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Piston Slap: Gingerly Discussing Heated Steering Wheels With A Chai Recipe
I mentioned my Mother’s chai recipe in a recent Our Two Cents, and several people requested a copy of said instructions. One request came with a question about heated steering wheels, so now I have ample reason to publish Mom’s Chai recipe. Thank you all for your interest! – SM
Kent: Sajeev…where is Mom’s recipe? Why didn’t you post it?
Olddog66: I would be interested in the chai recipe as well. Sounds like a good drink regardless of location.
Anonymous Hagerty Employee: Hi Sajeev, is your mom’s homemade chai recipe shareable? If so, I am very interested!
Well-known Hagerty Employee Stefan Lombard: Will you also please share your chai recipe with me? My kid LOVES chai.
Daniel: Ok, Sajeev. How about that chai tea recipe? Sounds really good whether I’m cruising in one of my Mustangs or cruising in my Laz-Z-Boy. Get back to me, I love your articles!
Jeff: I don’t know if anyone else has reached out for your Mom’s chai tea recipe, but I would like to see it in a Piston Slap. Maybe publish it with the following question:
“Its really cold these days, and it makes me wish I had a heated steering wheel for my hands and some chai tea for the rest of me. Can you help me with both?”
Sajeev answers:
Before chai, let’s get the relevant question out of the way. There are two ways to add a heated steering wheel, and the answer depends on the application. If your vehicle is part of a model line that included a factory-fitted heated steering wheel, it’s generally an easy thing to swap over. This mandates time on car forums that cover your application, as older vehicles might just require installation of the heated steering wheel, its unique clock spring, and some extra wiring outside of the steering column. If you get lucky, you can get everything from a single vehicle in the junkyard and learn how to install it via disassembling it!
What I paraphrased above pertains to the heated steering wheel of the E38 BMW, but further steps are needed for newer vehicles with software that needs to be unlocked. The software unlocking community is pretty strong in most cities these days, so I will stick to my guns about this being a relatively easy upgrade. But what if your vehicle never had a sibling with a heated steering wheel?
The other way is easier, but far less appealing: Behold the ton of aftermarket heated wheel covers available online. They all center around the need for a 12-volt cigarette lighter within easy reach of the tiller. The assembly is installed like any other steering wheel cover, but there’s a wire hanging outside. You have to plug that wire into another one, which interfaces with the cigarette lighter when needed. This is not ideal, but it’s certainly easier and cheaper than the alternative.
The aftermarket stuff should not be left plugged in while driving, but odds are it doesn’t require much of a load on the battery when parked. I would experiment with leaving it plugged in at work, or overnight at home. Just have a jump box or jumper cables handy as you experiment with wheel warming in accordance with your schedule.
And now what you’ve been waiting for…
Here is my mother’s recipe for chai. What you see below makes two cups:
- Add 1 1/2 cup of water to a small pot
- Ground cardamom seeds, 1/4 teaspoon
- Black tea leaves, 2 level teaspoons
- Small piece of ginger, cut it up or smash it for proper aeration
- Combine #1-4, and bring to a rapid boil
- Add milk until the chai is as beige as the stereotypical Toyota Camry
- Bring to a rapid boil again (It can boil over quickly now, watch out!)
- Strain chai into a hot beverage holder
- Add 1/2 teaspoon of sugar if the sweetness present in milk isn’t enough
But here’s the thing about making chai, and all Asian cooking to some extent: you must “use feeling” and not hard numbers. For the uninitiated, I recommend applying the aforementioned feeling to steps 4, 6, and 9 to experiment with what works for your palate.
But feeling is especially important for #4, as more ginger adds to the unique flavor of an authentic chai. Don’t gingerly dance around this root, cut a big hunk of it for a smooth but intense flavor to your chai. I like a piece roughly the size of my thumbnail, and then I smash it with my knife for an early morning thrill. (Trying different kinds of milk is also a good idea, and 2% has the right blend of thickness and viscosity for most folks.)
Best of luck in your chai experiments, everyone!
Bonus! A Piston Slap Nugget of Wisdom
Please refrain from calling this hot beverage “chai tea,” because that’s just the same word in two different languages. It’s like saying “Seville STS” to a Caddy fanatic, because STS stands for Seville Touring Sedan.
Have a question you’d like answered on Piston Slap? Send your queries to pistonslap@hagerty.com—give us as much detail as possible so we can help! Keep in mind this is a weekly column, so if you need an expedited answer, please tell me in your email.
