Chai's history and culture

Drinking tea, in all different cultures, is a social event. It's meant to be consumed sitting down, and some eastern cultures have created elaborate ceremonies to signify its importance in their culture. 

 In India, the consumption of tea for medicinal and therapeutic purposes was documented as far back as 500 BC. However, it was the British who introduced the Indians to the culture of drinking black tea with milk and sugar. Indians adopted the recipe, boiled the tea with spices and milk to make chai in its current form. 

The British East India Company started the commercial production of tea in India in the 19th century. The foothills of the Himalayas in the northeast region proved to be the ideal climate for tea plantations. As a result, India has become one of the largest tea producers in the world. 

 Those who traveled to India are familiar with carts on sidewalks and street corners selling chai and other goodies. Like the Chinese, Indians drink chai multiple times a day. Like in Britain, the afternoon chai is often accompanied by snacks. As it is with eastern culture, chai is a sign of hospitality. If you prefer to have your chai the “British way” – black tea with a spot of milk - you are likely to be considered an elitist in India.

The origins of our Malt Chai

When I first started The Chai Cart in 2010, I offered two simple flavors: ginger and cardamom. 

Ginger chai was an obvious choice, as I grew up drinking it. It was the first thing I ever learned to make in the kitchen from my mom. Cardamom, another very common spice used for chai, was another obvious flavor option. It eventually evolved into, what is now, our signature Masala Chai, after customers frequently requested a spicier, “masala” chai, which led me to create my own masala blend. 

 Then I started experimenting to find more creative flavors. The Rose Chai was an accidental find; I was being creative in the kitchen and trying out many flavors. 

The Malt Chai, which began as an occasional off-menu item, but now a regular feature, was created out of nostalgia from my childhood days. Before the days when I was allowed to enjoy a real cup of chai, I was permitted to drink a glass of milk mixed with malt powder (remember Horlicks, anyone?). To appease my whining for chai, my mother would pour my milk into the pot with the used tea leaves from the chai she had prepared for my dad and herself. She would then strain this milk into my glass. It was a pretty convincing trick that made me think I was drinking chai, too. : ) 

 The Malt Chai we serve at the carts evolved from those childhood memories.

Spice up your life and your health

If variety is the spice of life, then our Masala chai definitely gives it all its zest. Our signature Masala spice blend has an array of tastes, ranging from the floral, sweet, and aromatic notes from cardamom to the licorice taste of the fennel and the spicy, woody tones from dried ginger and black peppercorns. Not only do these spices provide an abundance of flavor, but they’re also brimming with powerful antioxidants and various healing properties. Here are a few facts I dug up on some of the spices we use in our Masala chai. 

  Cardamom 

Cardamom is considered one of the most valuable spices in the world and is used in almost every culture. According to the traditional wisdom of Ayurveda, cardamom helps in cleansing the body and is very effective in improving digestion. It helps with stomach cramps, flatulence, and gas. 

  Ginger 

Ginger is virtually a medicinal chest. Ginger is commonly used to treat various types of stomach problems, including motion sickness, morning sickness, colic, upset stomach, gas, diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting, as well as the loss of appetite. It is good for healing upper respiratory tract infections, cough, and bronchitis. Other uses include pain relief from arthritis or muscle soreness, menstrual pain, etc. 

  Black Pepper 

From ancient times, black pepper is one of the most widely traded spices in the world. Black Pepper is good for digestion, prevents the formation of intestinal gas, and provides relief for cough and old. Because of its antibacterial properties, pepper helps to fight against infections and is also used to preserve food. 

  Cloves 

Cloves are one of the highly prized spices, widely recognized all over the world for their medicinal and culinary qualities. The spice has one of the highest concentrations of antioxidants. It acts as a mild anesthetic as well as an anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory agent. For this reason, it is used in widely in dentistry and related products. 

  Fennel 

Fennel is widely used around the world in mouth fresheners, toothpaste, desserts, and antacids. The health benefits of fennel include relief from anemia, indigestion, flatulence, constipation, colic, diarrhea, respiratory disorders, menstrual disorders, eye care, etc. 

