Chai Tea Concentrate

Recently, I’ve been on a chai tea latte kick. It all started when I learned how to make a London Fog (or something very similar) at home….and since then, I’ve been drinking less coffee and more tea lattes.

However, the problem with store-bought chai tea concentrate is the massive amount of sugar in it. (And, it’s fairly expensive.) I’m talking 15-25 grams of sugar for half of a cup! Now that’s hard for me to stomach for a morning beverage. So, when I stumbled on a recipe for making my own chai concentrate at home, I had to try it.

This was one of my first experiences buying whole spices..they’re so pretty!

When the mixture boiled, it almost foamed up (you can’t see it here)…much different than anything I’ve ever boiled before

I bought my spices in bulk, so they really weren’t all that expensive-at all. And, this tastes great! Very comparable to the store-bought kind, and if I’d added more sugar, I bet it wouldn’t been almost identical.

Give it a try!

 

Ingredients:

5 cinnamon sticks

2-3″ ginger root, thinly sliced

1 tsp peppercorns

3 star anise

15 cloves

5 allspice berries

12 cardamom pods

5 black tea bags

2 T sugar

2 T vanilla extract

6 c water

 

Directions:

1. Dump all of the spices, water, and sugar into the pot (leave out the teat bags and vanilla extract).
2. Bring to a boil, and then simmer for 20 minutes
3. Remove from heat and add the tea bags.
4. Strain out the spices and tea bags and store (makes about 1 liter)

To use the concentrate, just treat it like any other chai concentrate that you’d buy pre-made. Add it to milk in a 1:1 ratio.

 

This recipe can be easily modified to taste-experiment with adding less sugar, more sugar, different kinds of milk, and different amounts of spices. I know I can’t wait to make my next batch!

Use it iced or hot!

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