Origin
Cutting chai belongs to Mumbai, where tea is sold by the half glass at roadside stalls, railway stations and the doors of offices and mills. The name speaks of the measure: a 'cut' is half the ordinary serving, small enough to be bought many times a day by those who work to the clock. Tea itself reached ordinary Indian hands through the nineteenth-century plantations of Assam and the habit of boiling it with milk and sugar, and the city's tea-stall keepers, the chaiwallahs, carry the practice from one generation to the next. It sits within the wider institution of masala chai, which the street shares with the home kitchen.
Description
Cutting chai is strong black tea, usually Assam CTC leaf, boiled together with milk, water and sugar, then strained into a small glass of about 60 to 80 ml. Many stalls add crushed ginger, and sometimes green cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum) or a pinch of tea masala; the base is a short, hard boil rather than an infusion. The result is dense, tannic, sweet and the colour of a polished brown wood, served very hot. It is made in a small pan, often in batches, and poured from a height through a metal strainer.
The Thread
Flavour Context
Cutting chai is drunk with bun maska, a soft bun split and buttered, with plain tea biscuits, or with fried snacks such as kanda bhaji and vada pav. The structure is plain: the tea is hot, sweet and tannic, and it cuts through the fat of butter and frying, while the soft crumb of the bun tempers its astringency. Ginger gives a sharp warmth against the roundness of the milk. The small measure suits the pairing, since the glass is finished before the snack grows cold.