  No Calories, No Fat 

If those facts were persuasive enough, consider this statement from Guy Johnson, a nutritional scientist from the McCormick Science Institute, “There's no nutritional downside to using herbs and spices. They have no calories. They have no fats. They make food more satisfying. They help modulate food intake. And they have components with substantial biological effects." 

 So why not do your body a favor and give your life some flavor?

We brew our chai with either organic whole milk or organic soy milk (for customers who do not drink/eat dairy). Almost every day, we get a customer requesting chai with non-fat milk or 2% milk. As much as we would like to give customers exactly what they want, we cannot. Mainly b'coz we don't make chai by the cup; all our chai is brewed at a commercial kitchen in the Mission and we transport it to the chai carts downtown in insulated containers that keep it hot for several hours. I've had chai made with whole milk for as long as I can remember. When I was little, growing up in India, we had our unpasteurized milk delivered every morning from the milkman who lived a mile away. It came straight from the cow or buffalo. It was creamy and tasty and no one worried about calories or fat content in chai. We drank chai in 6oz tea cups and not in 16oz Grande size mugs. Of course, India has come a long way since then and milk production and distribution in India has been centralized and is owned by large corporations. There are choices too - whole, skim, 2%, cream on top, etc. What hasn't changed though is my preference for a creamy cup of chai. There is a fine line between creamy and too milky. I prefer to use Clover Farms’ Organic Whole Milk. Clover Farms milk has a nice velvety texture and we choose organic simply b'coz it's more humane. Our chai has a 1/3rd cup of milk. Anything more would make it too milky. Those who are concerned about calories, you shouldn’t be. As we only lightly sweeten our chai (1 tsp per 8oz cup), the amount of sugar and calories in our chai is less than half of what you would get at your favorite coffee shop. Chai is personal and everybody has different preferences in taste and ways to make their favorite cup. I like mine with whole milk and you may like yours with almond milk. And when it comes to skim milk, I couldn't have said it better than Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation:

It's Here! America's first Chai Cart!

So much has happened since my last blog post. The biggest & most exciting news has been getting the permit for the cart. Finally, The Chai Cart® (the company) has a fully permitted chai cart. We operate the cart seven days a week and only take a break when it’s raining. The two chaiwallahs I’ve hired, Will and Dennis, manage the cart in shifts. I am happy to say that the cart is doing pretty well. Every day we see regular customers and new customers. Some even walk a few long blocks to get chai. We offer free samples so that customers can choose between the various flavours of chai we have at the cart- Masala, Rose, Mint, and Ginger. For those who can’t digest milk, we offer a Masala chai made with soy milk. Even though we use whole milk (Clover Farms Organic Whole Milk), a cup of our chai has fewer calories and way less sugar than a non-fat Starbucks Chai Latte or similar drink at any coffee shop. We post nutrition information at the cart for people who care to know. One of the main reasons, I opted for a cart and not a food truck was the openness of the cart. Since the day i started with the bicycle trailer, my favorite part has been the interactions I had with customers. I love listening to stories about travels to India and people's first encounter with chai. I am glad that people find us approachable and we still get to hear many stories from our customers. Some folks stop by to ask us for directions too (no, we don’t make them buy chai). We also act as an information booth for tourists, and it's fun. There have been tea carts and Indian food trucks, but this is the first real chai cart in the US. I, too, am a little surprised that something this simple took this long to happen. I hear so many customers say, “finally a chai cart!”. Yup, it’s here and it’s here to stay.

Streetwise Marketing, Street-side

A couple of weeks back, I got a call from a marketing manager of En Point Technologies- a tech company based in Southern California. They had heard about The Chai Cart and asked if they could sponsor it at an event. From what I understood, it seemed like they wanted me to set up the cart in a courtyard in front of the building at 150 Spear St., where I would hand the attendees a dinCloud branded commuter cup of chai as they walked in to go to their office. 

 Sounds simple, right? Except when I got there at 7:45am on Tuesday morning, I realized the courtyard was in fact in the next building, in front of 160 Spear St. To add clutter to the confusion, there was construction going on in front of 150 Spear St. One of En Point’s employees, Shirley, who lives in the Bay Area, had come out to help with the event. She too had the same information I did (she was roped in last minute to oversee this event) and was equally unaware of the logistics. 

