Who needs coffee when you have chai?

Early morning... 12 hours of a bumpy ride on a bus at night. India, 1999. Mor and Revital are on their way to the Himalayas.

It’s 6 a.m. and finally there is a refreshing stop, for breakfast and obviously... coffee!

Um, not so obvious. "No coffee... chai!", says an Indian man with an impressive mustache.

No coffee? Really? Well, we do love chai, but it’s 6 a.m. in the morning... it’s cold and we want our daily shot of caffeine.

We see the chai cooking on a huge pot, and the man is ritually pouring milk to make it creamy. It smells so good, and looks so warming... alright then. Chai it is.

This changed our mornings forever...

A hot cup of chai became better than any morning cup of coffee we had since then. The warming herbs and seeds, the sweet and full bodied deliciousness and the natural vitality that we felt, was all we needed that morning. It was actually all we needed every morning for the rest of the trip. And that's when we realized: we were blindly sucked into a fundamental false belief that coffee is the only morning booster that can satisfy us.

We have so many sweet memories of sitting and sipping a cup of chai. On the train, smashing the ceramic cup on the rails (it's the tradition!); in busy Delhi, sitting in the middle of the crowd, as rickshaws are passing by fast and loud; in the Himalayas, warming us up as the morning fog touches our skin. Chai was a heart opener to the colorful Indian culture we learned to embrace, and its taste still takes us back to long dirty bus rides, local spicy Indian foods, little kids running barefoot on the streets, beautiful women in colorful saris laughing, and noisy local music that always brings a smile to our face.

And that's what a small cup of tea can do...

But don't take my word for it! Here's the recipe to our morning ritual. 5 minutes, 5 steps. An authentic chai latte recipe:

1. First, the ingredients: 2 teaspoons of organic, loose-leaf masala chai from Miss Tea (5 oz. for $22 right here) per one cup (8 oz.) of water.
2. Place the chai and water in a pot and bring to a boil.
3. Add your favorite type of milk (oat, soy, almond, you name it!). We use 3/4 water and 1/4 milk, but you can choose to do a darker chai with less water or a creamier chai with more water.
4. Bring to a second boil, while stirring, and add your favorite sugar (or no sugar at all).
5. Stir on a low fire for a few minutes to allow all ingredients to blend perfectly together. Reduce the heat when it starts boiling, and strain into your cup.

Enjoy!