Tea... how do I know if its decaf?

It's all good.. I too am pedantic.  Where did you find that info ?  The only reference I could find about chai meaning tea was on a disambigous page of wikipedia.  It claims the South Asians used the word chai or cha for TEA. 

Any other meanings  I found state :  A beverage made from spiced black tea, honey, and milk.

A friend of mine owns a tea company and this is why i got so interested in tea.  She says that Chai is hugely popular in India, where it orginated.

On a side note, Assam tea is still from the same plant, the camellia sinensis, but so named because it comes from the region of Assam in India.  It is processed as a black tea.

I lived in India a few years back. Most tea sold in regular public spaces (on trains, at streetside chaiwallahs, in regular restaurants) comes pre-made with a large volume of milk that has been mixed with water and honey and brought to a boil - what Starbucks would call a "chai latte". If you ordered a masala chai, it would come that way but spiced with a house blend. When in western hotels, and some select other places you could order chai without milk and get something closer to what we would consider a cup of tea here, but often it was boiled with loose leaves before it came to your table instead of allowing you to steep with a bag. On at few occasions I heard this referred to as chai "british style" 

I still dream of the lovely masala chai I drank in India. On a side note South Indian Coffee is made differently too, and ZOMG it is good. It is made in a special filter pot (sadly I have never figured out the proper method to make it with the one I bought while there) , takes hours to prepare and is strong and concentrated and served with a volume of sweetened milk. Waiters at restaurants do these burn-defying feats to aerate it before serving. If you ever want to try what it's like, head to a Saravanaa Bhavan restaurant (http://www.saravanaabhavan.ca/) they've got it right. Plus, yummy dosa and thali.

The general rule that I follow is that if it says "Caffeine free" on the label...I'll use it, if it doesn't say whether or not it has caffeine, it stays on the shelf.

 If your old faithful is Tetley, just buy Tetley decaf! Tastes just like the real thing.

If the ingredients list black, green or white tea and doesn't specify decaf, then they have caffeine in them.

Now I am craving Indian Food !!! 

Gosh me too! haha

 Me too! Doh!