 This was when I was told the back-story. En Point Tech. owns a Cloud Service Provider called dinCloud. Forrester Research was hosting this event on Cloud Sourcing, but En Point was not invited to be part of it. Handing out chai in dinCloud branded commuter cups was En Point’s way to make their presence felt at the event. So, clearly, we were not welcome to not crash the event and could not set up a table in the lobby or anywhere else in the building. 

 I had ~200 cups of chai and I didn’t want to throw it all out. Thinking quickly, I told Shirley that we could set up on the sidewalk in front of the building. We were giving stuff for free, who would object to that? She was game. At first, it seemed awkward, soliciting people to take free drinks, but soon Shirley became a pro at peddling street chai and cookies. We stood there for about an hour, like two street hawkers talking about Cloud Computing. 

 Would you think this was unusual? Well, yes, one person did and he happened to be an analyst at Forrester Research, @Staten7, who tweeted 

#dinCloud crashes #Forr sourcing workshop in SF. Providing free chai and cookies in front of our bldg. Nice guerilla mktg. 

Two days later, I was cc-ed on an email from En Pointe’s Senior Marketing Manager sent to their CEO and the rest of the Marketing staff talking about the tweet. The team was excited that they got noticed. I had a hearty laugh. To be quite honest, I was feeling a bit bad that En Point had wasted money on this event, as the logistics didn’t work out as planned. So, it amused me when I read that it actually worked in their favor! In all the years I spent as a technology Marketing professional, I must say, this was surely the most unconventional marketing tactic I’ve seen. Much kudos to the team at En Pointe for thinking out of the box and being bold to execute something not many companies would!

America's first (formal) Chai Cart coming soon!

Remember the days when I used to sell chai in the Mission out of a bicycle cart? So, it turned out, it wasn’t quite legal to do that. A lot has changed with The Chai Cart business since then. For the last year, the main focus of the business has been the production and distribution of the Chai Brews, which are being sold in stores around the Bay Area. 

 The question I get asked most often is “Where can we find the cart?”. Ever since my bicycle got stolen on Labor Day last year, there has been no chai cart. 

How can “The Chai Cart“ have no cart? This had to be fixed. After all, I have to be true to the name. Plus, I wanted to get back to my roots of selling hot cups of chai on the streets of San Francisco. But this time I want it to be legit. I want to get a Health Dept approved cart and all the permits necessary. 

 If you've been to India, you probably remember the little carts on the side of the road selling chai and other goodies. My vision of a chai cart is very similar to those carts. 

Ideally, I would have liked to brew the chai on-site. After speaking to SF Heath Dept, I realized I would need to add quite a few things (like a 3-compartment sink, ventilation, etc), which would turn the cart into a food truck. But I really wanted was a simple cart and that meant I had to change my plan. I now plan to brew the chai at the commissary, fill the Cambro containers, and use the cart as a point of sale. The people at the SF Health Dept were very cooperative. They agreed to approve this plan if I complied with a few simple regulations. 

 Also, I need permits to park the cart at a particular spot. My application for two spots (one in the Financial District and the other on Valencia St in the Mission) is currently being processed by Dept of Public Works. 

 To finance the cart and the permit fees, I have a fundraising campaign on Kickstarter. You can help by giving $10 or more and receive cool rewards like vouchers for cups of chai or a gift bag with many of our products. There are only 17 days to go and I still have a long way to go to meet the goal. I want people to feel invested in The Chai Cart and this is a great way to make that happen. I hope others will also see the value in this and help me reach my goal of $10,000.

Minimizing waste as a company

It is estimated that 40% of the waste we produce comes from packaging. I of the value I hold dear is creating minimal waste and wanted to instill this value in my business. 

 Inspired by the bottle deposit and refund system used by Straus Family Creamery and St Benoit Yogurt, I decided to use reusable glass bottles for the Chai Brews. Even though glass can be recycled, reusing them is more environmentally friendly. 

