home made chai

i finally got around to making my own chai tea, and even better i finally got around to posting something about it. im not sure if it was perfect chai but it was pretty good, and i also want to try it again soon. maybe next time with my zarafina. so heres how it went the ingredients were: cinnamon, cardamon, cloves, and black tea. then i took a coffee filter and through them all in and tied it with some string like a little pouch and set it in a cup of hot water. this way worked alright but i didn’t have the right kind of black tea so it was just the tea that came through. next up was the other way where you chuck the spices into a (1 cup) pot of water and let it boil for about five minutes, then put two cups of milk in and let it boil some more with the black to, then filter out the. now that turned out well.

how to make chai tea

i found this recipe and i intend to make this in the next couple of days. i just need to find a couple of these ingredients, then the mayhem will ensue. i grabbed this off of wikihow (link)

 

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons fresh ginger root; grated
• 1 whole star anise; broken up
• 1 teaspoon orange peel; grated
• 4 pieces cinnamon bark (canela); 1 1/2 inch
• 1 teaspoon cardamom seeds
• 10 whole cloves
• 5 whole peppercorns
• 5 cups water
• 1/4 cup black tea leaves; (like Assam or Darjeeling)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup honey
• 3 cups milk

Steps

1. Bundle up the first seven ingredients in a length of cheese cloth and tie it together with a string. This is called a bouquet garni (pronounced “boo-KAY gar-NEE”).
2. Place the bouquet garni in a pot of water. The string should be tied to the handle for easy removal later on.
3. Bring the water to a very low boil, then reduce the heat and simmer. Boiling water may extract too much bitterness from the tea leaves.
4. Add tea leaves and continue simmering for 15 minutes.
5. Remove the bouquet garni.
6. Strain the remaining liquid through a sieve to remove tea leaves.
7. Add honey, vanilla, and milk.
8. Serve. Pour the mixture over crushed ice if you’re serving it cold. This makes eight servings.

Chai Tea?

I was talking to a friend about chai tea then it dawned on me that i wasn’t really sure what was in chai tea, i knew that it was a collection of spices but what were they and was there actual tea in it to.  then i went a looking and came across a list of common ingredients, these are the generic must haves; Cloves, Cinnamon stick (good quality), fresh ginger (powder or prepackaged cannot be substituted), whole black pepper, cardomon pods. you also have to use black tea, like a darjeeling not green that will ruin it. if you want more recipes check out this site Chai Recipes. 

the other interesting thing i learned about chai was that we in the west associate chai with is actually masala chai, and in most parts of the world “chai” just means “tea”. good thing to know before you start backpacking through southeast asai and the sub continent. 

“The traditional chai-brewing process actively boils the tea leaves over sustained heat. Chai prepared in this manner has a caffeine level comparable to coffee, as the prolonged boiling produces a more robust beverage than quiescently steeping the tea leaves in hot (but not boiling) water. For more information about international preparation methods and consumption patterns”. from wikipedia

heres a recipe for it from 2BASnob

• 1 1/2 cups of water

• 1 1/2 inch stick of cinnamon

• 8 cardamom pods

• 1/4 inch fresh ginger root (sliced thin)

• 2/3 cup of milk

• 6 teaspoons sugar

• 3 teaspoons of Darjeeling Tea leaves

Place water, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and ginger in a pot and bring to a boil.

Cover and lower heat to low setting and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add milk and sugar and again bring to simmer.

Next, add the tea leaves, remove from heat and cover.

Let steep for 3 minutes and strain

from 2BASnob