As I walked into my freezing physics classroom, I questioned why I chose to live in India for seven months over the central heating at Whitman.

But when I got home from school and started my homework with a steaming cup of Chai tea at the table, everything was okay. Chai is a type of tea that you can buy at Starbucks for $3.00 — or for less than 10 cents at a stand in India.  It’s made of tea leaves, milk, sugar and ginger, a combination of simple ingredients that has all of India addicted, including me.

I drink chai in the morning before school, while I do my homework, before dinner and practically any other time I feel like it. Others, like teachers and office workers, have it much better; they get chai brought to them in small cups throughout the day and sip it at their desks. Even drivers, delivery men, shop keepers and street vendors drink chai bought from the side of the road.

Chai became popular in India after the British began their rule and introduced tea as a part of daily life. In the U.S., chai has been gaining popularity as an elite drink over the last decade. Many Indian people I have spoken to laugh when I tell them about the fancy “chai tea latte” that some Americans drink.

At my host family’s house every day at 5:00 p.m., someone makes about ten cups of chai and brings them to all of the family members, workers and driver. And when works came to install new drainage pipes in the neighborhood, a chaiwallah, or a man who sells chai, came around with a small kettle and served everyone during their break.

Walking in my host family’s neighborhood a few weeks ago, I came across a narrow alley lined with cows and buffalos. In the alley, a man and his family run a small shop and distribute milk daily. Watch the video below to learn how Indians make their chai.

Chai is such an important part of Indian culture that the entire country stops what they’re doing at least once a day to drink the sugary hot drink. It doesn’t matter whether you drive a rickshaw or sit in the back of a chauffeured BMW — everyone has time for Chai. In a country with such wide gaps between socioeconomic classes, drinking chai is one of the few habits shared by all Indians.

Recently though, school hasn’t felt so cold: Delhi’s winter came to an abrupt end with temperatures rising in to the eighties every afternoon.  Still, Indians will continue to drink tea throughout the summer. And so will I.