Seven months after the Chai Brews were on the shelves at Whole Foods, I got the approval from their regional office for the bottle deposit and refund! Chai Brews in reusable glass bottles. All stores that now sell the Chai Brews take a $1.50 deposit for the bottle and refund it back to the customer when the bottle is returned to the store. We collect our bottles from the stores, sterilize them, and reuse them. 

There are other ways in which we minimize waste. 

 - We do our own production and we make small batches of the Chai Brews every week. As I actively manage the inventory, I make sure we don’t overproduce. We literally never have excess inventory to discard due to the expiration date. 

-  We use freshly milled spices to infuse the Masala Chai Brew. I dehydrate the spices after production to reuse them for other purposes (they still pack a lot of flavor; so if you are interested in buying it at a low price, let me know). 

-  The tea leaves cannot be reused once brewed, we compost them. 

- The loose tea and the spice blend are packaged in tin containers. We don’t expect customers to return this, but we do hope they reuse it to store spices/jewelry or other small stuff. 

 Just as my decision to not use preservatives, using glass bottles and collecting them back from stores, limits my distribution options. Yet I feel proud that I have not compromised in the core values as I build this business. I remind myself of what I wrote last summer - if we remain true to our values and work hard to improve every single day, profits will follow.

Would you like some tea with your sugar?

I've heard many people say that one of the main reasons they don’t drink chai is b’coz it is way too sweet. This is true if the only chai you’ve had is at cafes. 

Most cafes use a chai concentrate as a base to make their chai or chai latte - which is always loaded with sugar. I looked for unsweetened chai mixes but didn’t come across any. I started to wonder why that was the case. 

 There could be several reasons; here are the most likely ones: 

1. Adding sugar was a way to make this traditional Indian drink palatable to the Americans. After all, the Big Food Industry uses sugar (and consequently America’s addiction to sugar) to make huge profits. 

2. The Americans who created the recipes based it on their experience in India – where they were treated to really sweet chai. Indians love sugar too and one way to show hospitality is to generously use sugar. 

3. All chai concentrates have citric acid – it’s a “natural” preservative that helps extend the shelf life to 11 months or more. Sugar helps in masking the sour taste of the citric acid. 

 When I started The Chai Cart, my mission was to provide “wholesome goodness of chai“– like the kind I made at home. To be true to this mission I made a deliberate decision to NOT add any preservative (even if it meant limiting shelf life to 3 months and restricting distribution within the Bay Area) or sugar. I wanted customers to have the choice – of how much sugar to add and even the type of sweetener (honey, stevia, splenda, etc).

 Every morning I make a 12 oz cup of chai with 1 tsp of sugar and 4oz of 2% milk. This cup of chai has 70 calories and 8 grams of sugar. A non-fat chai latte at Starbucks has approximately 170 calories and 34 grams of sugar. 

If you start your day with a cup of chai, make sure it’s the right start.

CHAI AND CHAI LATTE

I always raise one eyebrow when I hear or see the words “Chai Latte”. As I described in my previous post, “chai” is hard-wired in my brain to mean a certain drink – strong hot black tea with milk (spices are optional). So what is this “Chai Latte” stuff anyway – it combines two words from two different languages and cultures. The resulting drink doesn’t even taste like real chai. 

 In my quest to check out the competition, I had a chai latte at different cafes around the city. Most of them were way too sweet and too light (too much milk, not enough tea). Some that weren’t too sweet (like at Tartine Bakery, where they make their own chai), were still too milky – with a diffused taste of the tea. 

Of course, I concluded that none of them could make good chai. After all, they didn’t grow up drinking it - as I did. And it wasn’t that good chai had to be made fresh. I have made chai for my Indian friends with my bottled Chai Brew, and turned them into believers –that good chai can come in a bottle! 

 To find out why Chai Lattes tasted so bland, I went to my friend’s café and made a Chai Latte using my Chai Brew and frothing it with milk using the espresso machine. Here is what I found out – 

Chai Brew + milk – heated over stovetop = tastes like homemade chai 

Chai Brew + milk – heated in microwave = tastes like homemade chai 

Chai Brew + steamed milk using espresso machine = tastes like a “chai latte” 

 I am not a food scientist and I have no way to explain why steaming the Chai Brew (or concentrate) with milk produces a different result than when heated in the microwave or over a stovetop. So now, I have a new-found respect for the words “Chai Latte”. 

