The spices in Inspice Chai

On character, and on what each spice is said to do.

Beginning a life with spices, through chai.

That spices are good for the body is something a great many people know. Ask how many have the habit of working them into what they eat day to day, though, and in Japan the number is still small. And if you then ask about taking in the sort of quantity from which one might expect an effect on health, the threshold rises another notch. For people with no culture or eating habit of using spices as a matter of course at breakfast, lunch and dinner, there are two ways to get plenty of spice into the body in the course of ordinary life. One is curry. The other is chai.

Inspice Chai blends twelve kinds of spice. Beyond that, by taking the quantities in the blend, the form each spice takes, and the method of brewing as far as they will go, it has become a chai that can be called good for the body in the true sense.

What we hold to first is that it should taste good. However good for the body a thing may be, if you cannot think it delicious you will not want to drink it, and it will not become a daily habit. On top of the pursuit of taste, we laid down carefully, layer by layer, the best approaches for what the body gains. One large feature of Inspice Chai is that the spices are powdered. Being in powder form, more of the healthful components that come from the spices can be taken into the body. Between this and a product where tea leaves and whole spices sit in a tea bag, a large difference in intake arises. Cardamom and cassia are left whole. That was decided by the balance between aroma and the quantity in the blend. Powdering makes an aroma rise more readily, but by the same measure the quantity in the blend has to come down. Weighing the aroma we wanted against the quantity we wanted to include, these two spices are left whole.

How it is brewed matters as well. There are chai products you can make casually in the microwave, but there is all the difference in the world between those and the flavour of a chai simmered gently in a pan with care. The amount of each component that can be drawn out of each spice differs greatly too, and so does the good the body takes from drinking the chai.

So, let us go through how the twelve spices are put together, and what each is said to do.

Cardamom

The scent of what is called the queen of spices is, in a word, floral. The freshness of mint and citrus, together with a sweet, warm note close to ginger. Its essential-oil components are said to have anti-inflammatory action and to ease bronchitis.

Cassia

A sweeter, denser scent than Ceylon cinnamon. Cassia sits well with Indian cooking and gives the flavour of chai a depth all its own. In Chinese medicine it is also used as a tonic for the intestines.

Clove

A sweet, vanilla-like scent with a slight bitterness. On its own its character is strong, but mixed with other spices it draws out a fragrant savour. In kampo medicine it is used as the crude drug chōji, prescribed under the principle of onchū-kōgyaku to warm the stomach and intestines and to improve cold in the body. It is also high in antioxidant effect and has drawn attention as an anti-ageing ingredient.

Ginger

Early in development we considered having you prepare fresh ginger yourself. A chai made with fresh ginger does taste good, but dried ginger has the merit of a higher warming effect on the body, so it goes in as a powder. A spice with strong anti-inflammatory action and a good effect on the gut.

Star anise

What star anise is said to do closely resembles ginger, but its distinctive point is an action, drawn out by simmering, that encourages the secretion of the female hormone oestrogen. For that reason an effect can be expected for those with severe menstrual pain or irregular periods, and a positive effect is looked for on stress and on the symptoms of menopause. It has a sweet scent like concentrated cinnamon, and is one of the spices chai cannot do without.

Those five are the ones familiar as the base spices of chai. The seven that follow are blended in to produce an aroma and a depth you will taste only in Inspice Chai.

Tonka bean

The tonka bean is the black seed of the kumaru, a tree of the pea family. Almost all of its aromatic components are coumarin, the same compound found in cherry-blossom leaves, in almond and apricot kernels, and in bergamot. It carries a sweet, vanilla-like scent, and is in fact used to scent custard cream, crème brûlée, ice cream, chocolate, stollen and other sweets.

Its very rich scent is its hallmark, but it is genuinely a rare spice, and per gram the most expensive of everything blended here. It is also the spice present in the greatest measure in each pack. The part the tonka bean plays in Inspice CHAI is binding. It ties the spices to one another, ties the milk and tea leaves to the spices, and ties the chai to the person drinking it — an important part. From the standpoint of the science of aroma as well, coumarin sits well with acidity and with milk and lifts them both. If this were an orchestra, it would be the conductor. Do enjoy a new chai flavour, unlike any you have met, with the tonka bean’s distinctive scent wrapped around the whole.

