength at the expense of everything else, and a decoction magnifies that.

Tea types this applies to

• Black tea

Brewing methods this applies to

• Chai preparation — Tea simmered with milk, sugar and whole spices rather than steeped — a decoction, and the daily preparation of a very large part of the world. There is no single authoritative recipe, and regional and household variation is enormous.
• Boiling and decoction — Leaf, and usually other ingredients, simmered in water or milk rather than steeped — the basis of masala chai, butter tea and noon chai.

Related problems

Sharing a cause category, a tea type or a brewing method with this one.

• My chai tastes of hot spiced milk rather than tea — The drink is pleasant and sweet and the tea is nowhere in it — no colour to speak of, no briskness, and nothing that would tell you tea had been involved.
• My chai catches on the pan or boils over — A scorched note runs through the finished drink, or the pan foams over the moment your back is turned.
• My tea disappears when I add milk — A tea that tasted fine on its own becomes a pale, vaguely sweet milk drink with no tea character left in it.
• My milk curdles or separates in the tea — Flecks or threads appear when the milk goes in, or the surface breaks into small islands, and the drink looks grainy rather than smooth.
• Tea from my flask tastes stewed by mid-morning — Tea that was fine when it went into the flask is dark, thick and harshly drying an hour or two later, and worse again by lunchtime.

Sources