I am not sure who coined the term (Starbucks?), but they did the right thing. A “Chai Latte” is black tea frothed with milk. Not to be confused with “Chai” – the traditional tea drink from India.

Chai the way it should be

Having grown up in India, "chai" is hard-wired in my brain to mean steeped black tea and milk. Sugar and spices are optional, though commonly added. 

However, here in the US, “chai” has morphed into something else. Increasingly, it is presented as black tea with spices like ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom. Last week I attended the Fancy Food Show held here in San Francisco. The ticket to attend was only $35 and in return, you get to sample loads of chocolates, cookies, jams, cheeses, etc for 3 full days. Not a bad deal for your taste buds (maybe not so much for your heart or waistline). 

As all the specialty tea companies were there too, I took this opportunity to try the “chai” from all these companies. Let me first say that all these companies are tea experts and use really good, high-quality tea to make their products. As you learn more about tea, you start to realize how similar it is to wine. All the teas come from the same plant (as wine comes from grapes), but every tea is so different as it is hugely impacted by the region, climate, season of harvest, method of picking and processing, etc. etc. 

As I went around the floor tasting “chai”, I was less than satisfied with everyone’s interpretation of what “chai” is. Whether it was loose leaf tea or tea bag, as I tasted sample after sample, my brain kept screaming “Where’s the MILK?!” 

 I used to roll my eyes when I would see “Chai Latte” at Starbucks - it combines 2 words from 2 different languages, is overly sweet, and has vanilla. But at least they had the basic idea right – it’s a hot drink with black tea and milk. Or maybe it is the word “Chai Latte” that led people to think that “Chai” is black tea with spices and it becomes a “latte” by adding steamed milk. 

 I know, I alone cant change how chai is being defined here in the US. But if you plan to travel to India, just remember when you are offered “chai”, expect to get black tea with milk. If you want it spicy, ask for “masala chai“ and if you are looking for plain black tea, then you should ask for “black tea, no milk, please”.

If failure is inevitable, why try?

I am really excited about this year…this is going to be a special year for all of us. How can it not be? It started with 1-1-11! 

 I feel especially optimistic this year. Not b’coz I am a lot wiser but also b’coz I have found the support of people who push me forward every time I'm stuck. It’s been a little over a year since I began my entrepreneurial journey and I don’t regret it one bit. Everything you read about entrepreneurship and hear from entrepreneurs is 100% true. But it takes your own experience to drive all those points home. 

Every entrepreneur will tell you that failure is inevitable. A successful entrepreneur will tell you how they found success in their failure. Learning from your mistakes is important. But the real secret to success is not the lessons themselves, or luck or new opportunities; it is determination and humility. 

 It is your determination that will push you to get over disappointments when things don’t go according to plan, will force you to innovate to overcome roadblocks, and will drive you to find new opportunities when things look bleak. 

  Humility will let you accept your mistakes, enable you to ask for help when you need it, make you appreciate the opportunities given to you, and will never let you take anything for granted. Mostly, it will make you personable. 

 In my blogs this year, I want to share what I have learnt about the food business and entrepreneurship. Not just in the abstract, but in specifics. My hope is that it may help others like me. At the very least, it will be a good reminder to me of what I have learnt.

THE HAPPINESS FRAMEWORK

Last week, I attended the Vator Splash event, where I had the opportunity to listen to a talk by Tony Hseih, CEO of Zappos (sold to Amazon.com in 2009 for $1.2 billion). While his talk was mainly about building Zappos and the company culture within, it was the last 5 min of his presentation that really inspired me. He talked about the science of happiness and referred to one such framework, where he defined 3 levels of happiness as Pleasure, Passion, and Purpose. 

 Most of us, most of the time, seek happiness by pursuing things that give us pleasure. This kind of happiness is short-lived as such happiness cannot be sustained beyond the existence of the stimulus. The next level of happiness comes from pursuing your passion; this tends to last longer. The longest-lasting happiness, studies show, comes from a higher purpose – this is about being part of something that is bigger than just yourself. Tony went on to state that great companies are built on a similar framework – Profits, Passion, and Purpose. 

