A good chai is usually an in-house blend of bold spices, steamed in a good quality non-dairy milk, served through a strainer with a cinnamon quill and honey on the side. I like to sip it using the quill as a straw and let my mood dictate whether or not I add the honey.
But you can’t dirty up a good chai – strong beans and strong spices rarely gel harmoniously. And you all know how I feel about non-dairy milk. A nice brown soy is fantastic in sticky chai, but keep it the hell away from my coffee.
So in what kind of context can chai and coffee peaceably coexist? Forget real “chai” and think more “chai latte”. A nice chai latte blend will be mild but flavourful, subtly sweet and taste best with dairy milk. The less it tastes like an authentic chai, the better it’s going to accompany your coffee.
At the end of the day, a dirty chai is neither coffee nor chai. You can’t just throw a shot of coffee in a chai and call it dirty – your beans and spices need to complement one another appropriately. It’s distinctly its own thing and you need to get it just right.