I love chai, but I do not love the highly processed and overly sweet commercially available chai that you find everywhere. With the recipe below you can adjust the sweetness and the spices to your taste, for example my favorite chai spice is cardamom so I use more of that. Give this a try and let me know what you think!
10 whole green cardamom pods, lightly crushed
5 whole cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
3 pieces of crystalized ginger
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and scraped
1/3 cup honey or agave (more or less according to taste)
4 bags good black tea (PG Tips is my favorite tea bag, or loose tea is great too)
1 1/2 cups soy milk, or milk of choice
Place 3 cups water in a small saucepan; add cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, and vanilla bean and scrapings. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low; simmer until mixture is aromatic, about 15 minutes. Whisk in honey or agave; drop tea bags in pan. Turn off heat, and let steep 3 minutes.
Strain tea through a fine strainer into a warmed serving pot. Heat milk in same saucepan over medium-high heat, about 3 minutes. Pour into serving pot with the tea, and stir well to combine. Serve immediately, with more honey on the side if desired.
Often I will make a double batch of this and keep the tea concentrate in the refrigerator just waiting to be combined with milk, hot or cold.
6 comments:
This sounds great! It's hard to find real chai out there. I can't wait to try it.
You know what else you can't find? Green chai! I'm going to try this with green tea and see what happens.
Oooo...green sounds good! Let me know how you like it!
I'll bet this would taste good with vanilla Rice Dream...I might have to become a Chai fan after making this.
Yum! Yes Kate, That sounds awesome!
Thank you for posting this, Tracy! I just tried it and LOVE it! I used my favorite green tea (Numi Gunpowder Green), honey, and coconut milk. Also, I used plain, fresh ginger instead of the crystallized. Pure deliciousness! It's my new favorite drink! :-)
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