Chai is far from an unknown entity in the local drinks world now. Lattes with spiced tea from India are available at Starbucks, and most coffee shops in New York have some version of it on their menus. But as far as brothers Ani and Ayan Sanyal are concerned, few options speak to origins of the drink in South Asia — where masala chai, as the beverage is fully called, is “a working person’s drink,” something that’s sold on the streets, Ani says.

“The way that chai is branded in this country is mostly to white girls,” Ayan says. “It’s warm, fuzzy, fall, pumpkin spice latte kind of feeling. When you see pictures of chai online, you see it garnished with cinnamon or whipped cream. We look at that and say ‘Okay cool, but that’s not the way we drink.’”

That gap in perception is a major reason why they started work on their new East Village cafe Kolkata Chai, which opens Wednesday at 199 E. Third Street, between Avenues A and B. The flagship item at cafe, named for their parents’ hometown in eastern India, is the masala chai, which Ayan makes in small batches by boiling fresh ginger, cardamom, and spices with Assam black tea and adding whole milk.

It’s more in line with what a New Yorker might find at Indian restaurants in Manhattan and Queens than at hip coffee shops or grocery stores. The word “latte” doesn’t appear on the menu, nor does the commonly used but somewhat incoherent term “chai tea.” (“Chai” already means tea.) And the drink that’s been popularized on American menus and in wellness blogs as a turmeric latte or “golden milk” gets its original name here, haldi doodh.

The shop, which used to be a pop-up, is small right now, but the brothers hope it’s just the beginning of more South Asian ownership over people’s understanding of chai — a way to “control our own narrative,” Ayan says.

One of the biggest problems, they say, is that the most prominent players in the American chai game have no South Asian heritage. The brothers point to Brooklyn-based company Dona Chai, which says its on track for $2.25 million in revenue this year, and Boulder, Colorado-based Bhakti, which has received $12.1 million in funding, according to Crunchbase.

Representation of the South Asian diaspora matters to them, as does the question of who is profiting off of food that’s an integral part of their culture, say the brothers, who grew up in the Boston area and have traveled to Kolkata with family since they were children. Some chai brands use “a hip little henna sign” without further association with India, Ani says, divorcing the food from the people who created it.

“For us, minority entrepreneurship is a big deal,” he says. “How do we control the conversation around chai instead of people who are not from our culture, marketing chai?”

Though the cafe’s menu is inspired by tradition, the Sanyal brothers also brought in plenty of elements from modern New York cafe culture, saying it’s an illustration of the “weird straddle” of being an American born to immigrant parents. There’s a dairy-free version of the masala chai made with oat milk and cold brew chai, and there’s a food menu with croissants from Jersey City bakery Choc-O-Pain and an avocado toast with mango chutney.

And they plan to do more media, like a documentary and a blog, and host events for the South Asian diaspora, such as artist meet-and-greets — all ways to talk more about the culture and people behind the food. Eventually, they would like to expand and bottle versions of their masala chai, too.

“To take this risk and control our own narrative, it means a lot,” Ayan says. “It is respecting our parents’ legacy.”

Kolkata Chai Cafe opens on Wednesday at 4 p.m. Starting hours will be Tuesday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.