The Culture of Chai is a photographic journey into one of India's most enduring daily rituals. What began as a personal fascination with making the perfect cup of chai evolved into a three-week journey across four regions of India. From Himalayan tea fields in Darjeeling to crowded markets, roadside stalls, village potters, and jaggery factories, photographer Ryan Scott follows chai from its agricultural origins to the hands that prepare and share it each day. At its core, chai is simple: black tea, spices, milk, and sweetener simmered together. Yet across India, it becomes something far greater than a recipe. It is a morning greeting, a work break, a roadside pause, a reason to gather. It is poured in clay kulhads that return to the earth, stirred in dented metal pots blackened by years of flame, and served by chaiwallahs who quietly stitch neighborhoods together through routine. Through intimate images and reflective essays, Scott documents the ingredients, labor, and human connections that give chai its meaning. Tea workers pluck leaves with practiced precision. Milk is delivered door to door. Jaggery is shaped by hand in factories where sweetness is built slowly and collectively. In markets and on university campuses, cups are raised and conversations overlap, marking time in sips. This book is not a guide to making chai. It is an exploration of how a simple drink becomes ritual, language, and connective tissue.