Chai Tea

With so much delightful variation, there's a chai tea recipe to appeal to every taste. Over the past decade, chai tea has steadily grown in popularity and now can be found on most coffee house menus and standard grocery store shelves. Chai, which is an Indian word for tea, is a soothing alternative to coffee drinks like lattes and cappuccinos because of its rich, sweet flavor, velvety consistency and enticing aroma.

This ancient tea blend is made with brewed black tea, milk, honey, sugar or syrup, and a unique combination of spices that vary based on the specific chai tea recipe.

Spices typically included in a chai tea recipe include cinnamon, cloves, fennel, ginger, nutmeg, black pepper, and cardamom.

According to ancient Indian health practices, the deliberate mix of spices helps to calm the mind and revitalize the spirit. In addition, chai tea is said to promote healthy digestion.

There are significant variations in chai recipes based on the area of the world and a drinker’s individual taste. In fact, some say chai recipes are like a hearty vegetable soup - its always good but everyone's recipe is slightly different.

Following are some chai tea recipe variations that you may want to make at home and sample. If the recipes below are not to your liking, substitute or add some of your favorite spices and sweeteners to create a special blend of your own.

The are also a wide choice of recipes online if you are looking for more alternatives to satisfy your taste buds.

Chai Tea Recipes

The Perfect Chai:

- For each cup, of chai u need about 4/5 th cup of water, u are going to lose some water in evaporation etc.. and u are going to add milk for the rest. This measure can be changed to suit your proportion of tea+milk.

- Boil the water and then pour it into the tea pot. Now ad the tea leaves, I use about 1 teaspoon/cup. - Now close the pot, and if u want to preserve the heat, close it with a sort of insulating cap u get for the pot.

- Now heat some milk separately.

- The cups can be pre-heated by rinsing with hot water.

- After the tea has brewed for 7-10 minutes, pour the tea into the cups through a strainer, add milk + sugar.

- Enjoy.

Modified Chai (doesn't need pot etc..)

- Boil the water in a regular vessel

- Turn off the gas, add chai and close the vessel with a plate so that the steam stays in

- Other steps are same

Ginger+Ilaichi chai:

- Cut some pieces of ginger, crush them with a spoon. Add it to the water when u boil it. U can also add Ilaichi (cardamom ) to add flavor.

U can try various types of tea. The best is got by mixing the so called dust tea and leaf tea. Dust adds strength, while leaf gives a distinctive flavor to it. Try Darjeeling tea, its great.

And remember tea should never be boiled, it should be brewed.

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