💬 My grandmother's chai tastes different even when I copy everything

Last time I was home in Hyderabad I stood next to my grandmother while she made chai. Same steel pan, same tea powder, same milk from the packet. I wrote down every step on my phone. 2 spoons of tea, a glass of water, sugar, then milk after the boil. Nothing strange at all. She noticed me typing and said, what are you doing? I said, taking notes. She laughed for a full minute. Then I made a cup at her stove with her pan, and she took one sip. She said, who made this? My mother said, he did, he's trying. My grandmother said, hmm, and put the cup down on the table. Nobody finished it. My cousin said it tasted like hotel tea, the kind that comes in a flask. I'm 41 years old and I felt about 12 again, standing there with my phone in my hand. I filmed her the next morning without saying anything. She taps the spoon on the edge of the pan 3 times. No idea why. I asked and she said, it's just what you do. She also turns the flame down early. My mother does everything the same, even the tapping, and hers still tastes a little flat to me. My mother says it's the water in her old house. That sounds like an excuse to me. Back in Khobar I tried it with the tapping and the early flame. My elder daughter said it was better. My younger daughter said it tastes like hotel tea. She said it nicely, but she still said it. I sent the video to my grandmother on the family group so she could see how I'd copied her. She replied with 1 thumbs up and then a message asking why I was filming her in her nightdress.

The note taking made me laugh. My grandmother says the secret is in the hand, and the same chai tasted fine at home but wrong at her stove. I think it is the pan. Hers is black on the bottom from 40 years of use, and it holds heat differently. Did she tell you what was missing, or did she just smile?

In my house it's my father who somehow makes the best chai despite using the exact same pan, tea, and milk as everyone else. My mother has tried copying his timing down to the second and still can't get it right, which annoys her more than she'll ever admit.