At home, I don’t drink all that much chai. In the US, I’m more about coffee, or espresso based Americanos. I don’t like Americanized chai, more often an oversweet spiced-up milk.
But I’m truly fueled by chain in India. Boiled up on stoves the milk and Assam combo is rich and extremely satisfying. It too can be very sweet, which I don’t seem to mind in this format (you can ask for no sugar & wait a little extra as they boil you up a pot).
Chai in India most often comes in little, or larger (Indian ‘large’ very different than American large) glasses. Real glasses. Without handles, too hot to handle really, but you hold them by the tops and sip at it anyhow. Usually, there aren’t many chairs at the chai wallas, and you drink your chai standing up.
My first time here, I was afraid to go to the stand up chai stalls, feeling oh-too-American. This trip, my favorite chai stop is about half a block from where I’m living. I often ask the servers to pour two glasses into my American-sized mug and take it home with me. I feel even more American… but we’re all kind of used to it now.
Deborah Crooks (www.DeborahCrooks.com) is a writer, performing songwriter and recording artist based in San Francisco whose lyric driven and soul-wise music has drawn comparison to Lucinda Williams, Chrissie Hynde and Natalie Merchant.
Singing about faith, love and loss, her lyrics are honed by a lifetime of writing and world travel while her music draws on folk, rock, Americana and the blues. She released her first EP “5 Acres” in 2003 produced by Roberta Donnay, which caught the attention of Rocker Girl Magazine, selecting it for the RockerGirl Discoveries Cd. In 2007, she teamed up with local producer Ben Bernstein to complete “Turn It All Red” Ep, followed by 2008’s “Adding Water to the Ashes” CD, and a second full-length CD “2010. She’s currently working on a third CD to be released in 2013.
Deborah’s many performance credits include an appearance at the 2006 Millennium Music Conference, the RockerGirl Magazine Music Convention, IndieGrrl, at several of the Annual Invasion of the GoGirls at SXSW in Austin, TX, the Harmony Festival and 2009’s California Music Fest, MacWorld 2010, Far West Fest and many other venues and events. She toured the Northwest as part “Indie Abundance Music, Money & Mindfulness” (2009) with two other Bay Area artists, and followed up with “The Great Idea Tour of the Southwest in March 2010 with Jean Mazzei.
