Do I need to say anything? Really? But you know I will.
<pet peeve>
Here goes: there is
no such thing as
chai tea.
Chai is tea.
Chai tea is a classic example of redundancy. I've said it before,
way back in 2003, but who read blogs then? Even less commented on them? The Libran in me does want to quickly clarify that Blogger didn't have a comments feature in 2003. It's true. But let's focus on this problem of redundancy instead, shall we?
Either call it
tea or call it
chai.
Please
stop saying
chai tea.
As for chai latte? Latte? Chai is almost always made with milk so that's another redundancy there.
And, if you use chai masala or a blend of spices to make, say, ice cream and there are no tea leaves in it? That's not chai ice cream. That's spiced ice cream or masala ice cream. Why? Because
chai is tea, remember? If there's no tea in it, it can't be chai anything. The exception to this rule is chai masala.
Cardamom and cinnamon may mean dessert to some but that is not why chai is had after a sumptous meal. You can write poetry about it if you want but really, our meals don't have courses and dessert is usually served with the main meal. Chai is
often served after a meal as a
digestive aid or to shake off that lethargy to enable you and your heavy belly to make an attempt to leave. My point? Chai isn't dessert.
Chai does not have to have spices in it. Everyday chai is made with water, tea leaves, milk and sugar, the last of which is optional.
If it is possible to understand what bouillabaisse is, without redundant qualifiers before or after to explain that it is a Provençal fish stew, then it should be easy to deal with the word chai. It's much shorter. Or just say tea. Because that's what it is: tea.
So, please! Drop the tea because it's already there in your chai!
</pet peeve>