Maybe I’m not as refined. That thing on the wheel looks like something I just scooped up on the lawn. Sorry.
As for heated wheels they should give the Noble Peace Prize to the inventor.
Retro fitting is a mixed bag. Cone cars are not bad some are just impossible.
The cover may be the easiest if you can’t do this yourself.
Not a fan of ginger? We gotta diversify your palette, my good man!
When I said I don’t ever want another convertible because of sun/cold/rain/wind abuse to my bald pate, some quickly wrote, “get a hat”, so for those of you that think you need a heated steering wheel, I say, “get some gloves”. I also don’t think I need a foot massager or someone to hold my hanky when I blow my nose.
As far as ginger goes, we grow it along with our other garden delicacies and enjoy its flavor and health qualities greatly. Some years ago, Mrs. DUB6 fell for a Chai that is served in a western Washington State casino of all places, and we’ve tried many recipes out trying to duplicate it. Thanks for the recipe, Sajeev, it’ll be tried out very soon in our kitchen!
Yep, don’t say Chai Tea – it’s darned near as redundant as the ad I see on these pages quite often that offers help with your “VIN number”!
I hope to have an update on how the chai works out for you and Mrs. DUB6!
Since you mentioned it, I think a convertible with a heated steering wheel is a fantastic idea.
Also as aggravating as people saying ATM machine.
Thanks for saying “Chai tea” is redundant. I put it up there with saying “ATM machine”. (An Automatic Teller Machine machine??)
ATM, VIN, STS, ETC. (the last one was supposed to make you laugh.)
It did…
YES!!!!
Thanks for the “chai hot drink recipe “.
Enjoy!
About heated steering wheels — you say “aftermarket stuff should not be left plugged in while driving, but odds are it doesn’t require much of a load on the battery when parked. I would experiment with leaving it plugged in at work, or overnight at home. Just have a jump box or jumper cables handy as you experiment with wheel warming in accordance with your schedule.”
How on Earth can it warm your hands if you turn it off to drive?
This type of heating involves a filament, an element if you prefer. From toasters to electric blankets, they are resistive metal, usually NiChrome.
I’ll be damned if I’m going to let one stay on, overnight, and at my home?!?
So the wheel will be warm upon entering the car, as it’s been all night…
Electrically resistive heating only takes moments to work.
It won’t warm as well as a wheel with an embedded heating element, but pre-heating a wheel overnight (or during the afternoon at work, or whatever time) means you get to enjoy the advantages of heat soak.
In some ways it will be better, because you don’t have to wait for a warm steering wheel.
OMG, you actually wait for a wheel to warm up before driving? Do you also hold your pinky up while sipping Chai from your YETI? 😆
**I** do not, I wear gloves. Even down here, as I am surprised how icy cold my 2011 Ranger wheel is relative to the rims on my older cars.
And for the record, my Yeti was a gift from a paint vendor at my last job in the automotive retailing business. I would never buy one with my own money, but collision repair is serious business requiring SERIOUS gifts!
I was not casting aspersions on YETIs (although I did before I got one). I love mine. It was a gift from my daughter, as her income was obviously greater than mine at the time! 😁
They make fantastic gifts! I have three, and now I turn them down as gifts for good cause.
From what I remember selling Caddy’s back in the day, STS should have stood for “Severe Torque Steer”. That 300 hp Northstar could boogie, but don’t floor it without both hands on the wheel! LOL
A cold wheel or a warm one?
Most of my toys are too old for heated steering wheels to even be a thought. I do have one with heated seats and steering wheel. The heated seats are a godsend and are often the tie breaker on what I drive to work on cold days. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve actually turned the heated wheel on
I’ve never heard of chai, and I’m not a big fan of ginger but I might try this out
Trying out something new is all we can ask. 👍
This is the truth.
I warm my steering wheel by aiming the dash vents at it.
Don’t you guys realize how much better your grip on the wheel is when your breath steam is condensing on it and freezing your fingers and palms in place? 😊
Personally I would go for heated seats before a heated steering wheel. I can rub my hands together to keep them warm, but my boys need a warm home…..
Welcome to Chai-town!, Going to give this a try as my mom makes hot ginger tea with fresh ginger that is awesome. Looks like it could be similar.
“It’s like saying “Seville STS” to a Caddy fanatic, because STS stands for Seville Touring Sedan. ”
So is this like saying VIN Number? I bugs me when people say that, what does the N stand for?
May it’s like the Ferrari LaFerrari?