How to make chai for a crowd without ruining it

Scale the tea and the water, but hold the timings. A pot for ten needs ten times the leaf, water and milk of a single cup, and roughly the same three minutes on the flame. The mistake that ruins chai for a crowd is boiling a big pot for longer because it looks like it needs it. Use a wide pan, boil the tea in water first, and strain the moment it is ready.

Chai for a house full of people goes wrong in predictable ways, and all of them come from treating a big pot as a small pot with more in it. It behaves differently, and the differences are worth knowing before twelve people are waiting.

How much tea for ten cups?

Ten heaped teaspoons, about 30 grams, with 5 cups of water and 5 cups of full-fat milk. That is the standard half-and-half ratio scaled up, and it makes ten small cups of the size chai is actually drunk in, not ten mugs.

Sugar is the one thing not to scale blindly, because a room of people will not agree on it. For anything above ten cups, make it lightly sweet and put sugar on the table.

Use a wide pan, not a tall one

A wide pan gives you more surface area, which means the chai comes to temperature evenly and you can see the colour. A tall narrow pot heats from the bottom, catches the milk on the base, and boils over the moment you look away.

Whatever you use, fill it no more than two thirds. Chai for a crowd rises far faster than a single cup does, and a boil-over on a big pot loses you both the chai and the stove.

Do not boil it for longer

This is the mistake. A large pot takes longer to come to a boil, and it is tempting to read that as needing longer to brew. It does not.

The timings that matter start when it is actually boiling:

1. Water, tea and crushed ginger in the pan. Bring it to a hard rolling boil and hold it there one full minute.
2. Add the milk and sugar. Bring it back to a simmer.
3. Two to three minutes more, until the colour turns a deep reddish brown.
4. Off the flame, strain immediately.

The clock does not scale. Ten times the volume still needs about three minutes after the milk.

Strain it out of the pan straight away

The single most useful habit for large batches. If you leave a pot of chai sitting with the leaf still in it, extraction carries on in the residual heat and by the second round of pouring it has gone bitter.

Strain the whole batch into a second vessel, a thermos or a jug, the moment it is done. It will hold for twenty minutes or so and everyone gets the same cup.

Making it ahead

You can, within limits, and it is better than reheating.

Make it, strain it, and hold it in a pre-warmed thermos. It stays good for about half an hour. What you must not do is make it early, let it cool, and boil it again: reheated chai is chai boiled twice and it always comes back harsh.

If people are arriving over a long stretch, make two smaller batches rather than one big one held hot.

If you are making it outdoors or on a small stove

A small burner under a big pot will not hold a rolling boil, and you will end up simmering for fifteen minutes waiting for colour. Two medium pans on two burners beats one big pan on one, every time.

Quick reference

• One heaped teaspoon of CTC per cup, about 3g. It does not change with volume.
• Equal water and full-fat milk.
• One minute hard boil in water, two to three minutes after the milk. The clock does not scale.
• Wide pan, two thirds full at most.
• Strain the whole batch immediately.
• Sugar on the table, not in the pot.