The Magic Chai: how a drink changed my life

I’m not going to tell you that a cup of tea is magical. Nope. Never.

But I am about to suggest that my life didn’t get good, until it got chai.

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It was during the worst part of the spring semester— finals week— when my Resident Director sent out a message: “Next week is hell week, so for all of you who are gonna need an extra coffee boost, I will be at Starbucks and will buy your coffee for you”.

When I first read this email, I completely shrugged it off. I’m not known to be a coffee drinker, so I usually avoid the school’s Starbucks entirely. Yet, my roommate and her sweet-tooth managed to convince me to take advantage of the "free"ness of the coffee, just this time. She pulled me into line, and as I waited for her to order, a menu item caught my eye.

Chai Latte.

Hmm... chai.

My experience with the stuff goes back to a memory when a man from Bangladesh made some of the tea for my dad when he was sick. From that point on, my dad loved the stuff, but I had never tried any of it. I had always wondered what chai would taste like.

Now- the idea of an iced chai tea with a splash of milk (to make it into a latte) suddenly seemed super appealing. Surprisingly, I took my RD up on the offer that day. I got myself my first-ever chai latte.

Oh boy. What a watershed moment for me.

As I stood in line socializing (like I rarely seemed to do that semester), I had no idea of how the drink would find a place in my life. I had no idea about how perfect my days would potentially be, whenever there was chai in them.

Less than 2 months after my first cup of chai, I started talking to a guy that I would eventually begin dating. One thing I remember from our very second text conversation, was how I managed to parlay the drink into our discussion. Looking back, I brought the stuff up pretty forcibly, I’m not really sure how it fit into the conversation, at all. I guess I was still high on my discovery of chai, and I wanted anyone new in my life to know how much the stuff meant to me.

After texting back and forth for a bit, and after going on several dates during the summer, he eventually decided to take me to a local coffee shop in our town. I had never been before, and I was ultimately quite nervous for this date. This was, of course, when we had only been on about 3 dates before. Plus, I was still unsure about how I felt towards him.

When we went to grab coffee, it was early in the morning. (For some reason, several of our summer dates took place at like 9 am... though if one can be punctual for an early-morning date as well as for a night date, I guess that is a green flag).

I ordered iced chai. He got a coffee. And we had the entire place (the entire coffee shop) to ourselves. Again, I was very nervous and, therefore, very talkative. Pent-up energy from being bored during the summer may have contributed to this. Or, maybe I just really wanted him to know who I was as soon as he could to save myself time. Anyways, I was quite talkative on this early-morning coffee run. But actually, despite my weird behavior, this was the first real moment where I felt something.

Before this morning, I just kind of thought “oh... he’s a nice guy”, but I have to admit... I was still waiting to feel a greater connection before getting too invested, at this point.

Well, over that cup of iced chai, I suddenly found myself connecting. Minutes bled into minutes; one thought would bleed into another. We stayed there talking for a pretty long time.

After talking for a while, we left the coffee shop and headed to another part of town for a walk. It was humid, and my hair frizzed-up literally as soon as I got out of the vehicle, but that was actually not on my mind at all. The guy and the chai were the only things occupying my thoughts. I was reeling internally, because I was having a strangely pleasant time.

Well by October, he and I had become a couple. One day, right before fall break, I brought my sister to campus to spend some time with me. She and I had each been dealing with an annoying cold by this point in the semester. So, I got the great idea to take her by our campus Starbucks. I figured a warm drink would soothe the soreness she was experiencing.

Here is where my story comes full circle... I bought Maddie a Hot chai latte at the school Starbucks, just like my RD had once bought me a chai latte at the school Starbucks.

We drank the lattes outside of the college's Student Life Center. At the same time, my boyfriend came out to meet us for a walk. Both me and my sister, chai in hand, strolled campus with him. I was really happy (despite my sniffles).

I was spending time with two of my favorite people!

We walked, talked, and laughed a bit... it was really fun. It didn’t hit me until about halfway-through that it was our first time hanging out, just the three of us. Maddie is like an extension of me, so of course she fit right in. Still, it was nice to see that confirmed. I think, in all, we were on campus for several hours that day. It was hard to want to leave.

On another, later fall-ish day, he came by my window (I live on a ground floor in my building).

“Want to go do something?”

He should never have to ask.

We went over to that same coffee shop from before. This time, I was unapologetically ordering chai. I got one hot, and he got coffee. We went to a walking track, and we walked this trail that goes through some woods. Dang, the chai was really good. As I sipped on it, all I could think about was how wonderful it was to have people in my life that makes me feel as the drink does:

warm , soothed , sweet .

Today, as I write this, a group of friends and I went out to another coffee shop in town, and I ordered myself....

you guessed it...

After an hour of working on a class project with them and sipping on my 20oz drink, I remembered my first experience with chai. You know, it’s only been 7 months since that first taste.

I feel as though so much has changed!

A good Chai latte has been all I can talk about since trying one for the first time last April. My love for the stuff is probably weird and quirky and super obnoxious to all of my friends, but they need to cut me some slack. When I think of the times I’ve had a chai in my hand, good memories follow.

You can’t blame me for thinking that the drink has some kind of magic power, or something. Or maybe, this is just a time in my life with lots of good changes, and the only thing steady seems to be this drink that I can always come back to for the same experience.

I don’t know. I bet you’ve never even read something like this, before. (You likely will never want to, again).

I guess what I want the takeaway from this post to be is that chai is really, really good. And I’m grateful that my life has been that way, too.

My wish for everyone is that they find that thing that makes them feel like how chai makes me feel. There are several people in my life that are like the human embodiments of warmth, comfort, sweetness (and a little spice) that you can find in a good chai. Well, I think that everyone should find versions of this. And, I also think everyone should go try chai. You never know— you might find that it’s magic, after all.

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Hey guys! I am aware that this post was a bit different than usual, I guess. I'm really still getting started here on this blog, so I am experimenting a bit. I do know I want to have chattier, story posts like this just as often as I talk about literature and just as often as I share the more academic side of what I get up to.

So if you liked this style of post, please let me know! Thanks.

- Maeve