I love enjoying healthy holiday beverages. Sooner or later, I had to jump on the chai tea bandwagon… 😉
This is the perfect cozy treat to share with friends and family this time of year. And if you’re concerned about children drinking caffeine, I share an easy tip for how to decaffeinate the tea leaves — so everyone can partake!
Homemade Chai Tea
This is the perfect cozy treat to share with friends and family this time of year. And if you're concerned about children drinking caffeine, I share an easy tip for how to decaffeinate the tea leaves -- so everyone can partake!
Servings 6 1-cup servings
Ingredients
- 2 rounded tablespoons black tea such as Assam, Ceylon, or English Breakfast*
- 2 cups pure water
- 4 cups raw whole milk
- 6 cardamom pods
- 6 peppercorns I used 3 white and 3 black
- 12 whole cloves
- 1 teaspoon anise seeds OR fennel seeds
- 1 rounded teaspoon cinnamon bark OR 1 cinnamon stick
- 1- inch vanilla bean piece, sliced open
- 1/2- 3/4 inch chunk ginger peeled and cut into smaller pieces
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup raw honey
- ground nutmeg sprinkle of for each cup (optional)
Instructions
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Add water to saucepan and bring to simmer over medium-low heat.
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Meanwhile, combine cardamom, peppercorns, cloves, anise seeds, and cinnamon bark in mortar and pestle.
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Crush until peppercorns are cracked and cardamom pods are opened to reveal the seeds.
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Add tea leaves, crushed spices, ginger, and vanilla bean to saucepan. (It doesn't have to be simmering when you add these.)
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Maintain a simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, or longer, to your desired strength.
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Strain.
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Add milk and honey to tea and stir well. Bring to desired drinking temperature, then take off the heat.
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Pour tea into each tea cup, then sprinkle with nutmeg (if desired).
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Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
*If desired, decaffeinate black tea leaves by steeping in water just off the boil for 3 minutes.
Then discard water and set aside tea leaves. They're now 40% to 70% less caffeinated -- but still flavorful!
Do you make your own chai tea?
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I absolutely LOVE Chai Tea! Thanks for the great recipe! It sounds delish, can’t wait to try!
Megan
Megan, I think you’ll really like this. I’m enjoying a cup right now. Yumm…. 🙂 P.S. I had no idea you had a blog! I just subscribed.
Yum Wardee! I have all those spices – just not black tea. I’m thinking of ordering some stuff from Mt. Rose to make Christmas gifts so I’ll add on some black tea. I just can’t buy bags of tea this year, it seems so commercial to me now. 🙂 and I didn’t get the chammomile & raspberry leaves harvested in time either…next year I’ll be on top of my entire harvest. I suppose I should sit back and be appreciative of all I did get done. It was a busy year!
.-= Sustainable Eats´s last blog post… Dark Days Challenge =-.
I made chai tea last year when I was pregnant, and used rooibos instead of black tea because of the tannins in black tea. It was just as good!
.-= Rebecca´s last blog post… Lacto-Fermented Veggies, Sourdough, Mayonnaise (Tuesday Twister – 11/17/2009) =-.
Rebecca – That’s a great point to make! Thanks for sharing that alternative!
I’ve changed how I make this, to make cleanup easier. 🙂 I now boil the tea leaves and spices with just the water for a good 10 minutes. Then I strain out the solids and combine the tea water with the milk and honey, which I bring to desired heat and then serve.
Oops, should have read this first. LOL just boiled over my first batch with milk. I was thinking I should have waited on the milk so I didn’t have to heat the raw milk too high. Love it, thank you
Michelle – I think coconut milk would be a nice substitution for someone who is dairy free – though if it is whole coconut milk, thin it down to drinkable consistency.