Subtitles section Play video
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- This is not chai.
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This is a chai tea latte.
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And look at how they spelled my name.
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Emme?
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(laughs) We're not gonna go get this.
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♫ If you see something
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♫ You better
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- Hey, guys!
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I'm Ahmed Ali Akbar.
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I'm the host of See Something Say Something,
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Buzzfeed's show where we tell life stories
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and talk about being Muslim in America.
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It's very cold out here in New York,
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and we are gonna go find a good hot cup of chai.
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We're gonna be joined by our cab driver Jamil.
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I'm gonna go to Brooklyn, pick up my sister,
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then we're gonna go to three chai places
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and sample the stuff they have there.
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To you, what is chai?
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- It's a part of life, you know?
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It's hard to quit that, you know?
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- Yes.
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Definitely addicting.
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Do you like cardamom in your tea?
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- No.
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- Wow.
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So you're very milk, sugar. - Just milk, sugar,
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and that's it.
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- Zainab, how obsessed with chai are you?
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We are not about chai tea lattes.
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- No!
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Chai means tea,
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so a chai tea latte is a tea tea milk.
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- That's what I told you. - Chai is tea with milk.
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- So, we're gonna go to three places.
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My favorite place is Chandni.
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Zainab, your favorite place is?
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- [Zainab] Punjabi Deli, whoop whoop!
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- [Ahmed] And Jamil? - [Jamil] I go to Haandi.
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- You go to Haandi.
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We're gonna compare all three,
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decide which one is the best cheap,
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delicious, tasty chai.
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- Let's do it.
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(energetic music)
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- Ever since I started working at Buzzfeed,
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I will go to Chandni and grab two cups of chai,
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and I would give it to my coworkers.
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I had somebody describe to me,
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which, not inaccurately, but I wouldn't have thought of it,
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as brothy.
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- Huh.
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(energetic music)
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- So, we're here at Chandni in Manhattan.
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We're here with the chef of Chandni, Muhammad.
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How do you make your chai?
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- Water, milk, spices,
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pour tea inside, and that's it.
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Tea is ready.
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(funky music)
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- [Ahmed] (chuckling) That is gorgeous.
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- This is international recipe.
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I learned from my mother.
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- As all good recipes come.
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I just learned so much.
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I mean, I've seen it, but not like that.
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That was on next level stuff.
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Oh my God.
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- It's magical.
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- It hits you so right away.
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- It's perfect.
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- Every sip is just like,
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it's got spice, it's got cream.
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- Oh, it's like, silky.
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- And a lot of sugar.
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I know you don't drink sugar.
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- Regularly, I don't actually, you know, as a routine.
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If it comes, that's okay, doesn't matter.
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- What would you rate it out of five?
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- Definitely, I'm gonna go four for that,
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because I don't drink with...
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I mean, cinnamon and the laung, that other thing, you know?
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It's not my taste, actually, for that.
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But no doubt, it's a very good tea.
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- I would give it a five out of five.
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- I would give it a four because it's too sweet for me.
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- That's good by me.
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I'm happy with that.
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All right, let's go to Punjabi Deli.
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- Let's do it! - That's our next stop.
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(Middle Eastern music)
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(inhales and sighs) Yes, it smells so good.
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- Smells like home! - It's very comforting.
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I'm Ahmed.
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- Okay. - Nice to meet you.
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Your name is?
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- My name is Kulwinder Singh. - Kulwinder Singh.
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What do you put in your chai?
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- In our tea, we put half water, half of the milk,
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and then we add in cardamom, ginger, cinnamon.
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We have also the cloves.
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You will really enjoy this tea.
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- [Ahmed] So, did you always make it
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with the espresso machine?
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- Yeah.
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It's always working 24 hours.
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As a taxi.
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- [Ahmed] Like a taxi.
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Are most of your customers taxi drivers?
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- Yeah.
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- Oh, it tastes so good.
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- I feel like the difference between this and Chandni,
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this you put in a Thermos, you drink it all day.
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- When you open it up,
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you can see the clove and the cardamom,
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and I think there's even a slice of ginger
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floating in here.
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I love that.
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- The chai, how would give it out of five?
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- Four.
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The method of cooking it different.
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The other maker, a stove.
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This one, a little bit different.
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- To me, it's a five, right?
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The chai is great,
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and just being in that cozy cramped space,
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just surrounded by smells of home,
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it's a five for me.
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- This is really, really good.
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I would give it maybe a 4.5.
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But what's amazing about it is,
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they're in such a small location.
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- But still, it's one dollar.
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- One dollar! - One dollar, fresh tea.
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One dollar, okay.
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- Okay, so, because it's New York,
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Zainab had to leave for an appointment,
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so it's just me and Jamil Uncle for the last place.
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You said you wanted to come in to Haandi.
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Why did you want to go in?
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- The owner and the other guy who works over there,
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they know me.
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So I hope we're gonna meet them.
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Special tea for us.
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- (laughs) That is the key!
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You get better stuff. (laughs)
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If you know the people, or if you're of the background.
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(Middle Eastern music)
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- [Jamil] What did you want over here?
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- Well, what kind of chai would you drink here?
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- Oh, just a good chai you saw here.
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- Dudh patti, or...
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- [Jamil] Dudh patti, let's try the dudh patti.
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- All right, we'll get some milky...
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I'm gonna have him do the ordering.
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And speak in Urdu.
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My Urdu is okay, but his is gonna be better.
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(speaking foreign language)
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- All the time, I bother him, you know.
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(laughing)
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- We've got three different types of chai here.
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We got the regular tea on the left.
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We got the dudh patti tea in the middle.
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And we're gonna see the kashmeri chai downstairs.
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You might not believe me, but it's basically green tea,
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that when you stir it for hours and hours and hours on end,
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it oxidizes and becomes pink.
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Oh my gosh! (laughs)
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Oh, I got some pink on my pants.
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Okay, there we go.
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That requires some expertise.
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Oh my God, it's so pink!
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Jamil Uncle is opening up his dudh patti chai.
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We got seikh kababs, chicken kababs,
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qormas, samosas.
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They just gave it to us.
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Because that's the way Pakistanis do, I guess.
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We're gonna start with the dudh patti chai.
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It's your favorite, right? - It's my favorite.
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The color is really good.
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(speaking foreign language)
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- Yeah.
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- Oh, yeah.
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- This is my chai. - Oh, yeah.
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There's no spice, right?
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- [Jamil] No spice here, yeah.
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- Just good tea.
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- Good tea, yeah.
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A little extra milk, you know.
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- A little extra milk.
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- A little bit extra, you know.
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- The texture is amazing.
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The texture is definitely the best of all
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of the three we've had.
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How would you rate your chai out of five?
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- Five. (laughing)
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- I don't think about this chai,
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but it is really, really reminds me of home.
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I want to give it 4.5, though.
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I don't know, it's kind of a five, to be honest.
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It's a five, let's be honest.
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Very comfortable tea.
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I could drink it all day, honestly.
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So we recorded a conversation
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with Jamil Uncle, also, for the podcast.
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You can find that at buzzfeed.com/seesomethingsaysomething.
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Talk about New York and the cab driver life.
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Rate us on iTunes and subscribe,
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and we're gonna do a lot more videos
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like this in the future.
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(hip hop music)