Drinks

Hot Spiked Chai

A warming, spicy, boozy sipper from the Botiwalla team

Photo: Molly Milroy| Chai Pani Restaurant Group


Chef Meherwan Irani’s expertise with Indian spices extends past the masala-tinged fish and cumin-and-chile-seasoned lamb burgers he serves at his restaurants around Asheville, Atlanta, and now Charlotte, where the four-time James Beard Award nominee is opening a third iteration of Botiwalla at the new Optimist Hall. This wintertime treat mingles his Spicewalla chai tea blend with rum and North Carolina amaro. 


Ingredients

  • Yield: 1 cocktail

    • 4 oz. equal parts brewed masala chai tea (such as Spicewalla Chai Masala) and hot milk

    • 1½ oz. Amrut Old Port rum

    • 1 barspoon Eda Rhyne Appalachian Fernet

    • ½ oz. honey


Preparation

  1. Brew black chai tea to listed specifications and add hot milk. Preheat a mug with hot water. Discard water and pour in milky chai tea. Stir in remaining ingredients. Top with grated nutmeg.


Caroline Sanders Clements is the associate editor at Garden & Gun and oversees the magazine’s annual Made in the South Awards. Since joining G&G’s editorial team in 2017, the Athens, Georgia, native has written and edited stories about artists, architects, historians, musicians, tomato farmers, James Beard Award winners, and one mixed martial artist. She lives in North Charleston, South Carolina, with her husband, Sam, and dog, Bucket.


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