Masala Chai is spiced milk tea usually sweetened. Originating from India, Chai is widespread with many household and regional variations.

The folklore surrounding Chai dates back to between 5000 and 9000 years ago to an ancient royal court – either India or Siam. It was said that the reigning king created the recipe as a healing Ayurvedic beverage. Throughout the earlier years Chai was prepared via a diverse range of methods and contained an equally diverse array of spices. Between regions the recipes varied and it was served hot and cold as a remedy for minor ailments, but didn’t contain black tea until the 1930’s.

In 1835 the British East India Company established tea plantations in Assam in an attempt to reverse the overwhelming Chinese monopoly on tea supply to Great Britain. In 1870 approximately 90% of tea consumed in Great Britain was supplied by China but by 1900 this had reduced to 10% largely replaced by tea sourced in India and Ceylon.

From the 1830s black tea was gradually assimilating into the existing Chai spice mix and the beginnings of Chai as we know it now emerged. However the tea spice mix lacked appeal due to the high cost of tea and wasn’t popular until the 1900s when a hardcore campaign by the India Tea Company promoted the provision of ‘tea breaks’ for workers in an attempt to increase tea sales.


The State and Revolution :flag-su:

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The Conquest of Bread :ancom:

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  • MelaniaTrump [undecided]
    ·
    edit-2
    4 years ago

    Findings. 236,379 patients survived a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19. Among them, the estimated incidence of neurological or psychiatric sequelae at 6 months was 33.6%, with 12.8% receiving their first such diagnosis.

    America is about to turn into combination live-in psych ward / prison camp

    https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.16.21249950v1.full.pdf

      • TheCaconym [any]
        ·
        edit-2
        4 years ago

        Yeah, the long term effects seem to really be quite something for a lot of people (including some of the asymptomatic). Meanwhile here in France the government - despite leaking news of a new upcoming lockdown - has finally decided not to do it. Instead they will enforce the existing curfew a bit more, until "they have had more time to reflect", and for "the economy". That in the midst of the British variant spreading here now, and with like one in five infected being children. And yeah, the schools are staying opened despite that. We should've already implemented a strict lockdown weeks ago.

        • Tormato [none/use name]
          ·
          4 years ago

          Capitalism’s epitaph just might be “for the economy.”

          One in five children? Brutal.

          Here in NYC they keep going stupidly back and forth with schools remaining partially open. Now the Neoliberal Nightmare governor want to open more capacity at restaurants next month. You know, it’s so important to shoot for the Hallmark and rose industry-driven “holiday “ of Valentines Day.

          As Carlin predicted “we’re just circling the drain; with everybody having a cell phone that makes pancakes and rubs your balls, so no one wants to rock the boat, cause any trouble.”

          • TheCaconym [any]
            ·
            4 years ago

            Now the Neoliberal Nightmare governor want to open more capacity at restaurants next month

            Your restaurants are still opened ?! they've been closed for like 3 and a half months here, they're a major infection vector. So are gyms, cinemas and the like. It's completely fucked up to let restaurants open given the current state of the pandemic in the US.

            • Tormato [none/use name]
              ·
              4 years ago

              The Capitalist Cabal, man. They don’t give a fuck about anything in the world - but their profits and maligning/pillaging the working and middle class.

              They’re not open technically. But they do have outdoor seating (even on this insanely cold Arctic wind blast settling in on us now). I’ve seen the craziest wooden structures all over the place, occupying the parking space in the street , now with little private, closed-in cubbies for a couple and others for small groups.

              I think I also saw a new gym also with its doors open and people inside working out. Some stupid shit.

              Yeah, we’re all stir crazy. And we need a regular government payment installment plan. But learn to cook at home; working out can be accomplished by simple push-ups, sit-ups, jumping jacks and yoga on the floor.

              This country’s fucked.

              Witnessing the end of the dominant American Empire is heart-warming though.

              • TheCaconym [any]
                ·
                4 years ago

                Witnessing the end of the dominant American Empire is heart-warming though.

                So is the deliciousness of pointing out to liberals how well countries like China, Vietnam or Cuba handled the pandemic.

