During the nineteenth century, when the British established and developed tea cultivation in Assam and Darjeeling in the northeastern and the Nilgiri Hills in the southwest of India, the popularity of masala chai tea seems to have grown.
Indian inhabitants did not often drink a lot of tea, even though enormous amounts of the black tea grown in those areas were sent back to Britain to be drunk there and elsewhere in the west.
This fragrant tea can be made with a variety of spice mixtures, but the so-called warm spices—cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, ginger, pepper, anise, and nutmeg—are most frequently used.
It is often made using Assam black tea. A little water and a little milk are added to the mixture to finish it.