Make Chai Tea

A traditional drink of India and East Asia, chai has become a popular beverage worldwide. While you may certainly purchase teabags at your local grocery store, you will achieve a more authentic flavor if you make it yourself, bouquet garni style, using the following recipe.This recipe is for the Masala Chai or Spiced Tea.Yields: 8 servings

Ingredients

  • 4 pieces 1 1/2in (4cm) cinnamon bark (canela)
  • 1 teaspoon cardamom seeds
  • 10 whole cloves
  • 5 cups water
  • 1/4 cup (~3 medium tea bags) black tea leaves like Assam or Darjeeling
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 3 cups milk

Steps

  1. Bundle up the cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves in a length of cheesecloth 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 for 15 minutes. Boiling water may extract too much bitterness from the ingredients.
  4. Turn off stovetop, add tea leaves, and let sit for 2 to 3 minutes. 3 minutes will give it a stronger tea flavor but will also increase the chai’s bitterness.
  5. Remove the bouquet garni.
  6. Remove tea bags or 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.



Tips

  • Tea leaves can release too much bitterness if exposed to hot water for too long. The general rule of thumb when making an "infusion" such as this is that if you prefer a "stronger" flavor, do not steep longer, increase the amount of tea you use.
  • Remember that Chai Tea is an infinitely adaptable recipe. You may consider removing or changing the quantities of any of the ingredients, to your taste. For example, instead of honey, regular sugar or brown sugar could be used. Nutmeg is a common addition (best freshly grated), and you may wish to try licorice, saffron, chocolate or cocoa.
  • If you don't have cheesecloth or find it messy to deal with, you can purchase empty paper tea bags from a tea shop. Fill it with your spices (and another with tea leaves if you wish), close it with an inexpensive bag clip, then discard it when done. You can also get cloth bags made of unbleached muslin that are reusable. They close with a drawstring. Alternatively you can rely on the straining process to remove much of the solids (though finely grated spices will pass through).
  • Kenya is one of a number of countries that use the word chai, and when they say it they generally refer to a hot tea drink flavored with "tea masala" and with milk added. Sometimes the maker adds sugar, but often this is left to the individual; Kenyans tend to use a lot of sugar. I once saw it prepared while I lived in Kenya, and the tea bags, water, and milk were all heated together, with the tea masala added just before serving. The tea masala is marketed in a bottle like many other spices, and can be found at many Asian grocery stores in the U.S.
  • Red Blossom Tea Company of San Francisco recommends brewing black tea for 1 to 2 minutes at 205 degrees F (96 C) for optimal flavor. This is the temperature at which water is about to boil.
  • Feel free to experiment with other techniques such as using green or white tea instead of black tea leaves. Other variations could use soy milk instead of skim milk. Or you could use a different sweetener than honey, such as rice syrup or maple syrup.
  • There are four kinds of cinnamon: China Cassia, Vietnamese Cassia, Korintje Cassia and Ceylon Cinnamon. Ceylon is twice as expensive and well worth it. Try all four or a combination.
  • The proper name for the drink known as "chai" or "chai tea" is "masala chai." The word "chai" is Urdu, Hindi, and Russian for "tea", while "masala" is Hindi for "spice." If you say you are making "chai" that would mean that you are making plain tea. Thus both words are necessary.
  • Some chai tea recipes call for a longer boiling time, such as one hour. In this instance, some ingredients, such as ginger, can be chopped into larger chunks. The tea may be added last (separately), and allowed to infuse after the concoction has stopped boiling. Some chai tea variations may also call for mint leaves, and exclude other ingredients, such as vanilla. Delicate ingredients such as mint leaves should be added during the end of the boil, or merely allowed to infuse after the boil has ended.
  • The word "chai" also has roots in Chinese. Cha, pronounced like "chai" (without an “i") is the word for tea in many areas of China and Eastern India such as Bengal.

Warnings

  • In some cultures and contexts, the term "Chai Tea" is redundant. So if you don't want to sound uninformed, leave out the "tea". When commonly used in the United States the term "Chai Tea" is not redundant as it is used in the colloquial to refer to the particular type of spiced milk tea served in India, a.k.a Masala tea.

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Sources and Citations

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