        • lilpissbaby [any]
          ·
          edit-2
          4 years ago

          yeah, schools are about to open in Brazil as well and it's not gonna be good.

  • Scottish [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    There was an action in my town today where a group took over a vacant building near a houseless camp. The pigs drove them out after a couple of hours before they group were able to set up a warming area and pantry. Amazingly good intentions but as someone who was just a bystander I learnt so much from their obvious mistake. Number one... gotta have a solid fucking comms plan (both internal and external). It sucks, but if you want to mobilize support for direct action, you need to treat it like a fucking product, build a narrative and sell it to people. Even the material outcome is the same (kicked out the building) the comms plan should spin it into a W and build off of it so next time it works.

    I know no one really cares about this, but I just need to rant. Armchair organizing...

    • machiavellianRecluse [none/use name]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Wouldn't you need shit tonnes of support, to begin with, for something like this? Although your point to get media attention around this isn't bad. I have been involved with small-time stuff around my town and it seems the best thing to do would be quit my job and work retail to organize people. But uhh I am not charismatic or brave enough to do that.

    • adfsadfsadfsadf [none/use name]
      ·
      4 years ago

      gotta have a solid fucking comms plan

      American society is so fucked...

      “I have built my staff around comms rather than legislation,” Madison Cawthorn wrote to Republican colleagues in a Jan. 19 email

      Tweet

      • Frank [he/him, he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        Thats a politician after my own heart. Power doesn't exist on piece of paper floating down the hallways of a marble palace in a god forsaken swamp. It rests in the hands of the people. It's a shame the fascists understand this better than most of America.

        • adfsadfsadfsadf [none/use name]
          ·
          4 years ago

          It's news to nobody reading this that pols have always been greedy, stupid liars who are basically only interested in themselves and people like them. But before - at least they had some semblance of shame. For the GOP - shame is out the window. They are brazenly telling people "My entire focus is on me and how things related to me appear to be. Nothing else matters."

          People like Cawthorn and Marjorie Taylor Greene are the right-wing vanguard. I fear we are in the "quiet before the storm" period of fascism. If the dems don't go big - the US will be fucked. After the huge 2022 and 2024 dem losses in elections - the GOP will totally control the country.

          • late90smullbowl [they/them]
            ·
            4 years ago

            I fear we are in the “quiet before the storm” period of fascism.

            Couldn't agree more.

            • adfsadfsadfsadf [none/use name]
              ·
              4 years ago

              For nearly all of 2019 - I avoided this site because I knew I'd end up spending waaaaaaay too much time hanging out in the megathreads. And that's happening. Another problem is that I've gotten used to saying what I think with little to no filter. And on the net - once you're used to routinely sharing your thoughts that way - it can be a hard habit to break.

              They are blinded by their West Wingian view of the world. The Capitol Building is a scared site of our democracy and I'm now going to vomit up other flag waving stuff I also heard on CNN...

              If I made that "quiet" comment at reddit at the top of a hot thread - I'd have a dozen redditors lecturing me sarcastically about the attack on the Capital. But - of course - they experienced the attack live exactly like I did - via the internet. Real fascism is when attacks (including murder) can happen to nearly anywhere to the other.

              • late90smullbowl [they/them]
                ·
                edit-2
                4 years ago

                Real fascism is when attacks (including murder) can happen to nearly anywhere to the other.

                When I saw a Qanon streetmob, marching against immigration, outside the US, attack a trans person in a counterprotest, in a place where this is totally out of the ordinary, it gave me pause. Don't want to be lib about it, but....

                I mean, the right is defintely on the move the last 5 years.

                • adfsadfsadfsadf [none/use name]
                  ·
                  4 years ago

                  I was an earnest lib before the 2016 elections. Around November of that year - I was worried about the rise of hate generated from Trump's insane nomination and the near chance he almost became president. The reality of the past few years and my move to the left makes those fears of mine seem risibly quaint now. Whatever happens politically with Biden - I think the following years will ones of right-wing terror and the possibility of stolen elections.

