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Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Home Brewed Green Chai Tea concentrate

Hey everybody! Who here loves Chai Tea??? I know I sure do. Who here HATES spending $4 for a cup of Chai??? I bet you couldn't guess....I do. Plus, there is so much gosh darned sugar in a cup of chai that you would get at a local coffee shop.

I recently found a recipe for brewing your own chai tea concentrate at home. Then YOU can control how sweet it is and you can make it for a fraction of what you would pay to buy just one cup of tea. Plus, it will make your house smell amazing! In fact, I made a batch yesterday and I can still smell the spicy goodness this morning :)

Ok, start out by putting 4 1/2 cups water in a saucepan with 10 tea bags. I love my green tea, so that is what I used. You can also use black tea for this recipe as well.

Now add 2 cinnamon sticks broken in half.



Next assemble your herbs. You will want 1 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated ginger root or 3 thin slices. Then 1 tablespoon vanilla extract, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, 7 cardamon pods (now if you are like me in UT and couldn't FIND cardamon pods, there are roughly 12 seeds in a pod so you can do the math and add the seeds or add 1 teaspoon ground cardamon), 2 whole star anise (I did not have the whole star anise so I used 1 teaspoon anise seeds as one star anise equals 1/2 teaspoon seeds), and 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper.

Next add 10 whole cloves.



Now grate up 1 teaspoon orange zest.



Place all the ingredients in the saucepan and bring to a boil.


Remove from heat and allow to steep for 15-20 minutes. Pour into a cheesecloth to strain out liquid

Now you can add sweetener now or later. I prefer to sweeten mine by the cup. If you would like the concentrate sweetened, stir in 2/3 cup brown sugar and 1 tablespoon honey.

That's all there is too it. You can keep this in the refrigerator and make yourself some delish chai tea at home by pouring equal amounts of concentrate to milk or almond milk.


.

I think I will go warm me up a cup now hehehehe ;)

Here is the printable recipe:

Spiced Chai Tea

4 1/4 cups water
10 tea bags of your choice (green or black)
2 sticks cinnamon broken in half
3 sliced medallions ginger root or 1 teaspoon grated ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
7 cardamon pods (or roughly 80 seeds or 1 teaspoon)
2 whole star anise (or 1 teaspoon anise seeds)
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon orange zest
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey

Add all ingredients into a saucepan. Bring to a boil then set aside to steep 15-20 minutes. Strain liquid in a cheesecloth.

To serve, add 1 part chai concentrate to 1 part milk of your choice.

I will leave you with a picture of the remnants of the tea bags. Couldn't think of any other witty way to include the picture lol!


1 comment:

  1. I have got one heck of a grocery list going here! I just found your blog today and your recipes are fabulous! This one is at the top of my list to made with urgency TODAY!

    ReplyDelete