Speak Your Mind.

Chai does have caffeine in it, and yum, chai is very tasty!!!

Cinnamon, ginger, cloves, cardamom, and maybe even star anise is why

I do love good Indian tea...makes Chinese and Lipton taste like rejects.

And it takes a specialty Indian grocery to find the stuff. But...*sigh*

Do you have an Indian grocery store nearby?

Natural, organics, and health food stores often have chai as a selection among their teas

There is a tea in SA called rooibos tea. It is healthy and is apparently taking the world by storm

Rooibos is very tasty. I don't like tea in general but will drink rooibos tea.

It's probably good to have cut down on the coffee. One does no harm but three plus per day is probably not good for you.

I love it all except for that which contains fish or seafood. Biryani is my favourite and alot of the vegetarian stuff is yum.

It is Nescafé Rich instant coffee, so the caffeine content is not quite the same as fresh ground...

I could not drink three cups of fresh ground...

Two sometimes did me in LOL

We have the Indian stores all over the place here. Seems like there is one at every corner.

We have Rooibos here and Dilma and of course all the usual Lipton etc.

The spiced teas aren't exactly the ones I'm thinking of. Spice teas in America are ok...there are some in other countries that you might not want to experiment with. Spiced teas can sometimes have mild hallucinogens or narcotics...so be careful if you are unsure. Even if the locals are all drinking it. The spices themselves actually have small amounts of these compounds.
Tea can come as loose leaf to a brick you chip off/slice and steep in hot water.
Gulabi is a loose leaf tea that looks "pinkish" but absolutely smells of flowers when brewed...also has a good bit of caffeine as well. But there are many others to try. There are more varieties of tea than coffee ever dreamed about.
We in America have a love affair with coffee...I'm not exactly sure why...but I'll drink whatever is put in front of me.

The british have a thing with their tea...worthy or unworthy... always good for a chuckle.

There are a couple here in Nashville... difficult for me to get to as they are clear across town.

But in all my travels one thing especially that I have seen...

If there is a bread bakery...that's the Christian men's hangout. They will be drinking coffee or tea and eating a bread of some kind.

There's a few fun stories about me and bakeries and not being able to speak the language...but I get me some bread.

Heh, one site I went to said this about North American tea compared to chai:

The weak tea that North Americans typically drink has the colour of dirty dishwater, almost no flavour, and no need for sugar (because it is so pale and spineless). It is nothing close to the version drunk by millions of Indians.

Indian tea, also known as chai, is rich and milky, deeply coloured, steaming hot,
and boldly flavourful with a definite need for sugar to offset the toasty bitterness.

The word chai just means tea. Chai = tea.

Hence the expression, "That's not tea but merely water bewitched"

Much of what is called "tea" is not tea at all, but some infusion of various ingredients.

"Tea" is a specific plant...