                  On a positive note - in the unlikely event that the dems go big and steamroll the GOP - I think the possibility of fascism in 2024 recedes greatly.

    • late90smullbowl [they/them]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Fucking hell wtf is this move against the homeless. It's not just happening where you are. Being on the street isn't ideal, obviously, but I'm seeing reports of police forcing people off the street, where there is no other option apart from substandard group accomodation. In the middle of a global pandemic.

      It's a good time to force through unpopular agendas.

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Watching people on the street make the same mistakes over and over again this year has been really frustrating. I hope we go in to the spring campaign season having had time to learn. With Covid turning in to an eternal plague I figure people will be plenty pissed off and hungry come march.

  • DirtbagVegan [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Listening to Parenti lectures while running Hades tonight. Good vibes.✌️

    • Posadist_Moby_Dick [comrade/them]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Bruh I love hades but haven’t even beer elysium despite having like 30 runs. If you have any advice lmk. What I’ve determined so far is that Artemis/area builds with Hermès if you can get it are dope on the spear while Zeus/ Poseidon absolutely wreck with the shield.

      • moonlake [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        I always take Athena's keepsake at the beginning of the run so I can get the Divine Dash boon which gives you deflect on your dash. I can't think of other good tips but there are advice videos on youtube on how to get better.

  • FidelCashflow [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    My new job pays a little less but I have almost no commute and it is amazing.

  • CommieMisha [she/her,they/them]
    ·
    4 years ago

    I know chai is a word for a specific kind of tea in the west, but it's also the Russian word for tea, so anytime someone says "Chai Tea", all I hear is "Tea Tea".

      • crime [she/her, any]
        ·
        4 years ago

        my favorite is all of the Rivers Avon on terf island due to the welsh word for river

    • CliffordBigRedDog [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      "Chai" comes from "cha" which is the mandarin (standard chinese ) way of saying tea, so countries that were exposed to tea via land routes (like russia) say chai

      "Tea" comes from "teh" which is the way it is pronounced in southern chinese dialects like Min and Cantonese , so if your country got access to tea via the southern sea ports where those dialects are spoken, you say something similar to "tea"

    • Woly [any]
      ·
      edit-2
      4 years ago

      I love using masala spices in my chai tea.

      • sydnerella11 [she/her]
        ·
        4 years ago

        Yeah I feel you here. I feel like at times this time has exacerbated my alcohol use but for the past few months I haven’t cared for drinking as much. I still drink every night though. I also cut out a few toxic people in my life recently and I’d thought I’d feel lonely/terrible, but I have generally been in a better mood after finally ripping the bandaid off. So I wonder if that has helped.

        Wish I was eating better though. 😬

    • danksobotka [they/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      4 years ago

      I had quit drinking for about two months before all the lockdowns started, which I credit being the only real reason I’m alive right now, being able to WFH indefinitely while drinking like I did would not have ended well since it would’ve been much easier to get away with longer and bigger binges.

      Sorry, ik that’s basically the opposite of your situation, but I guess I wanted to say I’ve been there before.

    • lilpissbaby [any]
      ·
      4 years ago

      yeah, it aggravated disordered eating for me. been trying to get it under control for the last couple of weeks as the illusion of a return to normalcy is in the horizon.

      • ChromeFlux [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        During the beginning of the pandemic i started buying more and more digorno's. I don't know how to spell digiornio's. DeJourn'O's? Anyways i've been eating wayyy too much pizza :(

        • lilpissbaby [any]
          ·
          4 years ago

          yeah, it was binging and weight gain for me too.
          is the pizza good at least? where i live all the frozen pizza taste and look pretty sad lol

    • lilpissbaby [any]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Fuck everyone that’s responsible for unchecked covid spread.

      it really boggles my mind how hard some countries and leaders fumbled it. like, it took they were even pro-actively making the pandemic worse. hopefully these people face justice for their crimes against humanity this pandemic.

  • Rem [she/her]
    ·
    4 years ago

    My weight is plummeting, I've been working so hard, I just missed a few days of eating enough, why is this so difficult 😔

    Please no advice, I know what to do, just pats pls