How to easily make your own chai!
In India, people like to drink masala chai which means "spiced tea". It is often served in kullad, simple cups made of unglazed earthenware. You can see some more modern kullad in the picture above. As you may know, chai simply means tea, but here in the West it has come to mean spiced tea... We sell a number of different types of chai, but it's easy to make your own if you want to. Here's a simple recipe for two hearty cups:
You need:
- A cinnamon stick
- ½ tsp cardamom seeds
- Two cm of fresh ginger
- 8 cloves
- 4 black peppercorns
- 6 grams of tea (about a tablespoon, if fine-grained, otherwise more)
- 4 dl milk/oat milk or whatever you use.
How to:
- Crush the cinnamon stick, thinly slice the ginger and coarsely grind the spices.
- Roast all the spices over medium heat in a saucepan for a couple of minutes, until fragrant.
- Add 2 dl of water and simmer the spices for 5 minutes. Add more water if it boils dry.
- Remove from the heat and add the tea leaves. Leave to infuse for at least 3 minutes.
- Add the milk and heat gently until it starts to steam slightly.
- Strain directly into cups and enjoy!
Optionally, you can add some honey or raw sugar.
Of course, you can substitute or add other spices. Popular spices are star anise, fennel, chili or nutmeg.
It's important that the milk doesn't get too hot (below 68°C or so), otherwise it will forma a skin on top and taste bad.
The thing to keep in mind when choosing a tea as a base for chai is that it should be able to balance the spices. The stronger the spice mix, the stronger the tea. Therefore, use black teas of the broken type, CTC or fannings. These are all varieties where the leaves are crushed to give a stronger flavor;
