Where did rusk come from? The story of India’s favourite 4 pm chai snack

It doesn’t crumble like a cookie or melt like a biscuit. Yet this twice-baked bread has quietly become one of the most beloved snacks across India. You’ll find it stacked in glass jars at old-school bakeries, bundled in plastic at the local kirana, and almost always sitting beside an evening cup of chai.

Rusk wasn’t born in India, but somewhere between British tea trays and the smoky kettles of roadside chaiwalas, it became ours.

Where did rusk come from?
Rusk didn't originate in India. The idea of drying bread to preserve it goes back to ancient times. In fact, the word "rusk" is derived from the Medieval Latin "rousco," meaning "twice baked." Sailors and soldiers in Europe carried it as a long-lasting food on sea voyages and military campaigns.

Its modern form, however, is believed to have evolved in 17th-century Europe. According to the Oxford Companion to Food, the Dutch and the British popularised rusk as a way to prevent bread from spoiling. When the British came to India, they brought with them not just their politics but also their tea-time traditions. And rusk came along quietly, tucked into those trays of biscuits and cakes.

How rusk became India’s favourite snack
Once it arrived in India, rusk was quickly adapted to suit local tastes. Variants like cardamom rusk and ghee rusk began to appear, making it more appealing to Indian palates. Bakers across cities like Pune, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Delhi began producing it in large quantities. In Pune and Mumbai, it simply came to be known as toast. Bakers began using leftover bread, slicing it, and baking it again until dry and golden. It was a clever way to reduce waste, and customers loved the result. Crunchy, light, and able to hold up to hot tea without falling apart too quickly.

By the mid-20th century, Indian bakeries had fully localised rusk production. With its long shelf life, low cost, and no-fuss packaging, it was a hit with families across economic backgrounds.

The chai factor
To understand why rusk became such a staple in India, one needs to understand India’s relationship with tea. Though tea had been growing in India’s forests for centuries, its mass consumption is relatively recent. It was only in the early 20th century that the British-owned Indian Tea Association began promoting tea among Indians to boost local consumption. They encouraged vendors to sell chai with milk and sugar—a far cry from British-style black tea.

Indians made it their own. Street-side chaiwalas began brewing tea with spices, ginger, cardamom, and milk. Chai was no longer a colonial product. It became a working-class ritual, a mid-day pause, a social glue.

And what better companion to a cup of hot chai than a dry, porous rusk that soaks up the flavours perfectly? It was cheap, available at every local bakery or grocery shop, and required no preparation. In a way, rusk filled the same role that cookies did in the West.

A snack of memory and habit
Rusk became the great equaliser of Indian snack culture. It didn’t matter whether you were drinking tea in a steel tumbler in a small-town home or sipping it from a fine porcelain cup in a Mumbai apartment. That crisp, satisfying dip was universal. It’s also democratic—shared by students, office workers, grandparents, and daily wage labourers alike.

And it still is. You might have upgraded your tea to green or artisanal blends, but when the 4 pm craving hits, many still reach for the same golden brown rusk that accompanied chai in their childhood.