Homemade Chai
1 box of loose black tea Ceylon or Orange Pekoe (about 4 or 5 cups)
6 to 8 cinnamon sticks
1 TBSP whole cloves
2 TBSP whole black peppercorns
3 whole cardamom pods
1/4 cup star anise
12 whole dried orange slices
1 TBSP ginger powder
Grind each of the
spices individually (not the tea). I have a glass jar on my blender as the spices will scratch a plastic jar blender. An inexpensive coffee grinder works great too! I usually start with the cinnamon. I grind it down to....... not as fine as cinnamon powder, a little chunky. Of course much of it turns to powder but there are still some small chunks in there. Put in a large mixing bowl.
Do the same for each spice, grinding individually.
Once you have all your spices in the mixing bowl, add the loose tea. blend with your hands until it is well mixed. This is your dry tea blend.
To make a pot of chai, I usually use 1 TBSP per cup of water.
My recipe is for four:
In a saucepan, put 4 cups of water with 4 TBSP of chai mix
.
Bring to a boil and then turn the heat down and simmer for about 10 minutes.
Strain the liquid chai.
In a large mug, mix two parts chai and one part heated milk. Sweeten to taste.
You can also just add 2 cups of milk to your chai and heat on the stove.
A heaping TBSP of sweetened condensed milk added to your mug is yummy too!
CHEERS!