 When I started Green Coriander, I defined the purpose of Green Coriander long before I made a financial model show me how to make a profit (which is still an ongoing exercise). My purpose is to educate and encourage people to i) eat better ii) understand the sources of their food and iii) support sustainable food systems and lifestyle. 

 We provide a service that allows our customers to eat foods from good sources and empowers them with a choice if they love Indian food. The purpose stems from my passion for doing what we can to preserve our health and protect our environment. The purpose of The Chai Cart is rather simple - it is to deliver wholesome goodness in a cup. My belief is that if we remain true to our values and work hard to improve every single day, profits will follow. I also believe that by aligning passion with a purpose, happiness can be achieved with small pleasures in life. 

 Thank you, Tony for laying out a great framework – you indeed did live up to your goal of “Delivering Happiness”.

A NEW LIFE, A NEW WORLD

The Magic Carry Kart and the Creme Brulee cart - carts by the two brothers who started the street food phenomena in San Francisco - are planning their 1 year anniversary next week on March 6. And with my birthday approaching in a couple of days, I paused to think about the last 12 months. The Chai Cart is almost 7 months old. 

My present life or rather my lifestyle bears no resemblance to my life before I started The Chai Cart. I quit my job in December '09 and started a new venture, Green Coriander - San Francisco's first and only home delivery service for healthy and organic Indian food. There is no dearth of entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, the mother ship of tech start-ups, and VC firms. There are hundreds of books, blogs, stories, articles, etc written on how to build a successful start-up. All of them geared towards creating the next Apple, Google, Facebook, or Zynga. 

Seven months back, that was my world. Entrepreneurship meant starting an internet-related service or product company. The Chai Cart opened my life to a whole new world. A world where customer service means a smile, not a call center; where lowering costs means saving an extra 5% on raw material, not cutting down on business class travel or lavish parties; where success is defined as being able to meet payroll and pay rent, not options worth seven figures. 

In this new world, I have met some of the most amazing people. And for the first time, I truly understand the meaning of the word "community". I often get emails from people around the world asking me for advice on starting a similar chai or food stand in their city. The first thing I say is - if you are doing it for money, then don’t do it. The food industry isnt the most profitable one. I take The Chai Cart out because I love hanging out with my food cart friends and love meeting people who stop by. 

I started Green Coriander because I passionately believe that we all should eat fresh, unprocessed foods and support a sustainable food system. 

 Life as an entrepreneur is not easy, yes we all heard that. Sleepless nights, crazy hours, personal sacrifices - life literally becomes a roller coaster. The only way you can pull through the lows and enjoy the highs is you inherently believe in yourself. your convictions and choose to follow your inner passion.

It's here! The perfect cup of Masala Chai!

Chai in the US has almost become synonymous with "Masala" Chai - a concoction of black tea with many different spices like cardamom, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, black pepper, etc. I have never been a fan of Masala Chai - it’s either too peppery or too gingery or full of cloves. When I drink Chai, I want it to first taste the tea and then let the flavours, either ginger or cardamom or whatever, dance around my mouth till the next sip. Most of the time when I have a Masala Chai, I get hit by a burst of spices and I am left thinking "where is the tea?" 

 A lot of the Chai mixes one can buy (online or in stores) as well as the Chai found in most cafes are all various blends of "Masala" Chai - setting the expectation that Chai is meant to be spicy. The lone Chai Cart couldn’t fight that expectation. I had to cave in and do a Masala Chai - but it had to be one that I enjoyed drinking. 

Riding on the success of the Green Chili Chai, I thought it would be an easy task - throw in all the spices together and there you have it - Masala Chai. The first time I made it, I had to force myself to take the second sip. Yes, it was so bad. I blamed it on the old spices in my cabinet and made a trip to the Indian store in Berkeley to buy some fresh Indian spices. But that didn't help much. I had no such excuse for the second try, third try, or the fourth. I tried various combinations but each time I found one spice dominating. 

