How To Make Chai for 300 People

and not mess it up.

The first time I made chai for more than a 100 people was for my pastoral ordination ceremony two years ago. I started prep at around 5am in the morning, made chai for about 400 people in the church kitchen, got showered, dressed, and was on the platform with 15 minutes to spare!

Since then my wife and I have been doing “chaixperiences” around the U.S and, as of a few weeks ago, overseas! Typically, a chaixperience involves us making chai for everyone in attendance, me doing a 30-40 minute keynote on meaningful living while doing a live chai demo for the attendees, and serving everyone in attendance a cup or two of chai.

Earlier in April, I was in Perth, Australia, for a youth camp. Obviously they had to ask the “chai guy” to make chai for everyone in attendance which was roughly around 300 people. After the 5th or 6th time making chai for large attendances, I realized I don’t have my observations in one place. I’ve also made a ton of mistakes along the way! So here’s a list of best practices to make homemade masala chai for groups of 100 or more that I wish I had when I started.

1. Before you make your chai

   1. As soon as possible, find out approximately how many people you are expected to make chai for. If we assume that some might go for seconds, I multiply the number of people by 1.5 to get the total number of cups of chai I have to account for. For eg: for 300 people, it’d be (300 x1.5) 450 cups of chai.

   2. What do I mean by “cups?” Decide early on the size of the disposable cups you’re going to be using to serve your chai. I typically use a 8 oz disposable cup like this one . I find 8-10 oz chai per person is ideal because it keeps those who like it to have one more cup if they like, and if they don’t like it, it’s less chai wasted. It’s ideal if you purchase this yourself before the event.

   3. Create, or buy, your own masala (“spice”)mix beforehand. This one is tricky because it’s purely subjective to your tastes and the tastes of those you’re about to serve. Instead of giving you an exact masala recipe, I’m going to provide some things to keep in mind depending on a few possible scenarios you might have:

      1. If you’re making the masala mix from scratch:

         1. Bring whole spices with you to the venue and crush it there using a food processor. They’ll retain their flavors better when you crush then on-site

         2. Go green cardamom and cinnamon heavy and easy on the cloves. 1 tsp of lightly ground whole cardamom, 1 tsp of lightly crushed whole cinnamon, and 1/4 tsp ground cloves per person. So for 300 people, you’d need approximately 7 cups of ground green cardamom, 7 cups of ground cinnamon, 1.5 cups of ground cloves.

         3. other spices are optional.

      2. If you do not want to make the masala mix:

         1. Your nearest Indian/Pakistani/ South Asian grocery store will sell boxes of masala chai mixes like this one. If you aren’t familiar with these mixes, check the ingredient list in the back of the container or, better yet, ask the store owner (or other south-asian patrons in that store) for recommendations.

         2. You could also purchase masala chai mixes that contain both the black tea and the spices mixed in together. In a pinch, my go-to’s have been Monk’s Chai, Kolkata Chai, Tahmina Tea, or mixes from Wagh Bakri.

   4. For your water: Don’t rely on their tap water. Many types of tap water can be more “heavy” due to added minerals and, if so, will make your chai taste metallic and gross. You’d want a type of water that is well balanced i.e pH 7. I’d recommend pH neutral spring water or distilled water.

   5. For your milk: As much as possible, find out how many would prefer vegan vs whole milk options for your chai. I typically do a 2:1 ratio whole milk option to vegan / dairy-free option. i.e 2 large pots of regular milk chai and 1 pot vegan/dairy free chai. If you have access to Costco, the Kirkland brand whole milk is one of the best regular milk options for chai, IMHO. Full-Fat Oatly oatmilk, Extra Creamy Chobani oat, or Extra Creamy Silk Oat are great non-dairy milk options.

      1. How much milk should you get? let’s do some math. If we’re making chai for 300 people, and some of them might get seconds, then we have to account for 450 8-oz cups of chai per person (see above for this rationale). 450 x 8 = 3600 oz = 28 total gallons of chai. If you’re using a water base, I’d do a 1:4 ratio of water: milk. So according to that, you’ll be more than OK with getting around 20 gallons of milk. If you’re doing a 2:1 ratio regular milk: oat then that would make this approximately amount to 13 gallons of regular milk and 7 gallons of oat milk (someone math check me por favor).

