I just learned that the reason chai tea leaves look like little pebbles rather than leaves is because they've been undergone a process called CTC, or Crush-Tear-Curled. This process makes the leaves brew much stronger than standard whole or cut leaves.

I had throughout the years tried to make chai with the loose leaf tea you typically get, which is brewed in hot water, and wondered why the resulting chai was always very weak when compared to the Indian branded leaves. And the answer really was just that they're completely different beasts.

Whereas whole leaves should be steeped in water, CTC tea has to be boiled in milk. And this, I believe, is why it's impossible to find authentic Chai tea in America in your typical coffee shops. Along with the fact that chai really only pops in milk with a high fat content, like unskimmed raw milk.