Just as I was about to give up in frustration, on a cold, rainy night, it all came together - that perfect cup of Masala Chai. I instantly fell in love with the complexity. On the first sip, I could taste the cardamom; with the second sip, the cloves and the hint of black pepper; there was definitely ginger in the next sip along with the cardamom, and the sweetness coming the cinnamon. The spices were perfectly balanced with the tea. 

 Is it weird to fall in love with one's own chai? Is it narcissism or is it a passion for perfection? I don’t judge. I drink chai and I sell the chai I love drinking.

Green Chili Chai - Another Winning Flavour!

If you've been to The Chai Cart, you know that I always carry two flavours of chai - one is always the traditional Cardamom-Ginger and the other depends on my mood and my creativity that particular day or week. 

Every now and then I come up with a flavour that surprises me and my customers. Lemongrass-Black Pepper chai was one such flavour last summer. The Malt chai took a few tries, but it did find some fans. 

The week I made a "hot" new flavour - Green Chili Chai and this seems like a clear winner. A few people have asked me how I come up with my flavours of chai. I simply let my creativity explore and lead me to various combinations of fresh herbs and spices. But there are a couple of guidelines I follow. If you notice carefully, I tend to combine 2 distinct tastes like Mint-Aniseed, Rose-Pepper, etc. The flavours are subtle and nothing ever overpowers the chai itself. 

 I am always looking for new ideas for inspiration. So, if you think of any flavour that may do well as a chai, drop me a note. I will name that chai flavour after you and who knows - maybe someday you may become famous as well ;)

Winter is here

Omnivore Books in Noe Valley in San Francisco had booked Thomas Keller (the famous chef) for a book signing event at their bookstore on Dec 6th. The lovely owner, Celia, had contacted me a couple of months ago and asked me to come to sell chai to her patrons while they waited in line for Keller. 

Today, Dec 6th, I was all excited to take the Chai Cart all the way to Omnivore Books - not only will San Francisco foodies be there, maybe Keller himself may fancy a cup of chai. As usual, I made the chai, packed my cart, and off I went. I forgot to do 2 things - one, check the flattest way to get to the corner of Church St. and Ceaser Chavez from my house, and two, check the weather report. 

I struggled to ride up the hill on Ceaser Chavez (between Guerrero and Dolores), tugging the cart behind me but managed (i did stop to catch my breath halfway up). It sure was chilly and seemed like a smart idea to have hot chai for sale as almost everyone who was at the bookstore bought a cup. And then it started to rain - no wait, hail. 

 People have asked and had wondered what would happen to the food carts when the rain hits San Francisco. This is what happened today. I was lucky to have a tree to give cover to my bicycle trailer. So when the hail started to come down, I put all my stuff back in the cart and ran inside the bookstore for cover. It seemed like perfect timing as Thomas Keller came in 5 min later and I was up close to hear him speak. By the time he finished talking, the rain had subsided as well. I went back outside, sold a few more cups to people who were unfortunate enough to be stuck outside (it’s a tiny bookstore), packed my stuff, and rode back in the freezing cold. 

 The good thing about the pop-up food carts is that we control our own schedule. I guess I could've decided to stay home, had I checked the weather. People can expect food carts to be at indoor locations, such as art galleries, warehouses, etc. during the winter. Biking in the cold will be a challenge and I will need to visit the Sports Basement soon for some winter biking wear. 

 P.S. Thomas Keller asked for a double espresso, not chai :(

Diwali and its peculiar tradition

Last week was Diwali - the festival of lights and the beginning of Hindu New Year. Diwali is to India what Christmas is to the US. It's the time of year when Indians buy new clothes, send gifts, decorate their houses, and share good times with family and friends with lots and lots of food (read sweets). Buildings and streets are lit with special lights and fireworks adorn the skies. 

 There is a peculiar tradition that marks all Diwali parties, especially in the north and west India - playing teen patti (three cards, a version of three-card poker). I am not quite sure of the history behind this tradition, but gambling seems to exist in the Hindu culture for eons. After all, it was the root cause of the epic battle of Mahabharat where king Yudhister gambled away not only his entire kingdom but also his wife Draupadi. 

