Neil Hodgson
Chai, essentially a flavoured tea, has become an incredibly popular drink – and when made well, it’s delicious. I recently came across a sticky chai product made in Upper Moutere, and wanted to find out more about it and the woman behind it.
Monique Dupuis uses the commercial kitchen at the Old Post Office to create her sticky chai and bottle it for sale. She says Sunhouse Chai was ‘‘created with the intention to bring the beauty and realness of chai sipping to the table’’.
Sunhouse Chai is a hand-blended real chai.
‘‘I choose to use Assam tea leaves because they are certified organic and the cut of the leaf is the perfect size – it blends really well with the whole spices, resulting in better flavour in the cup,’’ Monique says.
When Monique refers to the ‘‘cut’’ of the tea, she means the size the leaf has been cut to. It’s not a fine-cut tea like you find in tea bags, and she says one of the things she loves, other than a better taste, is that you can see the ingredients in the jar.
‘‘You can see the larger-cut leaves, and because I use organic whole spices, you can see what is in the blend – you can see the cardamom pods.
‘‘If you buy a powdered chai to mix with milk or water, you have to read the label and trust the producer as to the exact makeup of the powder.’’
Sunhouse chai is infused with turmeric granules for added health benefits, and blended with other organic spices and wilderness honey for a touch of natural sweetness, but it is totally free from artificial colours and flavours.
It’s so well balanced and tasty I thought that Monique must have a background in cooking – but that’s not the case.
Monique lived in Sydney with husband Taylor and their two children but wanted to move to Nelson to be with her family, who had relocated from Christchurch.
One of the other driving forces for the shift to Upper Moutere about five years ago was the hustle and bustle of Sydney.
‘‘It is just so frantic and busy with more cars, more houses, more people all on top of each other – it isn’t a great place for a young family.
‘‘We wanted to get the kids away from the city, and moving here has been a great move. The kids love it, I love it, and we feel we can breathe again.’’
The couple had a surf shop and cafe in Manly, with Taylor running the shop and Monique running the cafe.
‘‘We served a chai product there that was delicious, and when we moved here I missed it.
‘‘I had always made chai in the kitchen at home, and the idea of producing it as a business just flowed from there.
‘‘In Manly, I was making my own chai in the kitchen at home. Friends would go to India and on other overseas adventures while I was the young mum at home and couldn’t travel, so it was my way of joining them on their travels. I always had a hot pot of chai on the stove.’’
When it comes to the process of making her sticky chai (so named because it includes honey in the blend), Monique takes uses certified organic raw tea and whole spices she imports from Australia (she used to get them from a New Zealand company, but it stopped supplying them). Her honey comes from a certified organic producer in Ruby Bay.
She grinds the spices, like star anise, not into a powder but just enough to help release the flavours, and toasts some of them to release even more flavour.
An ingredient that did surprise, but in hindsight shouldn’t have, is the addition of a little bit of salt – ‘‘just because everything needs salt to enhance flavours’’. All of this is then blended by hand with a big spoon.
Of course, Monique wouldn’t tell me the exact blend, because ‘‘that’s giving away the secret’’.
‘‘It took me about a year to develop and refine the recipes. As I drank the different blends, I would think, ‘‘It just needs a little more x to lift it a bit’.’’
Sunhouse Chai is hand blended in small batches to make sure the product is always fresh. But how do you make the perfect sticky chai?
‘‘I usually make it in a small chai pot – that’s like a Turkish coffee pot – on the stove, but the main thing is to make sure you don’t over-extract the tea by letting it steep for too long,’’ Monique says.
‘‘It can get bitter from the tannins if you keep it on the stove for too long, just like keeping an ordinary tea too long in the teapot, so it’s best consumed freshly made.
‘‘In saying that, you can get two serves out of a brew made with a heaped tablespoon of sticky chai and mixed to your taste. Some people make it like
Sunhouse Chai regular tea, with about three-quarters hot water topped with hot or cold milk, and others prefer it quite milky, so only use about a quarter pot of hot water, then milk to taste.
‘‘Don’t use too much milk, because the fat in the milk suppresses the flavours, and if you put the milk in too soon, it stops the extraction of the flavours and goodness from the spices.’’
Monique is continually developing and trialling new blends, and is about to release a vegan-friendly blend that uses coconut syrup rather than honey, as well as a caffeine-free blend made using the rooibos tea from South Africa.
‘‘It has lots of antioxidant properties, and the blend is designed for people who can’t take caffeine for any reason, because tea does have caffeine in it.’’
You will find Sunhouse Chai at a number of places around the region, including at the Old Post Office in Upper Moutere, The Coffee Company in Hardy St, Rabbit Island Coffee at Mapua Wharf, Red Art Gallery & Cafe, and online at sunhousechai.com.
Monique has also designed gift boxes that come with a bottle of sticky chai of your choice and a ceramic chai cup made by Jacquline Westall, from Woodstock.
‘‘Because I use organic whole spices, you can see what is in the blend . . . If you buy a powdered chai to mix with milk or water, you have to read the label and trust the producer.’’ Monique Dupuis,