When fresh turmeric tea (haldi chai) is made by infusion in a ceramic pot, it is a deep yellow color. But when turmeric is cooked at low heat in a stainless steel pot, it is noticeably more reddish and darker.
I know that the reddening of turmeric is the result of interaction with alkaline substances — in fact, it used to be used in making a kind of paper used for testing high pH values, and you can observe that a little baking soda reddens fresh turmeric before your eyes. It seems that the steel is producing a similar change. I’ve switched to a pot with a non-stick coating, and the tea is now the same color as that produced by infusion in ceramic.
When cooled rather than infused, fresh turmeric tea clouds as it cools, but heating it restores its clarity. The second and third pots from the same root has more of the “musty” taste of turmeric powder, in contrast to the sweet, carrot-like taste of the first pot. Both pots have a visibly oily surface.
More on fresh turmeric tea here.
