I joined some lessons in cooking indian food in germany. We produced the chai in the following way:

Bring water to boil. Add tea lives (any low quality black tea as Bop) and reduce heat (don't switch off). Add the spices: some cloves, cardamom (squeeze the whole nut a little before adding), cinnamon (stick, not necessary). cook slowly for one or two minutes. Add some milk (not too much, about 100ml/1l tea) and cook a little more. Then pass all through a sieve. Sugar on your own taste.

I didn't see any chai with ginger yet, but i think you can also add stripes of ginger with the spices. I sometimes add some peppercorns, too. You can add the spices (not the tea leaves) to the cold water, too.

Mlrettel@Cip.Informatik

.Uni-Erlangen.De (Michael Rettel