   6. For your tea: Try Assam CTC or Ceylon BOPF loose leaf black tea. Earl Grey will work in a pinch but not ideal. Have at least 10-15 measuring cups full of loose leaf tea ready to go. You’ll most likely not use all of it.

   7. Have 2 pounds of fresh ginger washed and ready to be crushed in the blender. You’ll definitely not use all of it.

   8. Find out if they have a commercial kitchen with gas stoves (electric will work but not ideal), 2-3 40-quart stock pots, 2 deep soup ladles, large fine-mesh strainer, a strong food processor to crush the ginger and the spices, and at least 2, 5-gallon insulated beverage dispensers. You could also use smaller dispensers, but this would require having at least 2 more people on deck to keep refilling them.

2. While you make your chai

   1. If you have at least one other person who can help you, give yourself approximately 1.5 hours of total prep time. If it’s just you, maybe 2 hours.

   2. Crush your dry spices first. Set aside. Then crush your ginger. Set aside.

   3. Determine how much, and which type of chai, goes into what pot. If you have a 2-pot setup (one with regular milk and the other with oat), measure how much total liquid (milk + water) can go into each pot without moving past the 3/4 line. You might have to do some math again (sorry!) to half your recipe into each pot. Whatever you do, make sure that you do not fill each pot to the brim. You’ll thank me when you come to the end of your chai process when the rolling/double boils start to happen.

   4. As much possible, run at least two pots simultaneously.

   5. Keep the flame strong and heat high. If it’s an electric stove, keep them at the highest setting.

   6. Water and ginger in.

   7. When you see small bubbles, add in your tea. I’d start with 4-5 measuring cups of tea per 40-qt pot.

   8. Acquaint yourself with the “chaiwalla” stirring/ aerating technique. This guy seems to know what he’s doing.

   9. When the tea liquor starts to boil, slightly reduce the heat and keep stirring till the liquor becomes a deep, blackish maroon color.

   10. Close the lid and let it steep for about a minute. Then add your milk.

   11. Turn up the heat to the highest setting. It will stay like this for the rest of your chai process.

   12. Add spices (make sure to half them if you are using multiple pots!). Stir everything in well for about 5 minutes and then let it stay undisturbed.

   13. Here are the some visual indicators I look for to get the best possible chai:

       1. Color: The ideal color you’re looking for depends on your preference. I personally aim for the 1.5 version in this link. To darken your color, you could add more tea and keep stirring. You should start to see your ideal color a few minutes before you see activity on top of the liquid surface.

       2. Viscosity: The chai should be more “milky” and not watery. If it feels watery, add more milk.

       3. Bubbles on the surface: As soon as you start to see the surface of the chai breaking into a rolling boil, start vigorously stirring/aerating so the chai doesn’t spill over. If you’ve added more liquid into your pot crossing over the 3/4 mark, it’s going to take longer for you to see the rolling boil. In that case, try moving few cups of the liquid into a smaller pot. If the rolling boil is faster than you expected i.e it’s about to boil over, then with the assistance of another person, move the pot to a non-heated surface as soon as possible.

       4. Turn the heat off completely and add your sugar while stirring. You know you’ve added enough sugar when you can taste it in a teaspoon of chai from the pot.

       5. If you’re brave, go on ahead and add 2 pinches of salt to the pot. I dare you (salt actually makes the flavors pop a bit, but please don’t do it if you don’t know what a pinch is).

3. After you make your chai

   1. Transfer the chai through a strainer into the dispenser in batches, periodically emptying out the chai grounds into another container (you could reuse this for a smaller batch later if you need to).

   2. Taste your first cup. You’re looking for an initial sweetness with a light spice burn in the back of your throat. Stir in more sugar into the dispenser as needed. If it’s too “spicy”, empty out some chai from the dispenser, heat 5-6 cups of milk and add hot milk into it to balance out the spice.

   3. Ideally, have someone serve the chai to everyone so that you can be free to do mingle or focus on other batches. Make sure to serve the server a sample cup first to show them the right amount of chai per cup.

The first time can be overwhelming, but it gets easier, and more fun, over time!

Here’s a video from the last time I did a chaixperience. If you want to book us for an event, let us know here!

Have you made chai for more than a 100 people before? Any tips/tricks/strategies that have worked out for you? Let me know in the comments.

KW