Backfill · 2025
#14 of 383Campus Chai Tea Cart
Screenshot: a small metal cart with a propane burner and a steel pot of chai, a stack of paper cups, and a handwritten menu on a chalkboard sign, set up on a sidewalk with a building entrance visible behind it.
A chai cart outside the engineering building is run by a graduate student who brews everything from scratch in a steel pot on a propane burner. The line at 3 PM tells you the chai is better than anything the campus coffee shops serve. Whole cardamom, cinnamon sticks, ginger root, and black tea simmer in a mix of water and whole milk, and you can watch the process from start to pour. The cart charges $3 for a 12-ounce cup and $4 if you want an extra shot of ginger, and that pricing undercuts the nearest Starbucks by about 40%. I like that the cart shows up at the same spot every weekday at 2:30 and packs up by 4. Tight window makes getting a cup feel like catching a limited-run event rather than running an errand.