Coumarin, which makes up nearly all of what is in a tonka bean, is remarkable

Coumarin is an excellent antioxidant. It is said to help remove the active oxygen that causes illness, and to help prevent lifestyle-related diseases such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes. It is a compound used not only as a fragrance but also in medicines such as antithrombotics.

Magao (maqaw)

Magao, or maqaw, has long been used as a seasoning by the Atayal, an indigenous people of Taiwan. It looks like black pepper, and carries a prickling heat like sansho, a faint bitterness like ginger, and above all a splendid citrus note — the fresh, fine scent of lemongrass. Its rarity has earned it the name “the phantom spice”, and in recent years it has drawn the attention of cooks around the world, above all in Europe and America. We wanted magao in the chai from the very start of development. There is a large difference in the flavour that appears depending on whether it is used whole or ground. What we wanted to draw out in Inspice CHAI was magao’s lemongrass scent and flavour, so we settled on a style in which it goes into the powdered spices whole and gives up its essence while simmering with the milk.

In research published in the Journal of Wood Science in the early 2000s, magao was shown to contain geraniol, neral and d-limonene, which have sedative and analgesic action, and to help regulate the central nervous system in animals. On that basis it is credited with effects such as easing low mood, reducing inflammation, lowering fever, promoting sweating, relieving pain, killing bacteria, sharpening concentration, aiding digestion, supporting detox and strengthening immunity. Among the indigenous people it has in fact been used to ease the headache of a hangover, and it has been prized as a blessing of nature in the spirit of food and medicine sharing one source.

Fennel Aknabi

We use Fennel Aknabi, whose hallmark is a scent slightly sweeter and more refined than ordinary fennel seed. Fennel is said to have diuretic and sweat-promoting action, and by encouraging the discharge of water an improvement in swelling can be expected. Better circulation of the blood also suggests an improvement in sensitivity to cold, which makes it well suited to anyone watching their weight.

Tellicherry black pepper

Tellicherry, a rare, high-grade black pepper from the Malabar region of India. The berries are picked while still green and unripe and dried in the sun. Called the finest of peppers, it is marked by a citrus scent and a refined, delicate spiciness.

Within the spiciness of Inspice CHAI, the player who takes the part of bitterness is clove. If we picture the instruments of an orchestra, clove is the double bass and this Tellicherry black pepper the cello — the same bitterness, but a different register to cover. Clove holds up the whole from the low end; Tellicherry weaves more lightly through it. Bitterness on its own does not translate into good taste, but it is an important spice for giving the whole flavour depth and dimension. An ordinary black pepper would stand out awkwardly among such an illustrious line-up of spices, but this Tellicherry plays in splendid harmony with them.

Nutmeg

Nutmeg’s deep, sweet, woody flavour gives chai a warmth. Combined with cassia and clove it works in synergy, and the flavour gained a broader embrace. Nutmeg is rich in myristicin, which settles the condition of the intestines, and pinene, which settles the stomach.

Coriander

Drink Inspice CHAI and the richness of the floral note that rises from it will move you. Coriander is a spice marked by a slight bitterness reminiscent of dried orange peel. It sits well with a wide range of spices, and gently wraps the more assertive ones.

What is looked for most from coriander is settling the stomach and settling the gut. It has long been used as a herb to ease trouble in the stomach and intestines — stomach pain, heaviness after eating, constipation, loose stools. Carminative action can be expected from it, so it suits anyone prone to bloating. It is also put to use against constipation.

Timur

A relative of sansho, grown by peoples living in the rainforest of the Terai region of Nepal. The spice is marked by a fruity citrus scent, followed by a prickling stimulus that spreads afterwards like huajiao. One of the things that leaves its mark on the experience of Inspice CHAI is the long finish that stays with you after the cup is empty. Timur is what carries the important part in producing that finish. Chai generally leaves a sense of milk in the mouth after drinking. Timur’s prickle and its fresh flavour lift that milkiness into something more comfortable still. This spice matters so much that without timur, Inspice CHAI would not be Inspice CHAI.

The kindness of the earth, into the body.

We have gone through the character of the twelve spices blended into Inspice Chai and what each is said to do. Chai drunk with that knowledge in mind — this spice has this history, this spice is said to do this — yields a different taste and a different feeling again. Spices are not alone in this: every natural thing is a gift from the earth, and a kindness. Let us receive it with gratitude, and enjoy it.