Homemade Chai

A few months ago, my friend Christine and I bought some whole spices at an Indian supermarket. We were so pumped to make delicious tea with our fraction-of-the-cost purchases but I promised Christine that I wouldn't just look on food blogs to find a good recipe but find my own perfect recipe or wait for hers. Well, sorry Christine, but I broke my promise.

First I looked up more authentic masala (chai) tea recipes and tried following one. This did not turn out so well. I ended up scalding the milk (which was a part of the recipe) which made the whole batch taste like feet. I should've known from all my coffee shop experience that burned milk never tastes good...no matter how authentic the recipe.

So I did exactly what I promised not to do and looked up a recipe on realsimple.com. And it turned out so good! It was basically the same recipe as the authentic one just using a different method. You have to try this; it is so good! (Matt said about it: "This might be the best cup of tea I've ever had.") You can find the recipe here. I'll also post it in steps below.

I mean, how could you not be inspired to do something wonderful with these beautiful spices?
(cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom seeds)

Lots o' cloves

On the right are cardamom seeds. They are so aromatic and yummy in sweet and savory dishes.


The Recipe:

- Put 8 cloves, 8 cardamom seeds and 4 peppercorns in a plastic bag and crush with something heavy to break them up a bit

- Put this spice mixture in saucepan along with about an inch of fresh ginger (sliced in half or into a few pieces), 2 cinnamon sticks plus 2 cups water and 2 cups milk

- To preserve the rest of the ginger, put the remaining amount in a baggy and freeze for the next time (since you usually have to buy more of an inch at a time)

- Bring mixture to a boil then remove from heat

- Add four bags of black tea (or 4 tsp. of loose leaf black tea like I like to use) and let steep for 10 minutes

- Strain tea into glasses...I pour the whole mixture into my teapot then strain into each glass

- Add sugar, to taste, to each glass to sweeten and enjoy!