Chai Tea

I have always had the habit of adding a bit extra to my teas, and was surprised when I finally looked up what Chai Tea is a few years ago. Finally, “my” tea had a name.:)

For my personal preference, the flavors to stick with are black tea, cinnamon, cardamom and ginger for a good base. After that, add whatever spices you like. I usually make it with water rather than milk. I don’t want to drink THAT much milk, I drink a lot of tea.

I love a little kick, so I will often add a bit of heat from cayenne pepper, crushed chilli pepper or other peppers. And I almost always use a few peppercorns.

Use any sweetener you like, sugar, brown sugar, stevia, or skip it altogether. I love just a touch of honey in my tea.

I change it up by adding a 2 – 3 drops of vanilla extract (to a whole pot) at times, or if I’m not using milk, I love adding lemon juice.

I rarely actually measure how much of anything I’m putting in my tea, just adjust things to suit your taste.

If I have any leftover tea, once it’s completely cooled, I add some kefir to it and chill overnight.
It makes a great iced tea with water based tea & water kefir, and you’ll get a very interesting flavor for a milk based chai using milk kefir.

Ingredients

• 5 cups water
• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup honey
• 2 inch "finger" of ginger, cut in slices or grated
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 6 cardamom pods
• 10 peppercorns
• 10 cloves
• 1/2 tsp. fennel seeds
• 5 bags black tea
• 1 crushed dried chilli pepper

Method