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Masala chai is one of India's most beloved drinks, the standard being tea, milk and all the spices. What happens when you take that Masala chai and mix it into a classic Old Fashioned? You get the Masala Chai Old Fashioned. It's a drink that brings together the spiciness of the Indian chai with the smoothness of the whiskey.
The classic Old Fashioned is whiskey, sugar, bitters and ice. This version substitutes the normal sugar for our own homemade Masala Chai syrup (cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and ginger). If you're after something a bit different to try at home or to serve at a party then this is how you make a Masala Chai Old Fashioned.
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A Masala Chai Old Fashioned doesn't need any complicated ingredients or a professional bar to make it. It's simply whiskey as a base with a homemade masala chai syrup to provide the sweetness and spice. Bourbon is actually a very good choice as the vanilla, caramel, and oak notes in it work really well with the warm flavors of the masala chai. You could, of course, also use Indian whiskey.
Ingredients For One Cocktail:
You'll also need a mixing glass, a bar spoon, a strainer, and a rocks glass. If you don't have a mixing glass, then a sturdy glass or a small pitcher will do quite nicely. The key is to use a cooled chai syrup so that it will properly blend into the whiskey without warming the drink.
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The 'homemade' masala chai syrup is what gives the drink its character. It's not your usual masala chai (which would normally be made with milk) as this version is made with water, black tea, sugar, and spices, so it has no milk in it. That makes it perfectly suitable for a stirred cocktail.
Ingredients For Masala Chai Syrup:
Pour 100ml of water into a small saucepan and add in the cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and black peppercorns. Bring to just below a simmer and allow the spices to steep for about 5 minutes.
After 5 minutes, take the saucepan off the heat and add loose black tea, allow it to steep for around three-four minutes. Make sure you don't keep it on for too long, else the tea will start getting bitter and will overpower the spices.
Once done, strain the liquid or remove the tea leaves and spices. Add sugar or jaggery and stir it until it dissolves while the liquid is still warm. If you need to, gently reheat it to help the sugar/jaggery dissolve.
Allow the syrup to cool right down before you use it in the cocktail. Any syrup that's left over can be transferred to a clean airtight container and stored in the refrigerator. You can also make the syrup in advance if you want to save time when you're actually making the drinks.
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Once the homemade masala chai syrup is ready, the cocktail itself is a matter of a few minutes. It's pretty much the same basic method as an Old Fashioned really, with the chai syrup in place of the sugar.
Add 60ml of bourbon or Indian whisky to a mixing glass. Add 10-15ml of your homemade masala chai syrup (depending on how sweet and spiced you want it) and two dashes of aromatic bitters to balance the sweetness and complement the chai spices.
Fill the mixing glass with ice and gently stir with a bar spoon for about 20 to 30 seconds. You're chilling the drink and adding a small amount of water via the ice. This helps the whiskey, syrup, and bitters to properly meld together. While you would typically shake a cocktail that contains citrus juice, an Old Fashioned is generally stirred.
Put one large ice cube in a rocks glass, strain the chilled whiskey mix over it, and a large cube is preferable as it will generally melt more slowly than smaller pieces and thus help to preserve the flavor of the cocktail as you drink it.
Take a fresh strip of orange peel and gently squeeze it over the cocktail to release the oils. Drop the peel into the glass or just rest it on the rim. A cinnamon stick or a star anise would make a nice garnish. That's it, your Masala Chai Old Fashioned is now ready to drink.
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All the information in this article has come from cocktail recipes published by Virginia ABC, Diaspora Co., The Washington Post, TeBella Tea Company, Imbibe Magazine, Fee Brothers and Johnnie Walker. The recipes provide the ingredients, method of preparation, variations on the chai syrup, the different spice blends and the garnish used to make the Masala Chai Old Fashioned.
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A Masala Chai Old Fashioned is the marriage of two well known drinking traditions in one glass. You've got the classic Old Fashioned base, of course, with whiskey, plus homemade chai syrup, which adds sweetness, comfort, and the distinct flavors of Indian spices. It's a cocktail very much in the Old Fashioned tradition, but with a distinct twist.
You can obviously tweak the recipe to your own taste. Jaggery instead of sugar for a more intense sweetness, less syrup if you like a more pronounced whiskey flavor, different whiskeys to see what you prefer. Once you've made the chai syrup, then making another Masala Chai Old Fashioned is just a matter of stirring the requisite ingredients together.
