Chai tea and Thai tea as we know it in America are most definitely not the same thing. Thai iced tea is a strong black tea sometimes spiced with anise that is served sweetened with evaporated milk. It is readily available at any Thai restaurant. Chai tea is redundant as chai is the word for tea in India and many parts of the world. Usally Americans are thinking of Masala Chai when they speak of "chai tea." Masala means spiced. When you go to a coffee shop and order a chai, you're usually served a pre-packaged sweetened spiced black tea blended with milk. When you buy "chai" tea bags in the grocery store you're buying black tea with spices and flavors added. However, if you want a cup of Masala Chai as it is served in India, you want assam tea steeped in milk with your choice of spice added. Traditionally either cardamom or fresh ginger is added to the tea before it is heated, and the tea is sweetened to taste by the consumer.

There are also some more types of Masala Tea by its flavours. Masala tea is a group of these all flavours.

http://www.cuisinecuisine.com/IndianTea.htm I think, we have basically two types of Tea (when Tea preparation is considered). 1. Light Liquor and Flavor based tea.( e.g Darjeeling Tea; the leaves are soaked into hot water...not boiled....and sometimes added with very little milk and sugar. This kind of tea is also called "leaf tea". One can drink Leaf Tea / Liquor Tea with or without milk.... or even with a pinch of lemon) 2. Boiled tea (here Tea is put into the water boiling in a pan on the oven...and then plenty of milk and various spices are added to it. They pour the solution from one vessel to the other ...and continue the process ...to help mix the spice and sugar. Finally, they use the sieve to filter out the leaves and pour Tea into a kettle....and serve. ) The 2nd kind of tea is quite 'thick' (because of too much milk) with a strong flavor and aroma of spice ('masala'). On a personal note, I don't like "masala chai" so much. But, I love good quality Leaf Tea with light liquor, mixed with just a table-spoon full of milk or a pinch of lemon. It gives a good kick of Caffine when you sip it... and indeed quite refreshing.

I'm Indian, so I can answer this: "Chai" is simply the word for "tea" in India, and "masala" means spices. So masala tea or masala chai is tea that is made usually with milk, mint, cardamom and sometimes a couple of other spices. Having said that, in western cultures, like here in Canada, people don't usually know that "chai" means "tea", so when somebody says chai they are usually talking about masala tea. This is the reason why the term "chai tea" is very common, even though it translates to "tea tea". In summary: For Indians, chai is any kind of tea, and masala tea is masala chai, which is spicy tea. In western countries, chai, masala tea and chai tea all refer to the same thing. The types and amounts of spices can vary depending on who's making the tea.

Chai lattes are very popular here.