Comfort Chai Tea

If you’ve even been to India, you know that chai tea is served everywhere. And for good reason, chai tea is known to increase circulation, reduce inflammation, boost your immune system, and much more. We drink this delicious chai tea almost everyday throughout the fall and winter. I highly recommend it for preventing and treating winter colds. It is incredibly warming and comforting – perfect for those cold, snowy days.

Chai tea can consist of many different combinations of aromatic herbs and spices. I’ve been perfecting this recipe for a while and I think dare say it is better than most of the chai I have had in India. You can definitely remove or change the quantities of some of the ingredients to suit your taste buds. If you don’t have these ingredients whole, you can used powdered herbs (about half to a quarter of the amount of what is listed).

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbls. chopped ginger (again you can play around with the amount). You can smash it up in a mortar and pestle if you have one.
• 1 small stick of cinnamon
• 1 tsp of whole cloves
• 1-3 Bay leaves (depending on freshness)
• 1/2-1 tsp cardamom pods
• 1-2 whole nutmegs
• 1 star anise or 1/2 tsp of fennel seed
• 1/2 tsp of whole black peppercorns
• 1/2 Tbls. of black tea (optional)
• 2 cups milk (up to you what type)
• 2 cups if water
• 1-3 Tbls. of sweetener (your choice – sugar, honey, maple syrup, agave) (optional)

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients except sweetener in a pot.
2. Bring to a low boil.
3. Reduce heat and let it simmer for 25 minutes.
4. Add sweetener and let cool until it is at the right temperature for you to drink.
5. Strain and drink. 🙂

You can use those boiled ingredients once more. After you strain out your drink, simply give the ingredients and the pot a quick rinse. Put the ingredients back in the pot and fill with 2 cups of water. Throw it all in the refrigerator until you are ready to make another batch of chai. Simply add the milk and simmer. This second batch won’t be quite as strong, but is still super tasty. I’ve even used the same ingredients three times.

What about chai tea from tea bags? While not quite as good as the stuff made with whole ingredients, pre-packaged chai tea is still wonderful for your health. You can find it in all kinds of combinations like Chai roobois, chai green tea, double chai and more.

Going further: Chai tea has been used traditionally to disguise less tasty herbal medicines. Try is with a bit of sustainably harvested chaga, dandelion root, or echinacea.