Chai - Spiced Tea

When "chai tea" became popular in the USA in the last decade, I was a little confused. To me the word chai just means tea (Arabic "shai"). Tea with spices and milk is - chai with spices and milk. I chortled with a friend a decade ago over the Starbucks beverage "chai tea latte" which, if you translate all the non-English words, means "tea tea milk."

Wikipedia says that the proper term for what Americans call chai is masala chai, masala meaning spices.

That said, I love spiced tea, both Yemeni or Ethiopian style without milk, and Indian style, with milk. Tea is a healthful drink say the doctors, because of the anti-oxidants. It's also much more frugal to prepare your own spiced tea than to buy "chai" in boxes from Trader Joe's or single servings from Starbucks.

Some directions and recipes for different styles of Chai with spices.

My Yemeni friend makes her spiced tea by putting a cinnamon stick, several whole cloves, and two or three cardamom pods into a tall thermos with a couple of Lipton tea bags. She also adds probably a quarter cup of sugar for a quart thermos. She then pours in boiling water and lets it steep a good fifteen minutes. When I made the same for her at my house using loose leaf Darjeeling, she remarked that my tea is much stronger. It's better with Darjeeling, in my humble opinion.

Re: the price of spices - I paid $1.25 for a fat handful of cardamom pods a year ago, and I still have half the bag left. If they seem too "expensive" at your local market, try going to a Middle Eastern or Indian market with bulk foods and spices. I get mine from the local natural foods bulk section, and I see that a small local spice company called Ramos sells it even cheaper, at $1 an ounce. If you don't have good markets near you, shop Penzey's, the mail-order spice emporium.

Here are some chai with milk recipes harvested from the old usenet group rec.food.cooking:

SPICED TEA (MASALA CHAI)

3 c. water
2 sticks cinnamon
15 cardamom pods
15 whole cloves
1 T. chopped fresh ginger
1 c. milk
3 T. sugar
3 T. black tea leaves

1. In a medium saucepan, bring water, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and ginger to a boil over medium-high heat. Turn off heat, add tea, and cover pan. Let stand for 3 minutes.
2. Strain tea-and-spice mixture into another saucepan. Add milk and sugar and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
3. As soon as tea begins to boil, remove from heat and pour into cups. Serve immediately.

Serves 4 to 6. Recipe by Giselle Jain

From: Alana Groshong
Subject: Re: Indian Spiced Tea
Wed, 8 Dec 1999 21:27:25 -0800

When I do spiced tea, it's very much in that tradition of a bit of this, a bit of that. From all that I've read, there's no tried and true recipe that spreads across India and is very dependent on what types of tea and/or spices are readily available in the region.

This is quite the creamy delight when using even 2% milk. I have yet to try it with a skim or 1%.

To serve 4 large mugs:

Ingredients:
4-5 cups milk
2 sticks cinnamon
8-12 whole cloves (dependent on taste)
4-5 Tbsp. sugar (average about 1 per cup of milk)
3 Tbsp. black tea leaves
1 tsp nutmeg, optional
Cardamom pods optional (they are simply too expensive at my local shop to justify as a regular part of my recipe)

Quick note: I cannot stress enough how wonderful this will taste if you can get a good floral, loose leaf black tea such as an assam or a darjeeling with light floral flavors. A Lipton or Tetley basic black tea from the shop is too bitter for such a creamy delight.

Directions:

In a medium saucepan, combine milk, cinnamon, cloves, sugar, nutmeg and cardamom. Stir combination over medium heat until sugar appears to have melted in milk. Leave mixture to seep until milk reaches a low, rolling boil (you may need to adjust to medium high heat setting, but be careful not to scald the milk). Add black tea leaves to mixture and allow to boil one minute. Remove pan from heat and let stand until desired tea strength is reached (remember that the tea will also strengthen when you strain the hot liquid).

Using a large tea strainer, strain hot liquid into individual cups and serve!

Comments

[Lexica]

I once saw a coffeeshop menu that listed "spiced masala chai tea latte with milk" as an option. Somebody report that signmaker to the Department of Redundancy Department!

Hello from a fellow Oaklander, by the way -- I followed the link from your comment on Mark Bittman's escarole soup recipe and was tickled to realize you're local.

[la fourchette]

Hello, Leila!

A favorite yogi of mine in southern California makes a delicious chai-spiced tea. I've been looking for a way to recreate his special recipe...and this looks as close as I've seen. I'll pick up some cardamom pods this weekend from my spice vendor at the marché and tell you how it goes. (I'm actually going to try it with green tea as that is what I drink in the afternoon...we shall see.)

[Leila]

Lexica and La Fourchette - welcome, and thanks for dropping by!

[la fourchette]

yup - it works with green tea! yippeeee!