Chai the Indian Way

I have been asked by a few friends to post up my chai recipe and honestly, I thought I had done this a long time ago but I can't seem to find it on my blog, so here is how I make my chai. There is much wiggle room with the spices. You can either focus on one specific spice like cinnamon or cardamom or you can add a little of all them (like I do most of the time). This chai is soothing, delicious and quite refreshing. We usually have at least a cup of chai daily. The tea leaves we use is Brooke Bonds Red Label loose tealeaves. Any good, strong. black loose tealeaves will suffice. We buy ours at the Indian Grocery Store. Most of the ingredients can be found at many supermarkets and your Indian Grocery store as well.

Ingredients for 2 cups of chai (because who really makes only one cup right)

2 cups of water
1 cup of whole milk (you can use 2% but use half water and half milk (1.5 of each)
4 teaspoons of loose black tealeaves
2 inch piece of ginger (adrakh) sliced
4-6 green cardamoms (ellachi)
1 piece of cinnamon
1/2 tsp of fennel seeds
3-4 whole peppercorns
1-2 whole cloves
sugar to taste


Method:

Boiling with spices

Heat water, loose tealeaves and spices and bring to a boil. Let mixture boil for about 5 minutes. Add milk and boil. As soon as the mixture boils, turn off the heat and let the chai sit for about 5 minutes. Strain and enjoy.

Tips: you can add mint, lemon grass, black cardamom and nutmeg to this mixture as well. The above recipe is how we make our tea daily but we do add some variations at time. Tweek this to your liking. Every new ingredient adds a new dimension but also remember that simpliticity sometimes is the best choice :)

Give this a shot and let me know how you like it!