 Regardless of the vices of gambling, friends, and family get together the days leading up to Diwali, and play a friendly game of teen patti into the wee hours of the morning. Every year I invite my friends over for a Diwali party and I bring out the cards and poker chips to keep alive the tradition here in San Francisco. The game can get convoluted as the dealer can create different variations of the game - wild card(s), bust card(s), using combinations of cards as wild, etc. Unlike poker, this is a very lively and interactive game. So next year if you are invited to a Diwali party, take along your appetite as well as some cash. 

If you indeed want to celebrate Diwali the traditional way, a pack of cards and poker chips should be on the menu. Happy New Year!

In search for that perfect cup of tea

While I was looking for a distributor of organic black tea, I realized I had a lot to learn about tea itself. Even though all the tea basically comes from the same plant, camellia sinensis, there is more to tea than I had thought. 

 First, there are 5 major types of tea – White, Green, Oolong, Pu-erh, and Black. The type of tea is determined by various factors – the region, time of harvest, and how the leaves are picked and processed are some of the major factors. White tea has the least amounts of caffeine while black tea has the most (but still less coffee). 

Then there are other classifications, such as Full or Broken leaf, CTC (cut, tear, curl) or Orthodox picking methods, Bagged or Loose and finally, Vintage (all from the same estate and season) or Blend (blend of different tea leaves and other ingredients such as spices, flowers, etc). All of these contribute to the taste of the tea that is packaged and sold. Chai is made from black tea and I typically like Chai made from black Assam tea (Assam is a region in north-east India). And that was pretty much all I could tell any distributor. I was referred to contact Assam Tea Company, distributor of a family-owned tea garden in Assam. 

Saunam, the president of Assam Tea, talked about his 2 tea estates in Assam (one of them is organic) and explained why it was difficult to find economical organic black Assam tea. The organic certification process is fairly expensive and to get large tea farms certified is pretty costly. Only small farms that serve a niche market undergo the certification process. He went on to assure me that since he sells his tea in Europe, he doesn’t use harmful chemicals in order to comply with the European regulations (Europe has strict regulations on what food is sold, organic or not).

Street Food Is Slow Food

What fast food is to the US, street food is to Asia. It's quick, cheap, and tasty. Take a closer look and you'll see that street food a lot more. It is freshly prepared, uses local and traditional food products, preserves its lore and preparation, and is made on a small scale. Kinda sounds like Slow Food doesn't it? 

Working on The Chai Cart is a lot of work for very little monetary reward. I have very little time to do anything else and hardly any time to be social. However, today I am more committed to it than ever. Not just to The Chai Cart but to the community of the new street vendors and the street food revolution as a whole. 

 The new Street Food "2.0" movement is more than using Twitter, or seeking the thrill of decoding locations and finding a cart, or being part of the trendy hipster crowd who are "in the know". To me, this movement represents a revolution against the fast-food culture that has haunted Americans for decades. Instead of opting for heavily processed food, wouldn't it be nice to have the choice of getting freshly prepared food at the same price? Thai Curry, Gumbo, Organic Soup, fresh Samosas, homemade Pies, Cakes, or even lavender Creme Brulee or Gobs. And of course authentic Indian Chai. Many of the new age street vendors are making and selling food they hand-make from recipes they have perfected over time or have been passed on for generations. 

These street food vendors are providing San Francisco residents a different choice, a healthier choice, in quick, fresh, and inexpensive gourmet food. This should not be viewed as a threat to restaurants; in many cities around the world, street food and sit-down restaurants have co-existed for decades. This should be seen as a support to the slow food movement. 

The city has every right to crack down on the unlicensed street food vendors. I don't disregard the value of having the right permits to sell food; it is important to be hygienic and abide by health safety codes. Getting a food safety certification is in fact easy and inexpensive, $60 for the test, $130 for the class and test. But that alone does not help in getting a food permit, which is expensive and complicated. Here is the list of various permits you need. As this trend grows and street food becomes mainstream, I hope instead of cracking it down, the city of San Francisco thinks of an alternate plan to embrace it, while regulating it. For this to happen there needs to be a mandate from the residents of San Francisco that they indeed would want such a choice.