Rainy days always make me crave warm drinks. It's pretty gloomy outside today, so I figured that it would be perfect to make a steaming cup of Masala Chai. Chai is a traditional milk tea made in India with a cozy blend of spices like cardamom, cinnamon, and ginger. Like coffee, it is a daily beverage that is sipped mainly in the mornings, but also throughout the day in smaller doses of about 3oz each time.
Ingredients
· 1 teaspoons black tea powder*
· 3/4 cups filtered water
· 1/4 cup non-dairy milk*
· 1 clove
· 2 cardamom pods
· 1/2" knob of ginger, peeled
· 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
· 2 black peppercorns
· 1 teaspoons brown sugar / agave / sweetener of choice
Ingredient Notes
1. Assam Black Tea is the variety typically used in this recipe. However, any other black tea would work.
2. Soy milk, almond milk, or oat milk would work well here. Use as much as required to achieve a medium tan color. This varies based on the type of non-dairy milk used.
Instructions
1. Grind your spices using a mortar and pestle, or prepare the measured quantities of each in a small prep bowl to pour in to the pot.
2. Pour water into a medium sized pot on the stove and turn your heat to medium. Stir in the black tea, spice mix, and sweetener. Let it come to a slow boil.
3. Once boiling, turn off the heat and then pour in the non-dairy milk. (Typically, the milk would be boiled along with the tea again, but nondairy milk may curdle, so I choose not to do this).
4. Pour into a mug through a fine mesh sieve.
5. Enjoy immediately.
Tips
1. You may create a bulk blend of just the tea, spices, sugar, and water and store in the fridge for up to 1 week. To make, reheat 1 cup of the mixture with some non-dairy milk and enjoy.
2. You can also grind the dry spices in bulk and store in a little mason jar. Here, you could also use some ground ginger. This way, if you're in a rush to make chai, you can just use 1 teaspoon of the black tea powder and around 1/4 teaspoon of the mix.
Time to perk up that rainy day with some nice warm spices!
Enjoy. ♡
Abhijna