Ingredients

  • 12 green cardamom pods
  • 7 whole cloves
  • 4 star anise
  • 12 peppercorns (more crushed than you did last time)
  • 6 slices ginger (skin okay)
  • 3 cinnamon sticks
  • 2 tablespoons loose leaf black tea
  • 2 cups of water
  • 2 cups milk
  • 2+ teaspoons (adjust as desired) sugar, maple syrup, honey, or alternative

Directions

  1. Add the whole spices to a mortar and crush them lightly into smaller pieces.
  2. Place crushed spices and water into a high-walled pot with water.
  3. Bring to a boil, add tea, then turn heat down to medium-low. Simmer for two minutes or until tea and spices have released their flavor and color.
  4. Add milk. Bring the chai to a boil on high heat, so that it starts aerating and bubbling to the top. Remove the pot from heat until the bubbles come down. Replace the pot on the burner and bring the chai back up again to a boil and remove from heat a second time until the bubbles go back down. Repeat 3-5 times total until you’ve achieved a creamy texture and the desired color.
  5. Mix in sweetener of choice, simmering as necessary just long enough to dissolve.
  6. Strain and serve.

Sources

This started as a combination of the recipes from Masala and Chai and Feasting at Home, but I’ve since heavily edited it as we have been making it.

Comments

2023-01-15

Used up way more ginger than was called for in this batch. The ginger, therefore, definitely overpowered the tea - but not in a way we entirely disliked. Can’t hate a good ginger tea! Otherwise, I think the recipe is solid.

2023-01-14

Best batch yet! No notes. (The decreased tea/increased steep time worked wonderfully!)

2023-01-08

We made this recipe again, and we realized that the original amount of tea specified (4 Tablespoons) was certainly a typo. We cut it in half to allow ourselves more time to steep without pulling too much bitterness from the tea. That is, we updated the recipe to cut it in half next time. This should also allow us to need less sweetener.

The other changes mentioned below were all made, and the result was certainly improved! (We also used fresh ginger this time, which undoubtedly helped.)

2023-01-01

We made a double batch of this today, and we thought that it could have used more of most of the spices. The recipe has been updated to reflect what we think we should use next time! We also thought that the sweeter results were better. We used maple syrup, but I think honey might be better next time.