Brian and I have been really into making chai lately. Actually our kids love it, too! I've had several different recipes for it collecting for some time now. But one thing I've learned--NO ONE makes chai the same. There is no real standard recipe out there. And no two people's tastes are really the same regarding the flavors in it that they want the most of. We've tried a lot of different combinations of spices, and we've come up with our favorite. So I'm going to give you that! This is a little more like the flavor of a Chai Latte at a coffee shop rather than the really thick masala chai in India. We love both, but we were going for more of the coffee shop kind for our at-home version. You can even make the tea and then steam or froth you milk for it. More often than not, I just add milk to the pot to keep it simpler. Hope you enjoy this on these chilly fall days!
Chai
serves 3-4
4 cups water
2 cups milk
~1/3 cup sugar (adjust to taste)
4 black tea bags
8-10 whole cloves
8 whole cardamom, cracked to reveal insides
2 cinnamon sticks
4-5 slices fresh ginger
1 star anise
9 black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
Put water, tea bags, and all spices in a pot over medium-high heat. Once water comes to a slight boil, turn down the heat to low and let it simmer for about 5 minutes. Add milk and sugar and allow chai to heat up. Pour through a strainer into mugs and serve!
Crock Pot Variation: Rachel W. gave me an idea to make this in a crock pot to make a "concentrate." If you wanted to do that, you can double the recipe and leave out the milk. Allow the tea, spices, and water to simmer in a crock pot on low for about 2 hours. Then refrigerate for up to several days. You can then turn it into hot or cold chai lattes--adding milk. About 2 parts tea to 1 part milk.
Notes: Vary this to your taste! If you live in China, most of these whole spices are available in the markets. I can buy star anise, ginger, (local) cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, and cloves in the wet market or the grocery store. I also saw white peppercorns in Trust Mart the other day in their spice aisle. I bought my whole cardamom on Taobao.
serves 3-4
4 cups water
2 cups milk
~1/3 cup sugar (adjust to taste)
4 black tea bags
8-10 whole cloves
8 whole cardamom, cracked to reveal insides
2 cinnamon sticks
4-5 slices fresh ginger
1 star anise
9 black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
Put water, tea bags, and all spices in a pot over medium-high heat. Once water comes to a slight boil, turn down the heat to low and let it simmer for about 5 minutes. Add milk and sugar and allow chai to heat up. Pour through a strainer into mugs and serve!
Crock Pot Variation: Rachel W. gave me an idea to make this in a crock pot to make a "concentrate." If you wanted to do that, you can double the recipe and leave out the milk. Allow the tea, spices, and water to simmer in a crock pot on low for about 2 hours. Then refrigerate for up to several days. You can then turn it into hot or cold chai lattes--adding milk. About 2 parts tea to 1 part milk.
Notes: Vary this to your taste! If you live in China, most of these whole spices are available in the markets. I can buy star anise, ginger, (local) cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, and cloves in the wet market or the grocery store. I also saw white peppercorns in Trust Mart the other day in their spice aisle. I bought my whole cardamom on Taobao.
We drink lots of Chai too (kids also:). I like to use sweetened condensed milk instead of milk and sugar - it makes it a bit richer. I am just now discovering the blessings of shopping on Taobao. I usually bring my cardamon in from Thailand but not any more. Thanks Sara Beth for all the great recipes!!!
ReplyDeleteMmm, sounds good, Germaine! Do you have a ratio you do with the sweetened condensed milk to tea?
ReplyDeleteI'm so happy to see this! There are a couple of things I'm not sure I can find here (like the cardamon), but I will pick some up in the US next week to bring back with you for sure! Thanks so much for this recipe!
ReplyDeleteYeah, Cardamom is the only one that is more south Asian and not available in the markets here. I would think Taiwan would be similar. You can try leaving it out and see what you think! We like the flavor of it so its missing something to us, but try and see what you think!
ReplyDeleteHey Sara Beth! For a while, I've been making Rachel W's crock-pot chai concentrate. This week, we had a fun "taste off" between your recipe and Rachel's. Both were delicious. Hubs preferred yours because of the spice from the star anise and pepper.
ReplyDeleteWe bought cardamon pods at metro and recently I saw them in the dried food bins in our city. Thanks for another great recipe!
That's funny, Sandra! So fun! We started with Rachel's recipe and it was missing something to Brian, so I looked at some other recipes and what the Tazo Chai tea bags said they had in them. A lot called for fennel or star anise, the Tazo bags have black pepper in them, and Shannon B. here said they put a bay leaf in theirs per a recommendation from a friend who'd lived in India. So we added those to Rachel's recipe and it suited our tastes a bit more. We like the bite of the pepper added for sure.
ReplyDeleteI have seen cardamom at Metro in BIG bags before too. Haven't looked recently. So cool that you found it in the market! I always glance but haven't seen it yet! Not the green cardamom pods like I'm used to anyway....