LO ST DR INK
The
Chai's
The
Limit
AT E L I E R B O TA N I C A STORY BY L ARISSA DUBECKI PHOTOS BY CHRIS TURNER
W
hen Nina Isabella had her first taste of chai 20 years ago she knew it was good – but she also knew she could make it better.
“A friend made it for me the traditional way: he added the tea and spices to the pot, brought it to the boil, added milk and let it simmer,” says the founder of Atelier Botanica. “The spices were amazing. I loved the drink but the tea after that process was completely destroyed.” Back then it was impossible to find a commercial version of the chai travellers tended to discover for the first time on their backpacking adventures in India. The appeal of the warming spices such as cardamom, cinnamon and cloves in a silken, milky warm tea was hard to deny, though - so Nina set out on her own journey, experimenting with her own blends and quantities until she found the perfect recipe. What began as a small cottage industry (“basically I was peddling it in small packets to my girlfriends”) eventually turned
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