The memory of several places is dissolved into one cup of chai. Maqaw, tonka bean, timur — where do these unfamiliar names come from, and how did they reach a small studio in Kanazawa?
Say chai, and what comes to mind is probably that sweet, spiced, milky cup. Behind that ordinariness, though, lie thousands of kilometres of travel and several hundred years.
Inspice chai is made of twelve spices, tea leaves and red sugar. One of them, maqaw, is a berry that grows in the mountains of Taiwan, holding both the clarity of lemongrass and the sting of pepper. Tonka bean comes from South America, with a sweetness close to vanilla. Timur is a Nepalese sanshō, and it brings a citrus brightness with it.
Follow the scent, and the world comes into view.
Why twelve?
On their own, spices argue. The clarity of cardamom, the sweet tail of cinnamon, the core heat of ginger — every one has a strong character, and one wrong step and they fight. Set the proportions to hundredths of a gram, though, and they stop competing and become a chord.
We do not call this a recipe. We call it a story of scent. It feels less like cooking than like weaving a small story inside a cup.
Called the best chai of a life.
Now and then a customer tells us they have found the best chai of their life. To live up to that, the composing continues in the Kanazawa studio today, to hundredths of a gram.
Next time you drink chai, spare a moment for the journey the scent has made. The usual cup should look a little different.
