In India, the chaïwallah is the street tea seller, the one who boils tea, milk, sugar and spices together in a large pot, and serves a spiced, sweet drink in small glasses that the whole country drinks at any hour. Mariage Frères drew on this age-old recipe for Chaïwallah Rouge, a chai based on red rooibos, naturally caffeine-free, offered in its iconic 100 g tin.

The spices are real and numerous: cinnamon, pepper, cardamom, ginger, clove, pink peppercorn. Ingredients: red rooibos, cinnamon, pepper, cardamom, ginger, clove, pink peppercorn; the blend may contain traces of nuts. Dry, you can see flecks of spice among the russet needles, and the aroma is that of a chai, warm and peppery.

The liquor is amber. The naturally sweet notes of the rooibos meet the imperial spices, and the house describes a composition that is both intense and smooth: the cinnamon and ginger warm, the cardamom refreshes, the pepper and clove lift, and the rooibos, low in tannins, wraps everything in a softness that keeps the cup rounded even without milk or sugar.

The house invites you to drink it hot or iced, with or without milk. In the evening, after dinner, with hot milk and a little honey, it is a caffeine-free chai; iced, with cold milk, it becomes a summer chai latte. It goes well with gingerbread, an Indian pastry, a carrot cake, and stands up to a curry.

Allow 2.5 g per 200 ml of water at 95 °C and a steeping time of five minutes, or boil it in milk the Indian way. Chaïwallah Rouge in its 100 g iconic tin keeps best closed, away from plain teas, which its spices would perfume.