Why we put salt in chai | Rock salt gives sweetness and aroma their outline

Three lines first.
・Inspice chai contains rock salt, alongside 12 spices and tea leaves.
・The purpose is not saltiness. It is to sharpen the outline of the sweetness and the spices.
・A single pinch changes the taste, so we weigh it to 0.01g.

It is not “salty chai”

Some people read the ingredient list and pause. “Salt? In chai?” We are asked this often in the shop.

Then they taste it, and they are usually surprised. There is no saltiness. What goes in is rock salt, in a very small amount. We stop just short of the point where the tongue would register “salty”. That is the crux of the design.

Salt lifts sweetness

Salt on watermelon. A pinch of salt in anko (sweet red bean paste). Salted caramel.
The same piece of wisdom has lived for a long time in Japanese kitchens and in confectionery around the world. Add a trace of salt and the sweetness feels deeper. There is no more sugar than before. What changes is the way it is perceived.

Chai is a drink of sugar and milk. Precisely because sweetness plays the lead, this effect comes into its own. The roundness of the milk gains an outline, and the sweetness of the sugar never goes flat.

Bringing 12 spices into one picture

The spices in Inspice chai are twelve: cassia, cardamom, magao (maqaw), clove, Fennel Aknabi, ginger, tonka bean, star anise, Tellicherry black pepper, timur, nutmeg and coriander.

Layer twelve of them and the aromas begin to argue with one another. Lose the cohesion and you are left with nothing more than “milk tea that smells of spices”.

So, a pinch of rock salt. The scattered aromas fall neatly into a single line. In the language of a scent blueprint, it does the work of the bass that holds up the score.

The reality of 0.01g

A pinch, we said, but in practice you cannot make it by eye. In the workshop we weigh to 0.01g. Slightly too much and salt lingers on the tongue at the last sip. Slightly too little and the outline of the aroma blurs. We made batch after batch to find that one point.

This rock salt, incidentally, is in every product in the chai series. In the spice packs, and in CHAInstant, made in the microwave. The flavour may change; the foundation does not move.

Which is why we do not call it “salt-free”

Inspice does have series made without salt. Dish and FlareLine.

Chai is different. It contains rock salt. Blur that point and you cause trouble for people who are watching their salt intake. Ingredients are listed honestly, in order of weight. It is an obvious thing to do, and we keep to the obvious.

You can try it at home

Take the chai or milk tea you have to hand and add the smallest amount of salt you can pick up with your fingertips. Truly the smallest. You should notice the outline of the sweetness change.

If you do not notice it, you may have added too much, or not enough. One or the other. Pour another cup and try again with a different amount.

Days that are fun, glad and delicious are built from small points like this one, stacked up.

Frequently asked questions

Q. Doesn’t salt make chai taste salty?
A. It does not. The rock salt in Inspice chai is kept below the amount at which the tongue registers saltiness. The purpose is to bring out the outline of the sweetness and the spices, not to make the drink salty.

Q. Is Inspice chai salt-free?
A. No. Every product in the chai series contains rock salt. The series we make without salt are Dish and FlareLine. If you are watching your salt intake, please check the ingredient list on the product page.

Q. When should I add salt if I make chai myself?
A. Add it with the spices, at the start of the simmering, and it settles in well. Start with a very small amount for a few hundred millilitres. You will go wrong less often if you add more only after it feels too little.