It’s that season again! (Give or take a year until the actual election.) 

Tonight marks the second Republican debate, so we recommend you 

throw on your “Make American Great Again” caps and pop open a 

few cold ones. With this game, by the end of the night we’ll have you 

seriously considering Trump as a candidate. 

2B

THE LIST

TAKE A GULP
Whenever Jeb Bush plays down his family history.

GO SIP FOR SIP
With Marco Rubio and his infamous mini-water bottle.

TAKE A SHOT
When Hillary Clinton’s name is spoken in vain. (Read: when 
it’s spoken at all.)

BUZZFEED, BUT BETTER

DRINKING GAME FOR THE 

REPUBLICAN DEBATE

TAKE A SIP
For every red necktie gracing the neck of a candidate — in 
Carly Fiorina’s case an American flag pin will do.

FINISH YOUR DRINK
When Donald Trump offends anyone in any capacity.

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Wednesday, September 16, 2015 // The Statement

T

here is no drink called 
a 
“chai 
tea 
latte.” 

I’m sorry, but it just 

doesn’t exist in the same way 
that Hallmark Holidays don’t 
exist. A “chai tea latte” is the 
Grandfather’s Day of coffee 
shop drinks — neither of them 
is actually real and is made to 
sound more exotic or genuine 
to siphon more money out of 
you.

Every time someone in 

front of me at the Starbucks 
line — or the Panera line, or 
the Espresso Royale line for 
that matter — orders a “chai 
tea latte,” a little part of me 
dies. The name sounds quite a 
bit silly when you realize that, 
when translated from Hindi, it 
actually means “tea tea latte.”

You’re ordering a “tea tea 

latte” and it makes absolutely 
no sense.

My particular gripe with 

modern coffee retailers is 
interesting: I drink coffee 
like it’s water. And I’m not 
talking about some diluted, 
cinnamon-spiced 
mocha-

frapped nonsense. I mean 
dark-roasted, pitch-black cof-
fee. It doesn’t matter if it’s the 
crappy, generic office-brand or 

imported, hand-roasted Bra-
zilian beans from the depths of 
the Amazon. If it tastes bitter 
and keeps me up, I will drink it.

That sounds terrifyingly 

unhealthy and a little bit crazy, 
and I should definitely work on 
weaning myself off of caffeine, 
I know.

Based on what you know 

about my coffee addiction, I 
really shouldn’t care too much 
about what a “chai tea latte” 
is or why it’s popular or why 
it has become such a staple on 
coffee shop menus in the past 
few years.

But here’s the thing: I 

inherited the caffeine addic-
tion from my dad, because the 
first thing he drinks before 
he leaves for work is the chai 
my mom makes for him every 
morning. He’ll always bee-
line to pull out his mug and 
takes out a sieve that perfectly 
fits his mug from the cabinet 
beneath the stove, to filter out 
the leaves when he pours his 
tea into the cup. 

My dad can’t get through 

his day without drinking chai. 
When we went to India about 
five or six years ago as a fam-
ily, the first thing he bought 

to bring back with him was 
a Costco-sized container of 
Wagh Bakri, a very strong 
brand of chai.

He kept sniffing the lid 

and saying, “Smell the chai, 
Tanya.” It was weird, yes, but 
I’ve grown up seeing that every 
morning while getting ready 
to go to elementary school, 
middle school and high school. 
Just as my dad watched his 
own father do the same thing 
his whole life, and my grandfa-
ther watched his father before 
him, and so on.

Chai is deeply ingrained in 

Indian social culture.

The 
tagline 
for 
Wagh 

Bakri is roughly translated to 
“warmth of relationships.” It’s 
plastered on all of their bill-
boards and a recurring theme 
in their television commer-
cials. The first thing my grand-
mother, aunts, and uncles 
in India offer guests to their 
homes is not coffee, or water. 
It’s chai.

Author 
Divya 
Prakash 

Dubey, in another rough trans-
lation from Hindi, writes in, 
Masala Chai, his short story 
collection, “chai is basically 
like another form of social 
networking.” It builds con-
nections and relationships; it 
acts as a source of comfort and 
warmth.

Chai is rooted in Indian cul-

ture in the same way coffee is 
distinctly an American habit. 
That’s why I can’t help but get 
annoyed when coffee shops 
advertise chai with a com-
pletely inaccurate term in an 
attempt to sound exotic.

Chai should remain a menu 

item in coffee shops. But it 
shouldn’t be referred to as a 
“chai tea latte.” I admit that in 
the larger scheme of cultural 
appropriation crimes com-
mitted by the western world, a 
“chai tea latte” is hardly press-
ing. But it’s still important.

My Cultural Currency: Chai Tea Latte

B Y TA N YA M A D H A N I 
SCHLISS ON GREEK LIFE 
ON THE 
RECORD

“(Our reputation’s) not gonna be the kids who receive the 
Rhodes Scholarships and the Fulbright Scholarships, and 
the famous professors who do the work that you’re going 
to get reflected on for, or the National Medal for the Arts 
that our faculty won this past week. It’s going to be the 

‘Shmacked’ videos. ”

–PRESIDENT MARK SCHLISSEL in an address to the Greek life 

community at Hill Auditorium this past Thursday

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SAM MOUSIGAN/DAILY

