Chai Tea! from scratch, I'm hooked luckily the recipe made 2.5 quarts

[jeha]

I made some chai tea yesterday, so worth making from scratch. It is the best chai I have ever had.

This cookbook is amazing as well It has about a million recipes from all across India and all that I have tried have been excellent. Some of them are a little daunting though with exotic hard to find ingredients, and even the cooking techniques are unfamiliar. That's one of the reasons I decided to make the Masala Chai Tea, i had all the ingredients on hand and it is a simple process, although more involved than I would have thought. You boil for exact amounts of times before adding ingredients. Seems a little fussy, but the end result is amazing.
If you like chai I would strongly recommend making it from scratch at least once. It is delicious, comforting and exotic at the same time.



http://makingmpls.blogspot.com/2012/11/making-chai-masala-tea-weekend-project.html

[jennythor]

looks yummy, i do a variation of this recipe, only using 5 cardamon pods and a 1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger. one of my all time favorite drinks

[cankle]

Oh, I love chai, especially this time of year. Is it possible for you to post the recipe and directions? I'd love to give it a try.

[jeha]

Here is the recipe I used, You can adjust things to suit your tastes. THe original recipe called for twice as much sugar, but I think 1/2 cup is perfect. I don't like things super sweet. And I added extra cardamom pods because mine were no longer green more of a grey, not sure how long I have had them
    10 cloves
    10 green cardamom pods
    2 cinnamon sticks
    1 tsp fennel seeds
    1tsp ground ginger
    8 black tea bags(I used decaffeinated so I could drink it before bed, or whenever the hell I feel like it without having to worry about the caffeine keeping me awake)
    4 cups of milk
    1/2 cup sugar(you can add more or less depending on how sweet you want it. Substitute vanilla sugar to make Vanilla Chai tea)
    6 cups of water

 First off put your water on the stove to boil. Then put the whole spices in a mortar and pestle.
Once your water starts to boil add crushed spices and ground ginger.
Boil for two minutes.
Add tea bags(remove the paper tags and staples)Boil 1 minute.
Reduce to a simmer, simmer five minutes.
Add milk, return to a boil, watch closely as it might boil over at this point.
Reduce heat and simmer 2 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in sugar.
Strain and serve hot, store remaining in fridge for up to a week.
Once chilled it also makes a delicious iced tea, just pour over ice.